Personnel: Johnny Winter (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, harmonica, bass guitar, drums); Muddy Waters (vocals, guitar); Bob Margolin (guitar, electric guitar); James Cotton (harp, harmonica); Pinetop Perkins (piano); Charles Calmese (electric bass); Willie "Big Eyes" Smith (drums).
Recording information: Schoolhouse.
One of Johnny Winter's most popular albums of the '70s, 1977's NOTHIN' BUT THE BLUES is a solid blues-rock effort. Like most of his Columbia output, NOTHIN' BUT THE BLUES--title aside--hews closer to the rock side of the blues-rock equation, sounding closer to a rootsier Eric Clapton or a more traditional ZZ Top than to, say, Bobby "Blue" Bland or Muddy Waters. This despite the fact that Waters, along with harp player Jimmy Cotton and pianist extraordinaire Pinetop Perkins, guests on the album.
Aside from these heavy friends, Winter shoulders most of the burden for this album himself, writing all the songs except for Waters' "Walking Through the Park," and not only playing almost all of the guitars but a good chunk of the bass and drums as well. The one-man band tracks lack some of the immediacy of a good solid blues trio playing live, but Winter acquits himself very well. minimize