Johnny Winter [Digipak] (CD - 1969)

Audio Mixer: Eddie Kramer.

Audio Remasterers: Joseph M. Palmaccio; Vic Anesini.

Among white blues singers of the 1960s, there were some who studied the music so intently they amazed even the genre's creators with their technical mastery. A select few, however, seemed to be born oozing authenticity, sounding just as soulful as the greatest black bluesmen while forging a completely new sound. Johnny Winter belonged in the second category. A long-haired hippie albino, he astounded initially skeptical listeners with his Howlin' Wolf-like vocals and wild Johnny Guitar Watson-esque guitar stylings. THE WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE showcases Winter's first taste of national exposure, first with his 1969 self-titled debut album, and then with his set at the Woodstock festival later the same year. The latter recording is the revelation here--a tornado of raging slide guitar and shouted vocals that sounds as if a late night Lone Star State roadhouse gig has been magically transported to the upstate New York farm. With several tracks clocking in at over 10 minutes ("Mean Town Blues," a hellacious Edgar Winter-led jam on "Tobacco Road"), the album showcases Johnny at his freest and most explosive.

When Johnny Winter burst upon the American music scene in the late 1960s, he was initially looked upon as a something of an oddity--an albino guitarist playing and singing the blues--until people actually heard him perform. The Texas native played a sharp, bracing style of (mostly) electric blues with few concessions to rock & roll audiences. His 1969 self-titled debut reveals a fierce talent out to show the world that he could play the blues with the best of them.

Inspired by the raw sounds of blues icons Lightnin' Hopkins and Muddy Waters (whom he would often work with in the '70s), this set sizzles with passionate, incendiary electric soloing (B.B. King's "Be Careful with a Fool"); slashing, Delta-style acoustic slide guitar (Robert Johnson's "When You Got a Good Friend," the ominous original "Dallas"); and soulful, horn-accented balladry ("Two Steps from the Blues," one of three bonus tracks on this 2004 remastered edition). Winter would go on to record many albums in both blues and rock & roll styles--and play with artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers, and Sonny Terry--but his first remains one of his finest. minimize