2 on the Megaforce label.Īustin bassist Tommy Shannon, who later became a member Double Trouble backing Stevie Ray Vaughan, played with Winter in 19, including a show at the Vulcan Gas Company opening for Waters. A new album titled “Step Back,” featuring collaborations with Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, Dr. “True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story,” a four-CD box set, came out earlier this year on Sony Legacy, and the documentary film “Johnny Winter: Down and Dirty” premiered at South by Southwest in March. Winter continued recording and touring throughout his life and was in the midst of a very active stretch in 2014. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, Winter produced a series of Grammy-winning albums for blues master Muddy Waters for Columbia affiliate Blue Sky. Winter put out his 1968 debut album, “The Progressive Blues Experiment,” on Austin label Sonobeat before moving on to Columbia Records, for whom he made a string of definitive blues guitar albums in the late ’60s and ’70s. Legendary blues guitarist Johnny Winter, a native of Beaumont who performed often at 1960s and ’70s-era Austin venues such as the Vulcan Gas Company and Armadillo World Headquarters, died Wednesday at a hotel room in Zurich, his publicist confirmed to The Associated Press Thursday morning. Waters once said, "That guy up there onstage - I got to see him up close.Editor’s note: This article was originally published July 17, 2014 "I got a standing ovation, and he took his guitar back." "He gave me his guitar and let me play," Winter said. The two met when Winter was around 17 - after the teenager bugged the bluesman to let him play with him on stage. ![]() Hard Again in 1977, along with three other Grammy-nominated records. It was the most emotional music I'd ever heard."Ī longtime fan of Muddy Waters, Winter produced and played guitar on Waters' Grammy-winning album "I just liked the emotion and the feeling in the music. "Not many white people in Beaumont cared about the blues," he "I went to black clubs all the time, and nobody ever bothered me. "Nothing ever happened to me," Winter said on his website. And it seems that even in the racially charged era of the 1950s and 60s, the albino kid was seen as just another person who loved the blues. Winter has said he benefited from being exposed to many styles of music as a kid, particularly the blues music he would hear in clubs in his native Beaumont, Texas. His website calls Winter "the clear link between British blues-rock and American Southern rock (a la the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd)." In the rankings of the all-time greatest guitarists, Winter was named No. The songs on those albums were a mix of originals and standards - but they were all defined by the liquid speed Winter was able to pour out of his guitar. One year later, he released his self-titled album, and then a follow-up called ![]() That same year, he released his first album, Winter emerged on the national scene in 1968 after being featured in a He had maintained a busy touring schedule, with dates in the U.S., Canada, South America and Europe scheduled for a four-month tour that was to begin this month.Īs a guitarist, Winter was adept at both finger-picking blues grooves and rock-star pyrotechnics, building on the talents that had marked both him and his younger brother Edgar as musicians early in their lives - they formed their first band when Johnny was 15.īoth brothers were born with albinism, and as adults, they grew their white hair long, making them a striking presence on stage. Winter reportedly died in his hotel room in Zurich, Switzerland. Winter's death was confirmed by his publicist, who issued a statement saying, "His wife, family and bandmates are all saddened by the loss of one of the world's finest guitarists." Winter, who was 70, had been set to release a new album this fall. ![]() Johnny Winter has died, ending a long and expansive career that included working alongside bluesman Muddy Waters and playing at the Woodstock festival.
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