Johnny Winter I Smell Trouble 1984 Part1

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Johnny Winter (1944 - 2014)

I first heard about Johnny Winter when Blues King BB King talked about him on an interview he did sometime ago. BB said; "I was playing in Chicago to an all black audience when four white guys came in. I thought it was the IRS. One of them who was very white came up and asked to sit in. At first I wasn't sure, in the end I agreed. I played really difficult, changed keys and everything but he kept up. He was really good!"

I couldn't understand why I'd never heard of him. He played the authentic blues licks like most  black bluesmen. I thought to myself this guy must be a black albino, but I was wrong. He was born into a white family of musicians from Texas USA. A multi-instrumentalist to boot, he worked with the legendary Muddy Waters and a lot of the blues greats.

Ed Vulliamy of the Observer describes him as, "the black blues-men's white blues-man." No exaggeration there! Listen to him sing the blues, it's a gutsy performance.

So why wasn't he famous? Some say it was because he preferred drink and drugs to fame and fortune. I don't really buy that argument because we know tons of famous artists who indulged but became rich and famous regardless. 

Fleet fingered guitar players like Johnny Dawson Winter III are rare.

He died in Switzerland on July 16. RIP Johnny Winter!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Winter

'Bodederek

Rolling Stone Magazine Tribute


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