Johnny Winter

Johnny Winter was born in Beaumont, Texas on February 23, 1944.  It is a city rich with music culture, and Johnny thrived there, learning to play his first instrument, the ukulele.  By the age of 11, he had taught himself to play the guitar.  

Winter was inspired to play the blues from listening to swamp-blues artist Clarence Garlow's local radio show.

At the age of 14, he started his own band called Johnny and the Jammers, which included his brother Edgar on the piano.  The band cut a few records which were popular locally.

In 1963, Winter went to Chicago to try to gain recognition in the blues community.  He was unsuccessful, and eventually went back home to Beaumont.  He put together a new band, and played in clubs throughout the south.  He started to play top 40 pop as well as the blues in his repertoire.  

In 1968, he became very disappointed with the way his career was going.  He stopped playing pop music, and concentrated solely on the blues.  He went to England to see if he could find some recording opportunities.  While he was abroad, Rolling Stone magazine featured an article about Texas Blues, in which it described Johnny in glowing terms.  The owner of The Scene, (a downtown Manhattan club) read the article, and was so impressed, he flew to Texas and became  Winter's manager.  Winter flew back to New York with him, and played with much success at the club.  Columbia records won a "bidding war" for him.  They also gave him one of the largest advances of the time, close to a half million dollars.

In late 1968, he released his debut, self entitled album.  It was a huge success.  He played in several festivals and venues including Woodstock, and accrued quite a large following of rock fans.  His next album, Second Winter, featured blues and rock, and was a huge success as well.

He then formed a band called Johnny Winter And.  In 1971, they recorded 2 albums entitled Johnny Winter And, and Johnny Winter And Live.

In 1972, he stepped out of the rock scene for a while to recover from a heroin addiction.

In 1973, he resumed his career, and released his next album, Still Alive and Well.  He went on to release more albums, but under the Blue Sky label.  He seemed to have completely given up playing the blues, as was evident in his last 3 albums.  But, after recording 2 albums with his brother, he went back to his blues roots, and recorded Nothing But the Blues with members of Muddy Waters' band.  He recorded 2 more albums with the Blue Sky label, and then went on to produce 4 Muddy Waters albums.

Between 1980 and 1983, Winter went without a recording contract, although he still performed on a regular basis.  Finally, in 1983, Alligator Records released the album Whoopin' that Winter had recorded with Sonny Terry, Willie Dixon, and Steve Homnick.  It led to a contract with the same label the following year.  His next album, Guitar Slinger, became the label's best selling album of the time.  He released 2 albums in '85, and '86 entitled  Serious Business, and Third Degree.  In 1986, he became the first white artist to be inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall Of Fame.

In 1988, Winter left Alligator records, and went on to sign with MCA/Voyager.  He released 2 more albums of small success.  

Johnny Winter now lives in New York, and continues to record and perform.


 

Johnny Winter: Best Of Johnny Winter Performed by Johnny Winter. For guitar and voice. Format: guitar tablature songbook. With guitar tablature, standard notation, vocal melody, lyrics, chord names, guitar notation legend and introductory text. Blues and blues rock. 141 pages. 9x12 inches. Published by Cherry Lane Music. (HL.2500431)
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