Johnny Winter: Blues Man Walkin' - Paperback

by Ray Harwood (Author)

QUOTES ABOUT JOHNNY WINTER:

"All we needed was three, we had Johnny Winter!"...... Tommy Shannon

"Johnny Winter goes down in history as one of the most vicious slide guitarists in history" ......Society of Rock.

"Johnny Winter is a bona fide, genuine, Texas guitar legend. Emerging in the late 1960s, he quickly escalated his career to rock star status, using the blues as his catapult"....Jeff Massey

"Johnny Winter is one of the best blues guitarists. He is a fountain of vintage blues. His moves are fast and his playing staccato and harsh. He captures the agony of the blues. Mr. Winter is a charismatic performer."......The New York Times

"Johnny Winter, A blues icon"...... Paul Nelson

"Johnny Winter was the original Texas guitar slinger, a king of the slide guitar, and a master shredder, his lightning fast guitar licks defied physics"...Hank Ray

"When Johnny Winter pulls out his guitar you never know what you're going to get, you just know it's going to be good!".....ZZ Top Billy Gibbons

"He's one of the greatest blues players in the business"....Muddy Waters

"The best white blues guitarist I've ever heard"...... Mike Bloomfield

"Mr. Winter ... Is one of the finest blues musicians to ever appear on the Fillmore stage."......New York Times

"He is the blues guitarist who can settle the argument about who is the best blues guitarist; it's Johnny Winter."... Marshall Fine in the Minneapolis Star

"If it weren't for Johnny Winter, I would have never picked up the guitar"..... Aerosmith's Joe Perry

"There isn't a meaner white boy alive today who can match the scorchin' blues guitar of the great Johnny Winter"... Ron Hart

Based on interviews with: Johnny Winter, Larry Sepulvado and Paul Nelson.

Johnny Winter, by 1969, had already paid his dues as a regional artist both touring and recording in various incarnations, all guitar heavy. In Texas and the Gulf Coast he had toured extensively, recorded some regional hits and participated in some historic jam sessions with electric blues guitar pioneers such as Jimi Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield and B.B. King. Johnny Winter had his big break when in December 1968, a Rolling Stone Magazine cover story No. 23, Tribute to the Lone Star State; Disposed Men and Mothers of Texas, was released. The article spot lighted the Texas music scene and Johnny Winter in particular, his stoic photo was prominent on the page. This article was recognized by Johnny Winter and the band as the catalyst that was needed to propel the group into an international blues phenomenon and to full rock star fruition by 1969. Here is the Johnny Winter segment:

"The hottest item outside of Janis Joplin, though, still remains in Texas. If you can imagine a hundred and thirty pound cross-eyed albino with long fleecy hair playing some of the gutsiest fluid blues guitar you have ever heard, and then enter Johnny Winter. At 16, Bloomfield called him the best white blues guitarist he had ever heard. Now 23, Winter has been out and around for some time. At one time he and his identical twin brother, Edgar, had a group called the Black Plague, Edgar on tenor and at the keyboard.

Winter presently appears with a trio, and, like Janis, is backed by insufficient talent. Henry Carr might consider the possibilities of Winter and Joplin on the same stage. In addition to guitar, Winter also plays superb harp and has a fine hard blues voice. His visual and audible presence is a subtle parallel to Joplin's.

No question of it, the first name that comes to mind when you ask emigrant Texans about the good musicians that have stayed back home is Winter's." (Larry Sepulvado and John Burks-Rolling Stone Magazine; December 7, 1968 #23)

"Johnny Winter was up their as the top acts at Woodstock"