Johnny Winter (1944-2014)

Johnny Winter, a second generation Texas bluesman who briefly flirted with pop music stardom in the late '60s and early '70s, died on July 16 in his hotel room in Zurich, Switzerland, where he was on tour. Announcement of the cause of death is pending. He was 70.

John Dawson Winter III was born on February 23, 1944, and raised in Beaumont, TX. He began playing with his younger brother Edgar, who played alto saxophone, before they were teens. They spent the '60s playing in Texas clubs, often backing older bluesmen, and recording for small, local labels. His first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment (1968) on Sonobeat, set the pattern. Although he recorded some original songs, he mostly covered hits by great bluesmen of the '30s through the '60s.

His reputation as a slide guitarist grew, and following a Rolling Stone article and an appearance at Fillmore East, he was signed by Columbia Records. His first release, Johnny Winter (1969), featured Willie Dixon on bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica. 

It was followed by Second Winter in 1970. His record sales peaked with Live Johnny Winter And (1971) and Still Alive and Well (1973). But his career was hampered by drug and alcohol addiction, and by his insistence on playing the blues, rather than switching to more mainstream pop material.

He made three well-received albums for Alligator from 1984 to 1986. He also recorded for MCA and Pointblank/Virgin. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1988, and was named one of the 100 greatest guitarists in a Rolling Stone poll. In his obituaty, colleague Tracy Nelson stated, “He did not overplay, like a lot of white blues guitarists.”

In he described as “the highlight of my life,” he produced his idol, Muddy Waters' best album in many years, Hard Again, for Blue Sky Records in 1976. (The title came from Muddy's reaction to the sessions.) Winter played all the guitar solos and James Cotton played harp. It earned a Grammy for Waters, as did two of three followup albums also produced by Winter. A live album featuring Waters, Cotton and Winter was released in 2007.

His most recent album was Roots, on the Magaforce label. Step Back is scheduled for release in September. 

Earlier this year, Columbia released a four-CD career retrospective, True to the Blues. A documentary film, Johnny Winter—Down and Dirty, is currently in circulation.

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