Towards the end of Raisin’ Cain, Winter is asked how he’d liked to be remembered. In the 'Sleazy Place' chapter, she tells Scott Shelby that he would often stand up for her if other children from the neighborhood ridiculed him about her. He was aware that his mother was a prostitute, though she never had any clients over when he was in the house. Johnny was the only son of Lauren Winter and her abusive husband. His now-posthumous upcoming release, Step Back, is due out in September and features appearances from Clapton, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, Dr. Johnny Winter was a victim of the Origami Killer. When he wasn’t on the road, Winter, who, it must be said, cut a striking figure on-stage up through his last gigs, spent his time with his wife at home in rural Connecticut, and was able to bask in the respect of fellow musicians, a testament to the truth that if you give your being to the music you love, the music can turn that being into a remarkable life. Tribute to the Lone Star State: Dispossessed Men and Mothers of Texas - Our 1968 Cover Story They wouldn’t be called the blues if everything was rosy. It wasn’t always an easy ride- there were struggles with addiction and duplicitous management - but it was as good, and honorable, as a blues musician can ask for. After Waters died in 1983, Winter, who by then had already inspired followers like his fellow Texan Stevie Ray Vaughan, settled into a journeyman’s role, releasing albums at a steady pace and touring even more frequently than that. Those albums reconnected Waters with his own greatness - Muddy’s prior Seventies albums had been uninspired - and delivered him a late-in-life critical and commercial triumph. Starting in 1977, Winter produced a trio of swaggering, earthy albums for blues genius Muddy Waters, of which Hard Again is the first and best. Rennick Up from Winter's grave they came, Violets, lilies, and anemone. (New listeners should start with 1969’s Second Winter this year’s True To The Blues compilation is comprehensive.) But stepping out of stardom’s spotlight gave him the opportunity to do his most valuable work, as a steward to the music that changed his life. What are the odds of that story coming true? What levels of self-belief, resilience and talent did it take to transform those biographical details - one could easily imagine, say, Thomas Pynchon conjuring them for a character (The whitest blues guitarist! Named Johnny Winter!) - into the stuff of a legendary career? As fellow blues guitar great Michael Bloomfield said when introducing Winter at a 1968 show at Manhattan’s Fillmore East, “This is the baddest motherfucker.” Winter was that, no doubt, but also a testament to the idea that with a lot of skill and dedication and more than a little luck, music can open any door.Īs a concert draw and big-seller, Winter peaked in by the mid-Seventies. Johnny Winter, from little Beaumont, Texas, afflicted with albinism and 20/400 eyesight in one eye and 20/600 in the other, made an iconic life for himself by playing the blues. There are plenty of reasons why that’s notable - Winter was one of the first blues rock guitar virtuosos, releasing a string of popular and fiery albums in the late Sixties and early Seventies, becoming an arena-level concert draw in the process - but it’s the barest facts that remain the most inspiring. Legendary blues musician Johnny Winter died in his hotel room in Zurich, Switzerland, on July 16th at 70 years old.
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