February 23: The late great Johnny Winter was born in 1944

I just like the blues better than rock ‘n’ roll.
~Johnny Winter

When I started workin’ with Muddy. That convinced me that I could get away with doin’ the blues.
~Johnny Winter

 

John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014), known as Johnny Winter, was an American blues guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer. Best known for his high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

Johnny Winter – Rock Me Baby:

Be Careful With A Fool – Live 1970:

Wikipedia:

Birth name	John Dawson Winter III
Born	February 23, 1944 Beaumont, Texas, US
Died	July 16, 2014 (aged 70) near Zurich, Switzerland
Genres	Electric blues, blues rock,rock and roll, Texas blues
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica
Years active	1959–2014
Labels	Columbia, Blue Sky, Alligator,Point Blank
Associated acts	Edgar Winter, Tommy Shannon, Muddy Waters
Website	johnnywinter.net

 

 

The Muddy Waters sessions

In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist Muddy Waters. In 1977, after Waters’ long-time label Chess Records went out of business, he got his chance. Winter brought Waters into the studio to record Hard Again for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter’s manager and distributed by Columbia. In addition to producing the album, Winter played guitar with Waters veteran James Cotton on harmonica.

Check out -> Hard Again

 

Winter produced two more studio albums for Waters, I’m Ready (with Big Walter Horton on harmonica) and King Bee and a best-selling live album Muddy “Mississippi” Waters – Live. The partnership produced three Grammy Awards for Waters and an additional Grammy for Winter’s own Nothin’ But the Blues (Johnny Winter album), with backing by members of Waters’ band. Waters told Deep Blue sauthor Robert Palmer that Winter had done remarkable work in reproducing the sound and atmosphere of Waters’s vintage Chess Records recordings of the 1950s. The albums gave Waters the highest profile and greatest financial successes of his life.

 

The first time I experienced Johnny Winter, a medley  with Johnny Winter live at Rockpalast 1979:

Album of the day:

Second Winter (1969)

Other Feb 23:

• The Mountain is an album released by Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band on February 23, 1999.The songs were written by Earle with musical accompaniment provided by the famous bluegrass band of Del McCoury.The album was a significant departure from Earle’s previous work, being the first wholly bluegrass album he had written. Earle made the album as a tribute to the founder of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, who had died in 1996.

 

Released	23 February 1999
Recorded	1998
Genre	Bluegrass, Country
Length	45:45
Label	E-Squared Records
Producer	Steve Earle, Ray Kennedy and Ronnie McCoury

 

• Howard Norman “Howie” Epstein (July 21, 1955 – February 23, 2003) was a musician best known for his work with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as bassist.

-Egil & Hallgeir