Saw him July 3rd at the Portland Waterfront Blues Fest. Age hasn’t treated him well, he’s 65 but looks 75. He walks bent over and had to sit down for the whole show. He can still sing but that trademark wailing voice is gone, he’s had to switch to a mellower voice. But those gnarled fingers can still tear up that guitar! Among the songs played were Highway 61, Boney Maroney, the Rolling Stones’ It’s All Over Now and Jimi Hendrix’s Red House. Play on, Johnny!
Wow. Arguably the greatest blues guitarist that ever lived. Looks like he won't be around too much longer.
Make that "arguably the greatest white bluesman that ever lived" and I might agree... I put him neck and neck with Roy Buchanan and Peter Green. I saw Johnny in the early 80's...he got very down, very hard...made my spine tingle! ZW
Not sure how his race OR his albino-ism has that much difference on his ability.... replace Bluesman with Quarterback or Airline Pilot and that is no longer a sentence you want to be heard saying. Maybe back in the early days when race was a factor in getting into venues this had relevance, but I think the lines of race and music have been sufficiently blurred to include that Johnny Winter is arguably equal to any other. but thats just my opinion :hat:
Sagebrush didn't call him the greatest bluesman, he called him arguably the greatest blues guitarist, there's a big difference.
First of all, White people invented "Quarterback" and "Airline pilot". Black people invented the blues long before either of those things. Get that? Black people invented it, lived it, performed it, barely got paid for it, gave up and got jobs as house painters an' shit! Fortunatly for us dumbfucks here in America, some British chaps who had been digging these bluesmasters the whole time,( when Muddy Waters showed up in 59' or so, he blew their fucking minds) they formed their own blues bands. Fleetwood mac, Rolling Stones, etc... repackaged the blues and shipped it back to us ( the British invasion) Meanwhile, Chess records had been ignoring Muddy's stuff, preferring to record more " popular" tunes. I would continiue, but I feel a tirade coming on so I'm just gonna chill for now... I think it was '70's when he came back from England, Johnny hooked up with Muddy for "Hard again" Muddy called Johnny his "little brother" ZW
I changed the statement to something I felt was a more reasonable way to qualify Johnny's greatness. I'll try to explain... With Bluesmen, it's the whole package that counts. I don't think it's fair to compare the guitar playing ability's of great Bluesmen. Yes, Johnny is right up there with Hendrix, But what about Howlin' Wolf? His guitar playing was crude, But his blues "gestalt" was incredible! When a true Bluesman performs, it's not just a guy playin' blues riffs and singing in a bluesy style. A Bluesman emulates the feeling... I havn't hear johnny lately, but I'll bet anything even with his diminished vocal abilitys, you can still hear the soul of a bluesman in his voice. You can tell he's been to the "crossroads" Ya know? From Wiki ....In 1972 he (Muddy Waters) went back to England to record The London Muddy Waters Sessions with Rory Gallagher, Steve Winwood, Rick Grech and Mitch Mitchell — but their playing was not up to his standards. "These boys are top musicians, they can play with me, put the book before 'em and play it, you know," he told Guralnick. "But that ain't what I need to sell my people, it ain't the Muddy Waters sound. An' if you change my sound, then you gonna change the whole man." Think about it...The whole man! ZW
I fail to see where you showed that being the same race as the inventor gives someone an edge over a musician of a different race. There have been bluesmen of ALL races, colors, creeds and religions since its inception. In fact, you contradict yourself by saying first that "Black People invented it" and then "muddy called him his little brother". I think McKinley Morganfield is saying it doesnt matter what color you are.
maybe i dont have a nice enough sound system that can tell me the race of the musicians.the main component you need for music is your ears..i never cared about the race of a musician..if he/she sounds good to me i listen to it
by the zombiewolf logic, only Italians can play violin or write classical music since they are the originators of both. Obviously we know thats not at all true, since there are violin players doing classical music all over the globe. Same with blues players, and musicians off all types. God bless those who dont realize that.
a big amen to that.music should be colorblind it would be like i dissmiss queen cuz the singer was bisexual..i dont care what thy do in their offtime..they made great music and thats all that matters
