Blues johnny winter12/17/2023 On Roots, he shows that adversity has only made him more dedicated than ever to the blues, and that his music provides the strength that keeps him going. Winter has endured setbacks of his own in recent years, due to various medical issues, but he has emerged from them very healthy and very happy. "That thing has been through hell," Winter says, "but it still sounds great." Fans will recall that at a 2009 concert in Vienna, the Music Man caught fire during a performance of Highway 61. "And I used my Music Man 4x12 amp, like always," he adds. To record Roots, Winter relied on his stage staples, including a black Erlewine Lazer, which he played on most of the tracks, and his 1964 Gibson Firebird, which he used for slide. I had learned about the blues strictly for myself, because that's what I wanted to play the most." "In that band, we were playing mostly R&B and rock and roll. "We didn't get to play too much blues then, because we were mostly playing for white people and they didn't want to hear blues," he says. Though he's devoted more than 40 years of his life to the genre, Winter played more popular styles of music such as R&B and rock and roll in his early years, including when he performed with Edgar and when he led his high school group, Johnny and the Jammers. The inclusion of Honky Tonk also serves as a reminder that Winter's background goes beyond the blues. It's always nice to have Edgar with me for a track or two.” "Billy Butler was the guitar player on the original. "This is a song that Edgar and I used to play in clubs all the time, because it was a hit that people knew," Winter says. Roots also features vocalist/guitarist Susan Tedeschi, who harmonizes beautifully with Winter on Jimmy Reed's Bright Lights, Big City and, fittingly, his brother Edgar Winter, who blows a funky sax on the album's lone instrumental, Bill Doggett's early R&B smash Honky Tonk. "Working with him was one of the true highlights of my life." "I loved Muddy so much," says Winter, who produced four albums for Waters in the late Seventies, three of which were Grammy winners: Hard Again, I'm Ready and Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live. The list of guest musicians on Roots includes country star Vince Gill, who supplies a burning Telecaster solo on Chuck Berry's Maybellene, and harmonica virtuosos John Popper and Frank Latorre, who perform on Winter's versions of Little Walter's Last Night and the Muddy Waters classic Got My Mojo Workin', respectively. Another is Clarence Hollimon, who was on most of Bobby Bland's early hits, like I Smell Trouble," Winter adds, referring to a track he cut for his 1984 release, Guitar Slinger. "Pat's always been one of my favorite players. "I was around 12 or 13 when I first heard the original, in about 1957," he says, "and I remember sitting there trying to copy everything Pat Hare was doing." A Memphis singer and guitarist, Hare recorded sessions with Bland as well as with Junior Parker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. The song is delivered with the original's slow-burning swing, but Winter updates it with his inimitable guitar intensity and vocal growl. Track two, the essential Bobby "Blue" Bland classic Further On Up the Road, features Jimmy Vivino, guitarist and music director for the Conan show. I've never heard anyone like him, and I really like what he does." He's a fantastic slide player, someone who has his own very distinct style and plays completely different from the way that I play. And it was great having Sonny on the track. "He really was the father of electric blues guitar, because he was one of the very first people to play blues on the electric guitar. "T-Bone was a huge influence for me," Winter says. But Roots also serves as a modern-day slide guitar summit, featuring three of today's greatest electric slide players: Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks and Sonny Landreth, who appears on the album opener, a reworking of T-Bone Walker's essential blues classic, T-Bone Shuffle.
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