Search - Johnny Winter :: Johnny Winter:The Woodstock Experience (2CD)

A must have for Johnny Winter fans!!

Baberufus | West Jordan, UT USA | 03/24/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As with many other now-legendary musical figures, Woodstock was a turning point for Johnny Winter's career as one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time! He was virtually unknown before his performance there, and listening to the crowd before his encore of "Johnny B. Goode," it's quite clear that his days of obscurity were over right then and there!



Since I already owned Johnny's first studio album on CD, I was somewhat annoyed that I had to buy it again as part of this package in order to obtain the Woodstock recording, but I don't regret this duplicate purchase, particularly considering that this 2-CD package is selling for the same price as a lot of single CD's, anyway.



I would treasure the Woodstock CD even more were it not for the release of Johnny's 1970 Royal Albert Hall performance as part of the re-release of his second album, Second Winter. The Royal Albert concert features most of the same cuts as on the Woodstock recording. And like his Woodstock performance, it SMOKES! Some takes on the Royal Albert Hall are better than the Woodstock, and vice versa. Both are indispensable! So I would consider owning both performances on CD as complementary rather than duplicates of each other, since both are great...



A MUST HAVE for all Johnny Winter and Blues fans!!"

From Goodness to Greatness

BluesDuke | Las Vegas, Nevada | 04/07/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Johnny Winter went from good to great with his Columbia debut, 1969's "Johnny Winter." He'd tightened up his working trio of the time (Uncle John Turner, drums; future Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon), integrated brother Edgar's keyboard and alto saxophone on a cut or three, and delivered what "The Progressive Blues Experiment" (recorded shortly before, issued simultaneously, and displaying slightly weaker sound on mostly cover material Winter could probably have played in his sleep, though his impeccable "Mean Town Blues" was represented as well) merely hinted---hot-rod blues where the flash of his fretboard speed didn't interfere with his good sense and taste.



The only issue is why Columbia Legacy chose to reissue the album in a set with his Woodstock performance---the album has stood so well on its own over the years, and has received proper remastering well before this set arrived. Why fix what wasn't broken even for the sake of time-and-place considerations? The Woodstock set deserved a singular release in its own right.



That said, getting to strut his stuff at Woodstock so early in his career as a major recording artist (he'd been paying his dues with interest the south and Midwest for years, since he was an early teenager) was probably no big rip. Winter had played in more nerve-wracking conditions before, specifically at the Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper "Super Session" concert in New York where he was invited to jam a number---before an audience that just so happened to have a number of Columbia Records heavyweights on hand. He tore through "It's My Own Fault" with no little help from a sympatico Bloomfield and in spite of the evening's drummer having little clue to the blues early in the number, and bagged himself what was then a record advance on a new recording contract.



So Winter hitting the stage at Woodstock was probably just in a rollicking good mood, and it showed during his performance. He romped his way through "Mama, Talk to Your Daughter" to open the set and then got down to the red meat---a thrusting roll of "Leland Mississippi Blues"; a rip-roaring "Mean Town Blues" that laid his studio original to waste (and is probably the best concert capture of that chestnut and the Winter slide virtuosity in his catalog); a throbbing "You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now," toward the end of which he interpolates his Columbia debut's "Mean Mistreater"; and, handing brother Edgar (who'd stay part of the Winter group for "Second Winter") the microphone, a dripping "Tobacco Road," with some smooth keyboard work and a soulful alto saxophone turn around the guitar pyrotechnics. The brothers hang in for another turn or two, particularly a taste of the bristling version of "Johnny B. Goode" that would shine on "Second Winter."



Winter wasn't the only new kid on the block to make his bones at Woodstock. (Santana and Mountain were a couple of others.) But he was probably the only one present to shove the blues through a modern filter without leaving the soul of the music behind, even if there are portions where you wonder if he's too lost in the moment to avoid merely spraying notes around and gets a little awkward pulling himself back onto the track. Hearing this set again also causes you to lament that he felt compelled to break up this trio barely a year after they'd hit the bigtime together. (There were critics who thought, rather unfairly, that they were just plodding behind him rather than inspiring him, a thought rather well demolished when "Second Winter" rolled around.) It would be years before Winter worked with musicians as genuinely knitted to the blues as he was---and, after a brief enough but somewhat ill-advised turn toward straight rock and roll, returned to stay."

Worth The 40 Year Wait

ID10T | 03/02/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I did not purchase this item from Amazon, however the album is still the same as if I would have. Anyway, the original album is fantastic, but the Woodstock set is where Johnny really shines. He says that he really didn't have anything prepared, and he just played random songs, and it worked very well. Highlights include: Mean Town Blues, Leland Mississippi Blues and Johnny B. Goode. One complaint that I do have, however, is that the vocals are very loud when compared to the recording of the guitar, but this could be considered nitpicking, and it's just a minor issue. I give it 5 out of 5 stars."