Search - Johnny Winter :: Live Bootleg Series, Vol. 4 (Original Recording Remastered)

Smoking Hot Blues

Art and Music | 02/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is typical of what we have come to expect from Johnny Winter-a great selection of (mainly 12-bar blues) songs; strong, gritty vocals, and smoking hot guitar.



Johnny is equally skilled at slide and non-slide playing. In fact, there aren't many people who can match him on the slide guitar. Listen to "Serious as a Heart Attack," and you'll hear what I mean.



Other than "Just Like a Woman," the songs are mostly in the traditional urban blues form, but played with a hard edge. These tracks are very close to what Johnny did on his trendsetting "Progressive Blues Experiment" LP back in the late '60s. It's Chicago blues spiced with a dose of rock and roll.



This CD will be appreciated by anyone who appreciates expert guitar playing. If you are a rock fan but haven't listened to much blues, I encourage you to listen to Johnny Winter to see what you've been missing."

The "Bootleg" series keeps on givin'

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 03/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This fourth volume in Johnny Winter's much-lauded "Live Bootleg" series differs from volumes two and three in particular in featuring no less than nine songs (vol. two had six), and several of them are less than five minutes long! Now that's pretty tight for a live album featuring John Dawson Winter III.



"Live Bootleg vol. 4" is a terrific mix of blues and R&B, with a little bit of rock n' roll sensibility here and there. But it is mostly a blues record, a pretty tough and gritty one, and Winter's playing is sharp as some or other cliché about cutting or sharp stuff or something!

Sure, there are one or two lesser numbers here, but this is still a most rewarding listen with some wonderful, smouldering slow blues and a few fast ones as well. And bassist Jon Paris' occational harp playing complements Winter's guitar wonderfully, adding extra grit (and a very authentic rootsy atmosphere) to the lean and mean sound of the three-piece band.



"Live Bootleg vol. 4" opens with a fiery up-tempo instrumental, Pluma (not "Plummer") Davis' "Okie Dokie Stomp", before moving on to a swinging, swaggering "Looking for Trouble", a grinding mid-tempo blues with some terrific soloing, and then to the first Johnny Winter-original of the entire Bootleg-series, the hard-driving eight-minute R&B of "Serious as a Hard Attack". It's total blues cliché all the way, but it's supremely well delivered, and the solos burn!



Jessie Mae Robinson has been credited as "Jesse", which she probably wouldn't have appreciated. She was a prolific songwriter in the 50s and 60s, and she is the lady behind blues and R&B numbers like "Black Night (is falling)", Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have a Party", B.B. King's "Sneakin' Around (with you)", and "Cold, Cold Feeling", which was recorded by T-Bone Walker. Her blues ballad "Blue Mood" is perhaps a little bit at odds with the rest of the somewhat grittier and rather more edgy material gathered here, but Winter plays some excellent, low-key guitar, and he does well by the song all around. It's not a major highlight, though, and neither is the up-tempo R&B trifle "Sugaree". Sure, it's good enough, but it's really not a major song. And "Rushy" York didn't write it, either, Marty Robbins did and Rusty York recorded it.



I don't know quite how to feel about this rendition of the old proto-rock n' roll-chestnut "Ain't That Just Like a Woman", a staple for Louis Jordan and Fats Domino. The band powers along, and the live audience must have been thrilled, but to me Winter's vocals are sub-par. He yells out the lyrics rather than singing them, robbing the song of much of its original melodic appeal. But that's a matter of taste, of course.



This take on Elmore James' "Shake Your Moneymaker" is a pure gem, though. Again, Winter's vocals aren't the best you'll ever hear him do, but he gets the job done, and his screaming guitar completely dominates the song anyway. Sure, nobody out-Elmores Elmore James himself, he had the style, the voice, and all the feeling, but this is a tremendous cover nevertheless. And the equally explosive "Mad Dog" is another highlight...I don't think there are many people who doubt Johnny Winter's talents and versatility as a guitarist, at least not among those reading this, but if there are one or two out there, their doubts ought to be laid to rest after listening to this one!



The album winds down with an acoustic solo performance of the ancient 20s blues "Rollin' and Tumblin'", all clanging slide guitar and a powerful, focused vocal performance by Winter. It's not live, but it's a wonderful performance all the same. And that's it, a not-very-generous 49 minutes of music. But with performances like these, I suppose it can be forgiven!



Half of the songs are credited to the wrong composer, mis-titled or misspelled or something, and the sound isn't really 21st century state-of-the-art fidelity - obviously, since these performances were recorded decades ago. But once you are grooving to "Shake Your Moneymaker" or "Rollin' and Tumblin'", I doubt if you'll care."

Johnny the way he was meant to be.

ham | San Diego, CA USA | 02/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These bootleg CD's are finally giving us Johnny Winter the way Johnny Winter should be heard; live, bass, drums, and Johnny. Enough said. Killer."