BROOKLYNSTEVE: 01/13/16

January 13, 2016

JOHNNY WINTER - TRUE TO THE BLUES, THE JOHNNY WINTER STORY

This new 4-CD box set includes 57 tracks spanning Winter’s entire major-label career from 1968 to the present day (his most recent album having been released in 2011). Though the two-time Grammy Award nominee is looking back with this comprehensive retrospective, he’s still very much an active artist, and will mark his birthday with a special February 23 performance at New York’s B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill. “When Johnny Winter was signed to CBS Records in February 1969, the sum paid to him was a record for a solo signing to the label: $600,000.00. Winter, who hailed from Texas, represented the vanguard of American blues-rock. Jimi Hendrix was riding high in ’69 with his psychedelic blues, and the idiom had been co-opted by any number of British guitar-slingers, too, but Winter brought his own virtuosic sound. Like his brother and frequent collaborator Edgar, Winter was born with albinism, and encouraged from an early age to immerse himself in music. Winter found an affinity with the great bluesmen, something that translated to his gutsy, howling, soulful reinterpretations of classic blues standards.” Plenty of those can be sampled on True to the Blues. The chronologically-sequenced (in order of recording, not release) box draws from 27 albums originally released on labels including Liberty/Imperial, Columbia, Blue Sky/Epic, Alligator, Point Blank/Virgin, Friday Music, Collectors’ Choice Music, Megaforce and Legacy.

‘True to the Blues’ arrives two days after Winter’s 70th birthday, and roughly 55 years after he started wowing crowds with his guitar prowess. Releasing his first single at the age of 15, Winter was off and running; by the late ’60s, he’d signed with Columbia Records, kicking off a long association that endured into the ’80s. Cuts from Winter’s Columbia releases are rounded up for the box, as well as recordings from later in his career — all in all, ‘True to the Blues’ collects 57 tracks from 27 albums, including some previously unreleased performances.

DISC 1:
01. Bad Luck And Trouble
02. Mean Town Blues
03. Mike Bloomfield's Introduction Of Johnny Winter (Live)
04. It's My Own Fault (Live)
05. I'm Yours And I'm Hers
06. Mean Mistreater
07. Dallas
08. Be Careful With A Fool
09. Leland Mississippi Blues (Live At The Woodstock Music & Art Fair)
10. Memory Pain
11. Highway 61 Revisited
12. Miss Ann
13. Hustled Down In Texas
14. Black Cat Bone (Live)
15. Johnny B. Goode (Live)

DISC 2:
01. Eyesight To The Blind (Live)
02. Johnny Winter's Intro (Live)
03. Prodigal Son (Live)
04. Mean Mistreater (Live)
05. Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo
06. Guess I'll Go Away
07. On The Limb
08. It's My Own Fault (Live)
09. Jumpin' Jack Flash (Live)
10. Good Morning Little School Girl (Live)
11. Mean Town Blues (Live)

DISC 3:
01. Still Alive And Well
02. Rock Me Baby (Album Version)
03. Rock & Roll
04. Rollin' 'cross The Country
05. Hurtin' So Bad
06. Bad Luck Situation
07. Self Destructive Blues
08. Sweet Papa John
09. Rock & Roll People
10. Harlem Shuffle (Live)
11. Bony Moronie (Live)
12. Roll With Me (Live)
13. Tired Of Tryin'
14. Tv Mama
15. Walkin' Thru The Park
16. I Done Got Over It

DISC 4:
01. One Step At A Time
02. Honest I Do
03. Nickel Blues
04. Talk Is Cheap
05. Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
06. Bon Ton Roulet
07. Don't Take Advantage Of Me
08. Master Mechanic
09. Mojo Boogie
10. Stranger Blues (Live)
11. Illustrated Man
12. Hard Way
13. Highway 61 Revisited (Live)
14. Maybellene
15. Dust My Broom https://www.filefactory.com/file/2eiw9umjwmv/Johnny%20Winter%20-%20True%20To%20The%20Blues%20-%20The%20Johnny%20Winter%20Story.zip