JOHNNY WINTER

Also available in a 3-pack with SECOND WINTER and CAPTURED LIVE. Among white blues singers of the 1960s, there were some who studied the music so intently they amazed even the genre's creators with their technical mastery. A select few, however, seemed to be born oozing authenticity, sounding just as soulful as the greatest black bluesmen while forging a completely new sound. Johnny Winter belonged in the second category. A long-haired hippie albino, he astounded initially skeptical listeners with his Howlin' Wolf-like vocals and wild Johnny Guitar Watson-esque guitar stylings. THE WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE showcases Winter's first taste of national exposure, first with his 1969 self-titled debut album, and then with his set at the Woodstock festival later the same year. The latter recording is the revelation here--a tornado of raging slide guitar and shouted vocals that sounds as if a late night Lone Star State roadhouse gig has been magically transported to the upstate New York farm. With several tracks clocking in at over 10 minutes ("Mean Town Blues," a hellacious Edgar Winter-led jam on "Tobacco Road"), the album showcases Johnny at his freest and most explosive.