Johnny Winter Albums Ranked
John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014), known as Johnny Winter, was an American blues singer and guitarist. Best known for his high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. His recording career began at the age of fifteen when his band Johnny and the Jammers released “School Day Blues” on a Houston record label. During this same period, he was able to see performances by classic blues artists such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland. In the early days, Winter would sometimes sit in with Roy Head and the Traits when they performed in the Beaumont area, and in 1967, Winter recorded a single with the Traits: “Tramp” backed with “Parchman Farm” (Universal Records 30496). In 1968, he released his first album The Progressive Blues Experiment, on Austin’s Sonobeat Records. Here are all of Johnny Winter albums ranked.
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10. John Dawson Winter III (1974)
“Guest musicians includes Willie Dixon, Big Walter Horton, and his brother Edgar. The best cut in my opinion is the first song “I’m yours and I’m Hers”. There are straight blues, delta blues, and hard blues augmented on several cuts by a brass section and background vocalists. Johnny does all the guitar work……The Columbia/ Legacy CD I bought has three additional cuts that weren’t released on the original LP in 1969.”
9. Nothin’ But The Blues (1977)
“As others have pointed out, this is hard-core blues, and pairs Johnny with Muddy Waters’ band. You can tell Johnny is lovin’ it, and delivers really solid numbers. Cotton’s harp and Johnny’s vocals fit hand in glove and the whole deal reeks Chicago blues. It is a lesser known work, as Johnny was pegged at the time with rock-blues, and not this straight-up Chicago style. But if you’ve got some Muddy, some Howlin’ Wolf, some Junior Wells, etc, this is a great addition,.”
8. Johnny Winter And (1980)
“The tunes on this album show an increased focus on rock ‘n roll, with less emphasis on the blues that were so significant on Johnny’s previous albums. For instance, did anybody ever imagine that Johnny Winter would cover a Traffic tune? As would be proven throughout the 70s, Rick Derringer is an excellent foil to Johnny’s fret board athletics. Listen to the guitar work on “Nothing Left”!”
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7. Still Alive And Well (1973)
“One of my favorite albums of all time. Everybody went crazy when Eric Clapton hit the scene but for me, Johnny Winter was always the man. He is one of our american treasures. The link between the post war blues Cats and our blues of today. Johnny can reinterpret the Rolling Stones like nobody else. He does “Silver Train” which Keith Richards & Mick Jagger wrote for him on this album only to record six months later on the Rolling Stones “Goat’s Head Soup.” Something, according to his Biography, “The Wild & the Raucous Johnny Winter”, he was not thrilled with since they promised not to record it.”
6. Second Winter (1969)
“From the opening “Memory Pain” to the instrumental “Tell the Truth” there isn’t a weak track, and it includes two of my all time favorite covers, “Johnny B. Good” and “Highway 61 Revisited”. The second disk is great live versions of many of the first disks tracks, easily making it worth the price of an extended edition. Johnny’s gone, and this is as good a legacy as you get in blues rock. After 40 years, I’m still not tired of listenting, see what you think.”
5. Guitar Slinger (1984)
“The man has endlessly inspiring and unique guitar licks pouring from those boney fingers and out of that headless Steinberger guitar…he’s a Library of Congress of guitar riffs and licks. This one is right up there with “Third Degree” and “Serious Business”…and “Let Me In” too.”
See more: Muddy Waters Albums Ranked
4. Live Johnny Winter And (1971)
“My first real mind-blowing exposure to the great, the incredible guitar player, Johnny Winter, one of my top three favorite guitar players. Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, Randy Jo Hobbs and Bobby Caldwell – what a lineup. One of the best Rock ‘N’ Roll albums ever recorded live – the jams are truly electrifying. This band goes full-tilt all the way in an already berserk environment and plays together in power – they roar, then the audience roars back – Wow!”
3. Let Me In (1991)
“Let me in is another great example of JDW’s expertise and raw feeling for the music that he (and I) so obviously love. Like all of his releases, there’s not one bad cut. He falls back into the realm of The Blues on occasion, but that’s NEVER a downgrade on his releases, rather it’s a reaffirmation of the roots of Blues Rock, and he ALWAYS delivers virtuoso performances no matter the genre.”
2. The Progressive Blues Experiment (1968)
“This album is hot, smoking, wicked, low down, dirty blues. A singer with guitar (when he plays bottle neck, that’s it), a Bass player, and a Drummer. Johnny Winter, Tommy Shannon (who would be SRV’s Double Trouble’s future) – Bass Player, and Red Turner on one of the hottest blues drums I’ve heard in a while.”
1. Johnny Winter (1969)
“This album is a classic. This and his “Progressive Blues Experiment” are probably his 2 best studio recordings ever. Of course, his Rock & Roll sensibilities always bubble in, around, and through everything he touches. Johnny’s guitar work was incendiary, to say the least; his vocals both raw and rugged, but all of it was distinct.”