Johnny Winter - Second Winter: Legacy Edition - Legacy/Columbia Records

11/17/04
Reviewed by - Matt Rowe


Johnny Winter Second Winter Legacy Edition

Second Winter is a hotbed of blues-rock. With the first set of guitar rifts blasting, “Memory Pain” past the grille of your speakers, somehow you just know that this blues-rock guitarist that hails from Mississippi and who has a made-for-blues voice would be otherworldly. And so he has become, a saint amongst the illuminati of blues-rock aficionados. With solid schooling, Johnny Winter was 70s blues-rock, the like that many owe their styles to.

Johnny Winter’s second Columbia album was a strange one in that the 2-album set featured 3 sides of music with the 4th side blank. But contained on those 3-sides was music so intense, you were forced to take notice. Winter was a shaft of glory sprung from the halo of the Blues and any song from Second Winter validates that.

This Legacy issue of Second Winter dynamically improves on the album’s original release by including not only the original material but also 2 unreleased bonus tracks including an instrumental “Tell the Truth”, a Ray Charles song. To sweeten the pot, Legacy has also included a second disc that exclusively features a 1970 Royal Albert Hall show. This 2^nd disc represents the first time that this show has been released to the public.

The concert, a smoker of a show, comes from a set done at Royal Albert Hall in 1970. Winter is no stranger to live shows, which is how he is ultimately set free, like a captive animal who finally gets the roam of the jungle. Within the expanse of this show is a rousing live version of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode”, a song that is also found on the studio part of this album. However, there are 2 extraordinary performances of “Tobacco Road” and of “Frankenstein.” “Frankenstein” is a song that achieved high charting status as a funky instrumental piece for Edgar Winter later in the 70s. It’s done here in an embryonic, but very entertaining, very different way. I find it to be ultimately more rewarding than Edgar Winter’s studio version. It’s raw, structured, but oh so good, clocking in at around 9-minutes. “Tobacco Road” occupies much more of the bits found on this CD, an 11-minute intensity that makes the listener long for the days of blues-funk played in a live setting such as is found here.

Rounding out the 2^nd disc are tracks like the 12-minute extended work of “It’s My Own Fault”, the Sonny Boy Williamson song, “Help Me”, and the 11-minute blast of Johnny Winter’s own “Mean Town Blues.” There are 9 blistering songs here, all played to the fullest extent allowed by Fire Marshalls lest the Hall be burned down and become history. The band consisted of Johnny’s brother, Edgar Winter, whose White Trash ensemble turned out great material but who narrowed his output to plant his later band, The Edgar Winter Group, into the lofty singles arena; and the impeccable rhythm section of Tommy Shannon on bass and “Uncle” John Turner on drums to complement the inimitable Johnny Winter. This lineup, my friends, may be the most intensive and incendiary of any live blues-funk-rock band to date.

Working backward from the bonus of the live addition CD to the original album, Legacy has unearthed and included 2 unreleased cuts, “Early in the Morning” and an instrumental “Tell the Truth” that is also found in the live set of disc 2 albeit in vocal rendition. Both of these tracks were recorded in 1969 but not included on Second Winter until now. They both fit quite well as a result. In the studio, Johnny has an uncanny talent of capturing the heart of a song recorded thereby creating an element of the live performance. With the slide added, Johnny knew few equal. He could make the guitar and the slide implement become one as if they were originally created one for the other, the Adam and Eve of sound.

The sound on this Legacy issue is a noticeable improvement over the earlier release of the same title on CD. This is true of most, if not all, of earlier re-issued albums’ first appearance on CDs. The sound and packaging were deplorable in many instances. Legacy’s approach is an admirable one as they not only remaster the music but also augment and bolster the original album with bonus cuts from the same sessions and live performances. With improved packaging, Legacy reissues become definitive in that they offer a complete overview of the period that the album was created in. Completists and purists should be very pleased. The packaging is a tri-fold digipak that houses the two discs as well as a 24-page booklet with plenty of new notes and comments by the band of the time. This is slip-cased by a clear plastic Legacy dust cover.

With a searing blend of covers and originals, Second Winter becomes essential to any fan’s blues-rock library. Johnny Winter’s second Columbia album brought with it the promise of a champion. That promise eventually was realized on subsequent Winter releases like Nothin’ But the Blues; White, Hot, and Blue; Johnny Winter And; Still Alive and Well; John Dawson Winter III; and Saints and Sinners found on Blue Sky and eventual Alligator releases. I find the re-release of this set momentous and highly satisfying and can recommend it emphatically.

Release Date: October 19, 2004
Tracks: 22 - 2CD
Produced by: Johnny Winter and Jerry Rappaport
Format: CD
Website: www.johnnywinter.net

Track Listing:

Disc One: Original Album -
Memory Pain / I'm Not Sure / The Good Love / Slippin' and Slidin' / Miss Ann / Johnny B. Goode / Highway 61 Revisited / I Love Everybody/ Hustled Down in Texas / I Hate Everybody / Fast Life Rider / Early in the Morning (Bonus Track) / Tell the Truth (Bonus Track).

Disc Two: Live at Royal Albert Hall -
Help Me / Johnny B. Goode / Mama Talk to Your Daughter / It's My Own Fault / Black Cat Bone / Mean Town Blues / Tobacco Road / Frankenstein / Tell the Truth.

Johnny Winter:

Johnny Winter - Vocals / Electric and Slide Guitar
Edgar Winter - Saxophone / Keyboards / Vocals
"Uncle" John Turner - Drums
Tommy Shannon - Bass.