John Johnny Dawson Winter
February 23, 1944 — July 16, 2014
John Johnny Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas. He and his brother, Edgar, both got into music early in their lives and after seeing artists such Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland, they fell in love with the blues.
In 1968, Sonobeat Recording Company released Johnny Winter’s first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment. The small label’s limited distribution gave the album limited success. In December 1968, while at an Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield concert at the Fillmore East, Bloomfield invited Winter on stage. His performance attracted the attention of Columbia Records executives in the audience and they soon signed him to “largest solo artist deal of it’s time.” (from Winter site)
Johnny Winter released his first Columbia record in 1969. He toured and performed at festival after festival, including…
- Big Rock Pow Wow,
- First Annual Detroit Rock and Roll Revival,
- First Annual WC Handy Memorial Concert
- Newport Pop Festival
- Toronto Pop Festival
- Denver Pop Festival
- Newport Jazz Festival
- Atlanta International Pop Festival
- Laurel Pop Festival
- Forest Hills Music Festival
- Midwest Rock Festival
- Atlantic City Pop Festival
- Texas International Pop Festival
- Raccoon Creek Rock Festival
- Palm Beach Pop Festival
- Miami Rock Festival
- Mid Winter Pop Festival (the festival never actually happened)
Oh yea. He played at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, the festival that turned out to be THE festival of 1969 and, in the eyes of many still today, THE festival of all time.
Johnny Winter came on around midnight (Monday 18 August) after The Band and before Blood, Sweat and Tears. He played about an hour. His setlist was:
- Mama, Talk to Your Daughter
- Leland Mississippi Blues
- Mean Town Blues
- You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now > Mean Mistreater
- I Can’t Stand It (with Edgar)
- Tobacco Road (with Edgar)
- Tell the Truth (with Edgar)
- Johnny B. Goode
Here’s a YouTube of that performance (not a film).
John Johnny Dawson Winter
Johnny Winter
Most know of Alvin Lee and his Ten Years After performance of “Goin’ Home” from the 1970 movie or album. Johnny Winter did not get the Woodstock golden touch from either because he was not in or on either.
That did not stop his career. He successfully buffeted his way through rock and roll’s many Scylla and Charybdis with a long career.
He kept on making albums (Winter discography) and fulfilled a dream by playing with and producing Muddy Waters. Winter produced Waters’ , Hard Again (1977). He again worked with Waters on I’m Ready (1978). It was another Grammy winner.
Here’s a great video from a movie on Johnny Winter. It’s called Down and Dirty and was directed by Greg Olliver.
John Johnny Dawson Winter
Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter died in Zurich, Switzerland on July 16, 2014. Writing in Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #63 of the 100 greatest guitarists. The review said: Out of all the hopped-up Caucasians who turbocharged the blues in the late Sixties, Texas albino Johnny Winter was both the whitest and the fastest. Songs like his 1969 cover of “Highway 61 Revisited” are astonishing showpieces of his lightning-fast thumb-picked electric slide playing. Jimi Hendrix sought him out as a sideman, and Muddy Waters recognized his talent at first glance, becoming a friend and collaborator: “That guy up there onstage – I got to see him up close,” Waters later said. “He plays eight notes to my one!”
- Reference >>> Rolling Stone magazine obit
- Reference >>> All Music bio
John Johnny Dawson Winter
Addendum: As you can see, this site is a dot info site, not a dot com. I do not accept advertising or any compensation for anything I post. I do not accept anything. Period.
With that in mind, in February 2020, I received an e-mail from a Joey Miller, who is an Editor at Jen Reviews. In the e-mail he said that they had “just published an updated, comprehensive guide on easy guitar riffs for beginners on our sister site, BeginnerGuitarHQ. It is completely free and you can find it here: https://
I don’t know if you’ll ever be as good as Johnny, but this free intro may be a start. Who knows?!
from Mike Kulpa via Facebook post: I got to meet him a few times before he died with VIP tickets I bought. He had the longest fingers I’ve ever seen on anyone. Such a nice guy too.
I first saw Johnny at Madison Square Garden when I was in 9th grade (1973 or 4). It was a Saturday night. When I got to the bus stop on Monday my ears were still ringing. Back in the day you could actually buy front row seats if you knew when tickets would go on sale. I cut out of high school 3 Mondays in a row and lucked out when they went on sale for the Felt Forum (the smaller venue underneath the garden). I did get first row seats. My hands hurt for a week banging on the stage all night. I’ve seen Johnny many many times. All that be said is was a privilege of God to be blessed to have been in the presence of and to have seen such a gifted sincere musician. A lot of wild times went along experiencing his concerts. RIP Johnny, can’t wait to hear you and Jimi again.
Great story. Thanks for sharing. Never did see him, but was a life-long fan.
Johnny sold me a red record on mad albino, he produced for sonny terry, later came out on alligator. I can not find anywhere how many were made, i think it was 100. And i had the good fortune to have willie dixon, and sonny, plus Johnny autograph it… no one believe me… it is the only 1 in the world with all signatures… I have a few unopened, an with he and willie auto…
VERY cool!