Major Works
Albums
- The Progressive Blues Experiment
- Second Winter
- Johnny Winter
- Still Alive and Well
- Saints and Sinners
- John Dawson Winter III
- Captured Live
- I’m Ready (Producer)
- Muddy Mississippi Waters Live (Producer)
- King Bee
- Serious Business
- Third Degree
- Let Me In
- Hey Where’s Your Brother?
- Live in New York City ’97
- I’m a Bluesman
- True to the Blues
- White, Hot & Blue
- Live Bootleg Series (Vols. 1-12)
- Step back
- Nothin’ But the Blues
- Raisin’ Cain
Biography of Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter was born in Beaumont, Texas, in 1944. His mother had returned to her parents’ home in Texas to give birth and returned shortly thereafter to Leland, Mississippi, where his father was serving in the army.
Winter spent much of his childhood in Beaumont, Texas. He became interested in music early, learning to play the clarinet when he was four. Johnny then played the ukulele for a couple of years doing barbershop quartet-type tunes such as ‘Ain’t She Sweet” and ‘Bye-Bye Blackbird’. Around the age of eleven, he switched to guitar, at the urging of his father.
Around the same time Winter was getting into rock and roll and learning guitar, he was introduced to the blues. A guitarist named Clarence Garlow had a blues show on a local radio station in Beaumont that introduced Winter to artists such as Otis Rush, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf. He got to know Clarence by calling him up and asking for requests, and they eventually met. Johnny would go down to the radio station, and Clarence would show him things on the guitar.
Johnny started playing professionally around the age fourteen. He used to go to all the blues clubs in town, getting the odd gig and sitting in whenever he could. He jammed with B.B. King at a club called The Raven when he was eighteen.
Johnny and his brother Edgar auditioned for Ted mack’s Original Amateur Hour in 1959. He formed his first band, Johnny and the Jammers, in 1962 at the age of fifteen, with his twelve-year-old brother Edgar on keyboards. Winter signed with Columbia records in 1969, releasing his debut album “Johnny Winter”. He has released and produced multiple albums with different record companies.
In 1988, Winter was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
Winter’s disc “I’m A Bluesman” received a Grammy nomination in 2004, and in 2005 Johnny and Edgar Winter were inducted into the Southeast Texas “Walk of Fame” at Ford Park in their home town of Beaumont, Texas, for their contributions to music and career accomplishments. Winter was also nominated for a W.C. Handy Blues Awards for “Second Winter Legacy Edition,” in 2005.
Winter performed up live at festivals and concerts in North American and Europe up until his death. He died in Switzerland on July 16, 2014. His album ‘Step Back’ was released posthumously. In 2015, the album was awarded a Grammy for Best Blues Album
Timeline
- 1944 – born in Beaumont, Texas
- 1959 – Winter brothers audition for Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour
- 1962 – Johnny and the Jammers is formed (first band)
- 1963 – moves to Chicago
- 1965 – returns to Beaumont
- 1967 – moves to Houston
- 1968 – Rolling Stone article creates and Winter signs with Columbia Records
- 1969 – releases Second Winter album
- 1970 – releases Johnny Winter album
- 1973 – releases Still Alive and Well album
- 1974 – releases Saints and Sinners album
- 1974 – signs with Blue Sky. Releases John Dawson Winter III
- 1976 – Captured Live album released
- 1978 – I’m Ready album released (Produced and played guitar)
- 1979 – Muddy Mississippi Waters Live album released (Produced and played guitar)
- 1980 – King Bee album released
- 1984 – signs with Alligator Records
- 1985 – Serious Business album released
- 1986 – Third Degree album released
- 1988 – signed with Voyager label
– inducted into Blues Foundation Hall of Fame - 1991 – Let Me In album released
- 1992 – Point Blank Records – Hey, Where’s Your Brother?
- 1998 – Live in New York City ’97 album released
- 2003 – Listed #63 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
- 2014 – Winter dies in Switzerland
- Step Back and True to the Blues albums released (posthumously)
- 2015 – Album ‘Step Back’ wins Grammy for ‘Best Blues Album’
Related Websites and Bibliography
- Edgar Winter – Beginning with Johnny Winter. The Grammy’s Interview (April 2012)
- Johnny Winter website
- Interview with Winter by Lisa Torem (2009)
- The Lion in Johnny Winter: A Tribute to the Guitar Icon (Rolling Stone, 2014)
- Blues Guitarist Johnny Winter dies at 70 (CNN, 2014)