Who Loves Johnny Winter ? Still Alive and Well !

Johnny Winter, blues master, started playing the guitar at the tender age of 15 but fame came to him 9 years later, in 1968 with his phenomenal "black album" release, Johnny Winter in 1968.

He performed at Woodstock and is best known for his adaptations of rock and roll classics using his acid-blues sound, the piercing blues heard in my opinion on the album "Captured Live" (1976).

In the early 70's he sufferred pretty badly from a heroin addiction but was "Still Alive and Well" in 1973, the name of a song written for him by collaborator Rick Derringer, another brilliant guitarist who also played with Johnny's brother in the Edgar Winter Group and Edgar Winter's White Trash.

Nowadays, at 64 years old he might not look that well but he still plays the blues.

"Most of the stuff I do is fairly old," he said recently, "we're not playing any rock and roll at all."

I am very hestitant to try and write a list of his best songs, I will simply list my own personal favourites.

1. Hustled Down in Texas (from Second Winter)

2. Sweet Papa John (from Captured Live)

3. Dallas (from Johnny Winter)

4. Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo (from Johnny Winter and...)

5. Rock and Roll People (from John Dawson Winter III)

6. Mojo Boogie (from Third Degree)

7. Leland Mississippi Blues (from Johnny Winter)

8. It's my own Fault (from Live Johnny Winter and...)

9. Johnny B Goode (from Live Johnny Winter and...)

10. Memory pain (the best of Johnny Winter)