1968 a very import year for Johnny Winter

- The Texas Tornado: Johnny Winter's Pivotal Year (1968)

10 January 1968 records "Suicide Won't Satisfy", "Blue Suede Shoes" , "I Wonder If I Care" at Andros Studios, Houston.

19 January 1968 recorded "Going Down Slow" Andros Studios, Houston

In 1968 Johnny Winter records "Birds cant row boats" on the Pacemaker label

In April 1968, Johnny Winter began playing in a trio with bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Uncle John Turner. Their shows at Austin's Vulcan Gas Company and Houston's Love Street Light Circus.

In July 1968 Johnny starts playing almost every month at VGC (Vulcan Gas Company) . These shows of Johnny Winter at the Vulcan Gas Company, attracted the attention of a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, who had been writing an article about the Texas hippie scene. The author devoted three paragraphs to Johnny, whom he referred to as "the hottest item outside of Janis Joplin". The article brought nation wide attention to the album "The Progressive Blues Experiment", a collection of songs that Johnny's trio had recorded live at the Vulcan Gas Company, which was quickly picked up for national release by Imperial.

In the summer of 1968, John Sinclair and the MCS put on something called the Motor City Rock Festival- a ton of bands and three headliners over two nights: The Five, Sun Ra and Johnny Winter. Sunburned and ornery as only a teenage purist can be, I wanted to skip Winters's set. He'd been hyped in Rolling Stone as an albino celebrigeek, and I figured any guitar player noted for the paleness of his complexion could not be worth much. My girlfriend, who'd already seen Johnny, told me that if we stayed, I'd love him. I listened to her, and then I listened to him, and felt that love. What Johnny did that night was one of the most indelible blues or rock show I've ever seen, white hot music under cool blue spots. As Johnny roared through his Muddy Waters gone to Texas show, he got off what are still some of the most stinging slide riffs ever played in my presence. And though he may have slowed the pace a time or two, the band never stopped rockin'. Not for a minute

Like so many of the greatest players of the Sixties (Dylan, Hendrex, Bloomfield, Clapton), Johnny Winter did not make much distinction between the blues and rock 'n' roll. That's why what you get here is as much classic rock--including Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Good" and perhaps the best version of Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" ever put on tape--as classic blues. What makes these records blues are the long, elastic lines Winter's guitar strings out, the undercurrent of sadness that balances the exuberance, the structure and the origin of some of the songs ("Messin' With The Kid" from Junior Wells, "Rollin' And Tumblin" from Muddy Waters , "Rock Me Baby" from B. B. King); what makes them rock is the relentlessly attacking sheets of notes, the sheer physical exuberance that Johnny pours into the music, the refusal to bend to the pain they express and the sheer pace and force, which don't lift for a second, even on tracks as downhearted as "Too Much Seconal".

All blues musicians are essentially artists in pursuit of some fundamental truths about themselves and the people around them--about the human condition as they have known it. The music is about exploring as deep inside yourself as you can stand to go, and learning how you're connected to everyone you've ever encountered; about individual expression standing on the shoulders of all that has come before it. For Johnny Winter, that has been a lifelong task, from his first bands in Texas to the big-time rock 'n' roll career he had when he made the first of these records, to his great work with Muddy Watersand his departure for a territory that still engages him, out there on the road somewhere, maybe in your vicinity as this new collection spins. He is a true bluesman.
But he has also never lost his rock 'n' roll heart: For Johnny, that great Chuck Berry story about the country boy who carried his guitar in a gunny sack and strummed to the rhythm of the locomotive wheels is his own story. Yet, what called to him was finally not just his name in lights but the far more enduring sound of the blues itself. No matter what anyone imagines, he's the real thing, and as such must be heard to be believed and understood. The grace note is this: Everyone who listens up is amply rewarded. As a scoffing skeptic who became a fan, I'm living proof.

Johnny Winter joined forces with musicians Uncle John Turner (drums) and Tommy Shannon (bass) to record for a lesser-known regional label called Sonobeat . Journalists Larry Sepulvado and John Burks from Rolling Stone magazine caught wind of this collaboration and penned an admiring piece titled "Texas", describing Winter as a cross-eyed albino bluesman weighing 130 pounds, with long fleecy hair, and delivering some of the most gutsy blues guitar performances ever heard. This exposure swiftly propelled Winter from being a local sensation to a headlining act at New York's Scene club and the esteemed Fillmore East venue.

Simultaneously, Johnny's "official" debut album, "Johnny Winter" (1969) , was released, coinciding with a compilation of earlier recordings titled "The Progressive Blues Experiment". The album received enthusiastic praise from notable figures like John Lennon and The Rolling Stones. The Stones even kicked off their renowned Hyde Park concert with Winter's track "I'm Yours and I'm Hers". Both Lennon and The Rolling Stones contributed songs to Johnny, namely "Rock'n' Roll People" and "Silver Train", respectively. Encouraged by such high-profile endorsement and bolstered by his own self-assuredness ("In my own mind, I was the best white blues player around", he stated), Winter embarked on a demanding yet lucrative schedule within the hard rock circuit. Notably, he made a memorable appearance at Woodstock, where his performance was exceptionally well-received.

Notes: Bubble Puppy (also known as The Bubble Puppy) is an American psychedelic rock band originally active from 1967 to 1970. They are best remembered for their Top 20 hit, "Hot Smoke & Sasafrass".

Notes: The Conqueroo were an American psychedelic-garage group, based in Austin, TX. They were active from 1965-70.
The Conqueroo line-up consisted of: Charlie Prichard (lead guitar and vocals), Ed Guinn (bass, keyboards, woodwind, vocals), Tom Bright (drums), Bob Brown ( (rhythm guitar and vocals).
Notes: Shiva's Headband (or Shiva's Head Band), an early Texas psychedelic rock band, formed in Austin in 1967. Original members included fiddler Spencer Perskin and his wife Susan, keyboardist Shawn Siegel, guitarists Kenny Parker and Bob Tom Reed and drummer Jerry Barnett. The group was the house band at the Vulcan Gas Company, a late 1960s Austin nightclub.

Notes: McKinley Morganfield better known as Muddy Waters, as an American blues musician who is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues".

Notes: The Zakary Thaks were an American garage rock band from Corpus Christi, Texas, United States, which formed in the mid-1960s.

• September 1968 – Blues Unlimited magazine: Blues Unlimited, Sept 1968 Page .24 article by Mike Ledbitter
• 20 & 21 September 1968 - Johnny Winter / Endel St. Cloud at the Vulcan Gas Company.
• 10, 11, 12 October 1968 - New Atlantis / Johnny Winter at the Vulcan Gas Company:
• Sunday 13 October 1968 - Theater For The Performing Arts, Hemisfair Arena, San Antonio, TX Steppenwolf / Johnny Winter / New Atlantis with Giant Light Show Notes: Steppenwolf is a Canadian rock band that was prominent from 1968 to 1972. The group was formed in late 1967 in Toronto by lead singer John Kay, keyboardist Goldy McJohn, and drummer Jerry Edmonton.

  

• 17 , 18, 19 October 1968 Shiva's Head Band / Johnny Winter at the Vulcan Gas Company.
• 8-16 November 1968, Vulcan Gas Company: Steve Miller Band, Johnny Winter, Freddie King. Poster called "Downtown Tubes" designed by Texan Artist: Jim Franklin
• 21 November 1968 - Theater For The Performing Arts, Hemisfair Arena, San Antonio, TX: Janis Joplin with Big Brother and The Holding Company / Johnny Winter / Shiva's Headband

• 7 December 1968 "Discovered" by Rolling Stone's Larry Sepuvaldo. Larry Sepuvaldo wrote in a Rolling Stone issue: "...a hundred-and-thirty pound crosseyed albino with long fleecy hair, playing some of the gutsiest fluid blues guitar you have ever heard-
• 14 December 1968 - Johnny Winter jams Mike Bloomfield, Sam and Dave