For more than 30 years, Johnny Winter has been at the forefront of modern blues and blues-rock, and his new I'm A Bluesman disc, arriving June 15 from Virgin Records, figures to add to his Texas-sized reputation.
For this release, Johnny has again paired with his long-time producer Dick Shurman (Robert Cray, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan), as well as Tom Hambridge (Susan Tedeschi, George Thorogood). Backing him is his road-tested touring band of ace harmonica man James Montgomery, bassist Scott Spray and drummer Wayne June, along with guitarist Paul Nelson with guest appearances by such friends as keyboardist Reese Wynans (from Stevie Ray Vaughan's celebrated backing group Double Trouble) among others.
I'm A Bluesman is Johnny's first new collection in nearly eight years. It was a question of finding the time and the right material, he says, plus a long recuperation from hip surgery. The 13-track collection includes three tunes by his friend Paul Nelson, a Connecticut-based guitar player who writes with Winter's bassist Scott Spray. They collaborated on the prison themed "Shakedown," a relationship-gone-bad song titled "Pack Your Bags" and the album's title track, which Nelson describes as an attempt at a Johnny Winter biography.
"Johnny is a real hero to me, and I wanted to do a song about his life. I know how Johnny talks, how he phrases things, and I wanted to capture his feelings. It's about who he is, what he represents to other musicians and what he's accomplished. I'm really proud that when he first heard the song he said I'd gotten it right." Nelson also provides guitar on the song and plays on many other tracks as well.
Winter also opted to record two new songs by producer Hambridge, "Cheatin' Blues" and the first album single, "Lone Wolf." Johnny says it's always been something of a mystery to him how singles get picked, but he's especially happy with how his electric slide-playing turned out on this track. "It's a really good song," he vouches.
He's also pleased to have finally recorded "So Much Love," a tune by former bandmate Jon Paris which Johnny has played live on a number of occasions and has meant to record for years. "It's about time I've finally got around to doing it for an album," he says.
Johnny reaches back into his past for songs by two musicians, Hop Wilson and Lazy Lester, who inspired him during the early days in Texas. The nod to Wilson (1927-1975) comes in the form of a spine-tingling solo acoustic version of "That Wouldn't Satisfy," a tune Hop originally recorded for the Goldband label in 1958. "Hop was one of my heroes coming up. I never got over to see him in Houston, but I liked his records a lot. He had a real different way of playing steel guitar." The salute to the still active Lester comes in a cover of his Jay Miller-written hit on Excello, "Sugar Coated Love." Winter says, "I'm a big fan of Lazy Lester. He even played on one of my earliest records, 'That's What Love Does,' when I was just 16 or 17."
Johnny's own compositions on I'm A Bluesman include "Sweet Little Baby," a slide-drenched song he wrote during a tour stop in Central Europe's picturesque Prague, and the disc-closing "Let's Start Over Again," composed with harmonica player James Montgomery who joined Johnny's band last year after a long career leading his own group and releasing seven albums under his own name.
Johnny and his players cut the tracks for I'm A Bluesman at several studios in New England, where Winter makes his home these days. But Winter remains a native Texan, born and bred in Beaumont, the town where the famous Spindletop gusher came in to kick off the "black gold" rush in 1901.
