Johnny Winter
Album: White Hot Blues
Label: Talking Elephant
Tracks: 19
Website: http://www.talkingelephant.co.uk

White Hot Blues is a most apt title for this most recent compilation of recordings of the blues-rock veteran who died in July last year. Winter was one of the first white blues guitarists to credibly infuse blues with rock, right from his debut LP for CBS (1969's slightly misleadingly-titled Progressive Blues Experiment), while retaining the fiery spirit and intense feeling of the original music, whatever its source within the blues tradition.

His searing, blistering guitar style - virtuoso yes, but so musical too - is unmistakable, and a blueprint in more ways than one, albeit one which in the hands of some lesser musicians since has become something of a cliché. But as these 19 tracks, largely drawn from his especially creative phase (the decade between 1969 and 1979) amply demonstrate, Winter was anything but a cliché, and this great-value disc certainly brings us a cream-of-the-crop selection that's a well-nigh ideal introduction to the man and his art.

It's good, too, to find included a couple of Winter's spirited, persuasive acoustic performances (the 1977-vintage TV Mama and 1973's Too Much Seconal), but there's really no serious complaint to be made about this well-sequenced compilation, which takes in Winter's own compositions as well as storming covers ranging from now-staple blues classics such as Rollin' And Tumblin', Divin' Duck and Walkin' By Myself to a romp through Dylan's Highway 61; while compared to the quintessential 1971 live Johnny B. Goode (from Johnny Winter And) even the relatively routine rock'n'roll of The Crawl maintains a decent high energy level.

The booklet essay is both succinct and informative, and provides a sensible perspective on the musician, and the liner credit at least gives dates for the various recordings, if not details of the actual albums from which they're sourced. Yeah, White Hot Blues ensures that Johnny Winter's music remains a "living music", still alive and well…

David Kidman