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Nothin' But the Blues/White, Hot & Blue

Johnny Winter - Nothin' But the Blues/White, Hot & Blue Audio CD

A fair review of the Johnny Winter "Nothin' But the Blues/White, Hot & Blue" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Johnny Winter reviews here, or go back to the Johnny Winter tabs.

Band: Johnny Winter
Title: Nothin' But the Blues/White, Hot & Blue
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-09-27
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Tired of Tryin' 2: TV Mama 3: Sweet Love and Evil Women 4: Everybody's Blues 5: Drinkin' Blues 6: Mad Blues 7: It Was Rainin' 8: Bladie Mae 9: Walking Thru the Park 10: Walking by Myself 11: Slidin' In 12: Divin' Duck 13: One Step at a Time 14: Nickel Blues 15: E-Z Rider 16: Last Night 17: Messin' with the Kid 18: Honest I Do

Great music, excellent sound quality
"White, Hot & Blue" is one of my favorite JW releases, and while "Nothin' But The Blues" is less so, it's no comment on the music but just boils down to my personal preference. I have to start out by saying I'm a die-hard Johnny Winter fan. WHB is definitely more an "electric" sound, a really bluesy rocker.

The thing that makes this combo stand out is the great sound quality of this remastered BGO release. I have both of the original LP's (what's that?) and individual SONY and CBS CD's released earlier and I can say that the sound here is vastly improved, most noticeably so on the "White, Hot & Blue". The earlier SONY CD release suffers from horrible engineering and mixing, being apparent in variable volume levels song to song, severely muffled drums in some tracks, and just generally no dynamics to the instrumentation. Those of you who couldn't find WHB on CD before are lucky you had to wait until now to find it. . . I kick myself when I remember how hard it was to get that earlier release and how much I paid for it at the time!

The liner notes are rather extensive but disappointing in that stylistically they read like a poorly written essay by a struggling high school student. They contain a fair amount of irrelevant information and nothing really new. Sorry John Tobler, I know you've made a career of it, but you really should rewrite this one. And at least half of the notes are a copy and paste of the notes from the BGO combo of "Saints & Sinners"/"John Dawson Winter III".

I absolutely recommend this CD.

Amazing. In more ways than one
Can't be too great. Bunching these two albums together like this doesn't do much for credibility, does it? Eh, a twofer.
But guess what? It is.

"Nothin' but the Blues" is the older of these two albums by a year. It came out in 1977, the same year as Muddy Waters' excellent comeback-album "Hard Again", which Johnny Winter produced and played on. And here Johnny gets to borrow the mighty Muddy Waters Blues Band, leading them through a well-arranged set of his own compositions, and a powerful rendition of Muddy's "Walkin' Thru The Park".

Johnny Winter handles the lead vocals himself (except on "Walkin' Thru The Park"), and his throaty vocals suit these purposely traditional blues compositions pretty well.
Winter plays guitar as well, of course, and a little bit of bass and drums, and his acoustic steel guitar playing is particularly delightful.
Highlights include the acoustic slide guitar workout "TV Mama" (not the Big Joe Turner song), the swaggering, harp-driven "Tired Of Tryin'", the thumping, groovy "Bladie May", and the fine "Sweet Love And Evil Women", a showcase for "Steady Rollin'" Bob Margolin, whose shimmering lead guitar lines wind their way all around Winter's gruff, throaty vocals. There are a couple of forgettable numbers here which keep "Nothin' But The Blues" from getting a top rating, but most of these nine tracks are among the finest blues tunes Winter has ever recorded.

And, amazingly, 1978's "White, Hot & Blue" is even better. It is, to me, at least, the best studio album Winter has ever recorded, although it must be said that I am very much partial towards his blues albums rather than his somewhat more generic rock n' roll records.

"White, Hot & Blue" features Winter's excellent renditions of Jimmy Rogers' classic "Walkin' By Myself" and Junior Wells' signature tune "Messin' With The Kid", as well as a couple of fine originals.
Johnny Winter's playing is absolutely superb, fresh and exhilarating, and virtually everything here is top-notch. The tough, slinky groove of "One Step At A Time" and the salacious slide guitar-workout "Slidin' In". The acoustic Delta-styled "Nickel Blues" and the slow Little Walter-original "Last Night", which features some fine harp playing by Pat Ramsey. And the sizzling album closer, a tremendous cover of Jimmy Reed's slow boogie "Honest I Do", a superbly groovy rendition with tasty guitar playing from Johnny Winter and a sizzling harp solo, probably the best Jimmy Reed-cover I have ever heard.

It's a shame that those who already own one of these records can't just go out and buy the other one without having to pick up a cheap-looking twofer package like this one. It's a shame, in fact, that these two excellent, smouldering hot CDs haven't long since been remastered and presented in shiny new deluxe editions.
But be that as it may, these are two of John Dawson Winter III's very, very best efforts. A must-have for fans of Winter's bluesiest material. I can't recommend this enough, really.

hot, hot and hot
Now I have them on one CD that is so hot it melted my CD player. I did not own Nothin' But the Blues before, but have been looking for White, Hot & Blue on CD for a long time. Johnny burns with inspiration from the old timers on the former, and the latter is quite simply his best album. I had the good fortune to see Muddy Waters, et al, around the time these albums were recorded, and just missed Johnny Winter when he played the second set. .

Two of his best!
I have both on CD and vinyl already, but the remastering is very good. This is a great opportunity to have both these albums on CD. Despite being 30 years since original release they are still a great collection of blues. Check out the re-issued "Johnny Winter" "Second Winter" and "Progressive Blues Experiment" CDs.

About time these albums were re released.
Two great albums by a man on top of his game. Having owned both of them on vinyl since the late 70's I was amazed to see that finally they are out together no less. By the way my turn table has gone the way of the steam engine but the albums are still in pristine order.

You can see a complete list of all Johnny Winter discography, or go back to the Johnny Winter tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.