In 1969, with several albums already under his belt in a short time like The Progressive
Blues Experiment (Friday Music 12431), Johnny Winter headed down south to Nashville and recorded what many believe to be one of his finest albums to date Second Winter.

Second Winter features the original line up of Johnny Winter (vocals/guitars) Edgar Winter (keys and saxophone), Tommy Shannon (bass) and Uncle John Turner (drums). This power quartet laid down some of the finest rock and roll and blues performances ever caught in a studio setting, as well as forever etching the name superstar to Johnny Winter’s career.

Always an avid audiophile and record collector himself, during the original recording sessions, Johnny believed that all the tracks would sound better if spread out over an extra side, instead of the traditional two sided LP, therefore creating the infamous and probably first three sided rock album in history! He summed it up perfectly “We also really liked everything we’d done and didn’t want to leave any of the songs out. We couldn’t honesty give you more, and we didn’t want to give you less, so here is exactly what we did in Nashville-no more and no less.”

It’s no secret that Friday Music has been championing this acclaimed world class artist for years now with his own authorized and top blues charting Live Bootleg Series projects, as well as classic vinyl re-releases from the Columbia and Capitol Records vaults, it is now with great pleasure to announce the continuing Johnny Winter 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl Series with his phenomenal earth shaking Second Winter album.

Mastered from the original Columbia Records tapes by Joe Reagoso and Kevin Gray at RTI, this incredible limited edition album comes full circle now in its first time audiophile vinyl domain release.

All his greatest hits are here like Johnny B. Goode, Miss Ann, Fast Life Rider and of course his classic interpretation of Bob Dylan’s scorching Highway 61 Revisited.

A visionary always with each and every one of his releases, Johnny Winter put his all into this album which showed an appreciation to his rock and roll heroes like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, his contemporaries like Bob Dylan, while also being a cultural icon in the psychedelic era solely with his Texan slide and unparalleled blues playing, an unforgettable rock voice, and a fan base that just keeps growing every day.

Fellow legend and brother Edgar Winter and the rest of the band truly excel throughout this entire album as well, on tunes sweltering blues workouts like Memory Pain, I Hate Everybody and the incredible jam Hustled Down In Texas. Johnny Winter’s Second Winter is the gift that just keeps on ROCKIN’! Now in its first time HQ vinyl release, Friday Music continues the Johnny Winter legacy even further with this incredible one of kind event. For a very limited run, we’ve also included the long out of print original gatefold album cover designed by Tony Lane, as well as the fine photography of Richard Avedon. To protect this fine treasure trove of rock, blues and art, we are also including poly sleeves for each album, and a poly cover for the stunning LP cover.

ROCK ON!

Johnny Winter's amazing five decade long career continues to delight fans both new and old alike, as he maintains a very high profile concert and recording career going into his 65th year! A bulk of his most legendary recordings were on Columbia Records as he went on to become one of the label's most important rock & blues spokesmen.

Friday Music has been the home of many Johnny Winter recordings over the past number of years, and it is now with extreme pride and pleasure to announce the first time 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl release of his classic Still Alive And Well album for the audiophile domain.

Recorded in 1973 and produced by the guitar great Rick Derringer, Still Alive And Well was truly a gusty, hard rockin' affair that has truly stood the test of time. Noted for its incredible song selection, Johnny Winter excels on such definitive versions of the bluse classic Rock Me Baby, two Rolling Stones joints Let It Bleed and Silver Train, as well the smash title track Still Alive And Well.

Several of his good friends were a part of the sessions including his band mates the late great Randy Jo Hobbs and Richard Hughes, as well as superstar friends like Todd Rundgren and Rick Derringer.

For this special limited edition release, we have created a super rare gatefold cover, restoring the wonderful original artwork elements from the original vinyl release not seen in years. We are also enclosing a poly sleeve to protect your vinyl investment, as well as a poly bag for the album cover.

Johnny Winter... Still Alive And Well... on Friday Music! Rock on!

Legendary rocker and blues statesmen Johnny Winter continues to enthrall audiences worldwide. With his unique brand of blues/rock guitar and vocal prowess, Winter's style is truly unmatched in purity and in star power longevity.

While he tours non-stop, it's no secret that his live performances are legendary. Fortunately for his huge fan base, Johnny has caught a lot of his concerts on tape over the many decades, which proudly leads us to the latest installment of the chart topping Live Bootleg Series.

For Johnny Winter's Live Bootleg Series Vol. 7, the artist surely becomes his instrument in some incredibly guitar shredding live performances. The blues wielding axeman steps out with super extended work-out's on concert classics like Don't Take Advantage Of Me, Leland, Mississippi Blues, Blues Jam and a very rare acoustic performance of Kiss Tommorow Goodbye.

Always paying homage to his fellow bluesmen, Johnny also dug far back into his archives for two super rare performances of Muddy Waters' Mean Mistreater and Jimmy Reed's Shame, Shame, Shame.

Friday Music is very honored to be the home of Johnny Winter's Live Bootleg Series Vol. 7. As with our previous releases, these are totally authorized and owned/controlled by Johnny Winter himself. As an extra special bonus to the fans, Johnny's good friend and famed guitarist Warren Haynes (The Allman Brothers/Gov't Mule) penned the hip liner notes and the legendary photographer Mick Rock's photo graces the stunning album cover.

Live Bootleg Series Vol. 7 by Johnny Winter. Six tracks of pure Texan blues power, courtesy of the legendary Johnny Winter and Friday Music. Rock on!

Out of print on vinyl for over four decades, the incredible first album from the legendary Johnny Winter: The Progressive Blues Experiment is back! This time on 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl, with the original art elements, and even new liner notes from Johnny himself! Mastered by Winter's own Live Bootleg Series Joe Reagoso from the original Imperial/Capitol Records tapes, this is THE esssential blues/rock album.

This masterpiece includes his smoking signature tunes like Black Cat Bone, It's My Own Fault and Mean Town Blues. Includes original band mates Tommy Shannon on bass and Red Turner on drums. This album never sounded better! A Friday Music Exclusive!

Red, hot and smokin' are only some of the words to describe the Live Bootleg Series Volume 6, the latest hand-picked collection of super rarities from the master blues rocker Johnny Winter's own archives. This Billboard Magazine Blues charting, artist produced and authorized series has been critically acclaimed since the Live Bootleg Series Volume 1 appeared over a year ago. Right in time for the New Year, this new edition will truly be one of the more anticipated releases for 2010.

This time around, Johnny finds some very incredible performances which pay homage to some of his favorites like Ray Charles' Blackjack, Freddie King's Sen-Sa-Shun, and a very rare extensive bonus track discovery of the B.B. King's classic It's My Own Fault. While clocking in at almost fifteen minutes, this and the other lengthy tunes collected make this a very enjoyable cd to the true Johnny Winter fan in all of us.

This collection also includes some very rare photographs from his personal collection, new liner notes, and the stamp of authenticity as only you would expect from the man, the legend, the bluesman himself, Johnny Winter. Rock on!

His fifth installment in the extensive and critically acclaimed Johnny Winter Live Bootleg Series celebrates even further his four decade legacy of blues, rock and guitar and vocal wizardry.

This time, Johnny digs back into his archives for some very super rare performances of the classics Lights Out, Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo and full blown long jams on Third Degree, You Keep Sayin' That You're Leavin' and others.

Includes never before seen photos, new liner notes and nothing but the blues!

In this continuing historic artist produced and approved series, the blues/rock master Johnny Winter focuses on some of the finest tunes ever from greats like Elmore James & Muddy Waters.

Nine stunning guitar work-outs await the listener, as well as a very rare take of Rollin' And Tumblin' captured on acoustic, the incredible Tom Larsen blues rocker Looking For Trouble and more killers like Sugaree and Shake That Money Maker.

Like any life-changing, chromosome- rearranging event, all guitar fans remember their first time seeing Johnny Winter perform live. For me, the year was 1973, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Johnny was then embarking on his Still Alive And Well "comeback" tour.  Appearing onstage all in white, his platinum-white hair flowing down to his elbows and playing a blinding white Gibson Firebird V, Johnny beamed with the unbridled energy of a force from some distant galaxy. His performance - a combination of earth-shattering guitar playing, searing vocals and wildly energetic stage presence - was nothing short of brilliant. He rocked the Garden so hard that night, the entire building shook in rhythm with the music. During the barn-burning boogie track Rock & Roll, I literally believed that the Garden was going to blast apart at the seams.

In the ensuing years, I have seen Johnny perform countless times - in arenas, amphitheaters, 1200-seaters, sardine-canned packed clubs (such as NYC's legendary Lone Star Café), rehearsal studios, and even Johnny's own living room. Seeing and hearing Johnny Winter play live is an experience like no other, because, simply stated, no other guitar player has ever entwined raw power, pure emotion, conviction, and virtuosity more effectively than he has.

Live Bootleg Series Vol. 3 offers listeners the chance to hear some prime live Johnny Winter. The album opens with Mojo Boogie. Johnny leads off the tune with some unaccompanied virtuoso slide work, his guitar tuned to open D (one of his favorite tunings for slide), before the band kicks in.

The second cut, Stranger Blues, is a killer Elmore James boogaloo that Johnny rips apart with more slide work in open D. This is the type of hard-rockin' blues Johnny first introduced to the world back in 1969 with his seminal release, The Progressive Blues Experiment.

On the third track, I Smell Trouble, Johnny displays the kind of mind-blowing speed and virtuosity that he usually reserves for long workouts over slow blues, while Boot Hill is a hard-driving mid-tempo shuffle on which Johnny effortlessly combines slide guitar with some of the fastest single-note work he's ever recorded.

Next up is a very rare live take of Robert Johnson's Stones In My Pass Way, played in front of a small but appreciative audience. Johnny performs the song unaccompanied with a slide on a National steel guitar tuned to open G. "I learned about open tunings from listening to Robert Johnson's King Of The Delta Blues," Johnny told me back in 1989. "I picked up the concept of using open tunings just by using my own ears, and when I discovered how the open tunings worked with the slide, it was quite a revelation."

I'm Gonna Murder My Baby was written by one of Johnny's big guitar influences, Pat Hare. Says Johnny, I'm Gonna Murder My Baby is the heaviest blues song ever written!

This collection rounds out with a smoldering version of Johnny's most well known track, his slide guitar tour-de-force arrangement of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. Johnny Winter is regarded as one of the greatest, most original and most influential slide guitarists ever, and this track offers ample testament to that fact.

Today, Johnny Winter is still touring steadily all over the globe, playing and singing as only he can and bringing audiences to their feet wherever he goes. Until the next time you get to see him perform live, Live Bootleg Series Vol. 3 will keep you covered.

—Courtesy of Andy Aledort

This March 2008, definitive rock and blues grooves truly ignite here once again with the much anticipated release of Johnny Winter Live Bootleg Series Vol. 2.

As a second installment from the highly successful artist-approved Live Bootleg Series, which most recently charted high in the Billboard Blues Chart (Live Bootleg Series Vol. 1 charted at #15 in 2007), this disc features six extensive, three decade old performances from the Johnny Winter archives.

This time around, Johnny thematically chose some of his favorite blues songs from artists like B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Willie Brown, and Jimi Hendrix to make up the bulk of the six rockin' performances that develops this new Live Bootleg Series Vol. 2 line- up.

Several of these tracks include the lengthy blues workout of Willie Brown's Mississippi Blues, the hard rockin' Robert Johnson favorite Crossroads and Jimi Hendrix's classic Red House, making some of these rare recordings their first appearances as authorized Johnny Winter recordings.

As an added feature, classic photos from his late 70s period truly add to the vibe of the entire package, which house some of the heaviest guitar licks to ever be unleashed or waxed by this legendary guitarist.

Check out the roaring leads on his Black Cat Bone originally from The Progressive Blues Experiment album and note his defining tribute to The King, with B.B. King's Rock Me Baby. Johnny is back! He will be touring throughout the world in 2008. You should also check him out on PBS special with Eric Clapton's Crossroads.

Johnny is totally at the top of his game in this his fifth decade of making great music, and these rare recordings that make up Live Bootleg Series Vol. 2 shed a lot of light on the living legend that is truly the great Johnny Winter.

All master recordings are owned and controlled by Johnny Winter and are compiled from the authorized Johnny Winter Music archives. Engineering note: This compact disc consists of very rare historical musical moments from the personal archives of Johnny Winter. Some of the source tapes were not made on the most advanced equipment of the day, but just to have a glimpse into the power of these rare performances, most of which receive their first official release in this artist approved series, make this listen an enjoyable Johnny Winter experience.

Johnny Winter has been flattening audiences since he blew out of Texas like a white tornado in 1968. At the tail end of the blues revival when British blues rockers were co-opting America's only indigenous art form, Johnny staked his claim to the title of reigning blues guitar hero with blinding chops as hot as a jalapeno and authentic blues feel as deep, wide and muddy as the Rio Grande.

Johnny's studio releases are an unparalleled record of the evolution of a blues master who has never stopped growing and perfecting his unique artistic vision of the music as a living, breathing entity meant to be expressed with spontaneity and unbounded enthusiasm in concert. To the everlasting gratitude of his fans, he has recorded a tremendous number of his shows, amassing an archive of forty plus years of musical treasures. They are now being carefully and painstakingly mastered and will be released over the next several years as the Live Bootleg Series on Friday Music.

Live Bootleg Series Vol. 1 covers a collection of Johnny's vintage performances, playing with fiery abandon and thundering drive. From his signature hair-raising scream of "A LITTLE ROCK AND ROLL!" that introduces Johnny B. Goode to his stomping bonus track cover of Bobby Womack's R&B classic It's All Over Now, this musical journey is one of blues and rock, heart and soul. If there is any doubt that he is the premier interpreter of The Rolling Stones, one need only to listen to his cataclysmic version of Jumpin' Jack Flash, to dispel any rumors. It's no wonder Keith and Mick gladly handed him their Silver Train to cover. Any Texan worth his salt and tequila includes Freddie King's Hide Away in his repertoire, but Johnny knows it from the inside out and makes the well-worn classic his own. Ever conscious of his true roots in country blues, he delivers a Southern fried Rollin' and Tumblin' for the ages, stamping it as bonafide with his slashing slide guitar. Further demonstrating his versatility, his original, brooding Stranger makes a case for this overlooked aspect of his talent.

As Johnny is quick to point out when anyone calls his recent resurgence as a "comeback", "But I never went anywhere!" These priceless, previously unreleased live recordings only further serve to fill in the gaps in a legacy that continues to be added to with every passing contemporary show and recording.

—Courtesy of Dave Rubin, Guitar Player Magazine

Contains Explicit Lyrics (Must Be 18 To Purchase)

Credits: Album cover photo by Lisa S. Johnson (Guitarfile). Album cover design by Angryblue.com.

Johnny Winter has been flattening audiences since he blew out of Texas like a white tornado in 1968. At the tail end of the blues revival when British blues rockers were co-opting America's only indigenous art form, Johnny staked his claim to the title of reigning blues guitar hero with blinding chops as hot as a jalapeno and authentic blues feel as deep, wide and muddy as the Rio Grande.

Johnny's studio releases are an unparalleled record of the evolution of a blues master who has never stopped growing and perfecting his unique artistic vision of the music as a living, breathing entity meant to be expressed with spontaneity and unbounded enthusiasm in concert. To the everlasting gratitude of his fans, he has recorded a tremendous number of his shows, amassing an archive of forty plus years of musical treasures. They are now being carefully and painstakingly mastered and will be released over the next several years as the Live Bootleg Series on Friday Music.

Live Bootleg Series Vol. 1 covers a collection of Johnny's vintage performances , playing with fiery abandon and thundering drive. From his signature hair-raising scream of "A LITTLE ROCK AND ROLL!" that introduces Johnny B. Goode to his stomping bonus track cover of Bobby Womack's R&B classic It's All Over Now, this musical journey is one of blues and rock, heart and soul. If there is any doubt that he is the premier interpreter of The Rolling Stones, one need only to listen to his cataclysmic version of Jumpin' Jack Flash, to dispel any rumors. It's no wonder Keith and Mick gladly handed him their Silver Train to cover. Any Texan worth his salt and tequila includes Freddie King's Hide Away in his repertoire, but Johnny knows it from the inside out and makes the well-worn classic his own. Ever conscious of his true roots in country blues, he delivers a Southern fried Rollin' and Tumblin' for the ages, stamping it as bonafide with his slashing slide guitar. Further demonstrating his versatility, his original, brooding Stranger makes a case for this overlooked aspect of his talent.

As Johnny is quick to point out when anyone calls his recent resurgence as a "comeback", "But I never went anywhere!" These priceless, previously unreleased live recordings only further serve to fill in the gaps in a legacy that continues to be added to with every passing contemporary show and recording.

—Courtesy of Dave Rubin, Guitar Player Magazine

Contains Explicit Lyrics (Must Be 18 To Purchase)

Credits: Album cover photo by Lisa S. Johnson (Guitarfile). Album cover design by Angryblue.com.