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, 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 for a blazing extended intro solo, with bassist Paris offering some double duty by coping Johnny's slide melodies note-for-note on harmonica.

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.

Featured musicians: Johnny Winter (vocals/guitars), Jon Paris (bass/harmonica), Anthony Robert Torello a.k.a. Bobby T. (drums). 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 featuring bassist Jon Paris and drummer Bobby T, his power trio at the time 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

Featured musicians: Johnny Winter (vocals/guitars), Jon Paris (bass/harmonica), Anthony Robert Torello a.k.a. Bobby T. (drums). 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 featuring bassist Jon Paris and drummer Bobby T., his power trio at the time 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

Featured musicians: Johnny Winter (vocals/guitars), Jon Paris (bass/harmonica), Anthony Robert Torello a.k.a. Bobby T. (drums). Credits: Album cover photo by Lisa S. Johnson (Guitarfile). Album cover design by Angryblue.com.