Johnny winter turned 70 today (23 Febr 2014), happy birthday, and thanks for all the great blues-rock-music, for re-discovering the old blues greats like muddy waters, and for still touring and playing!!

Cheers, Johnny!

- Doxa

yup and he has a boxset coming out this tuesday in honor of his 70th

Saw him Friday night at the Bull Run Tavern where he plays a couple of times a year and the man can still play incredibly well for his age and despite the fact he is not in the greatest health as he has to sit for the whole show.

Last time I saw him I got a copy of his biography signed as he graciously signs for fans after the show so if you get to see him bring an album or photo and Johnny will sign it for you.

Plays a short set of just over an hour but it is worth every penny to see this legend if you get a chance.

Nice article about him in the Wall Street Journal

[online.wsj.com]

BTW, the man who probably saved Johnny's life and is sort of his caretaker now Paul Nelson is member of Johnny's band and is an amazing guitar player in his own right. Check him out

[paulnelsonguitar.com]

A 4-CD box set of his work is coming out this week. It doesn't look like there is too much rare material, but I would like to have this box in my collection. I pre-ordered it from Newbury Comics because they are selling copies autographed by Johnny. At $59.99, it's not much more expensive than Amazon, and it's signed.

[www.newburycomics.com]

anyone else get this boxset? i picked it up last week and its something johnny deserved for his 70th bday.

here are my thoughts on the boxset:
pros
- it covers johnny's career from 1968-2014
- it contains a lot of live material. thats great because winter was known as a live performer. overall it has 18 live performances.
-the bulk of the 4 cd set covers 1968-1979 which are his prime years. basically 3 of the 4 cd's cover his best years.
-it includes 2 unreleased live songs from the atlanta pop festival
- if you didn't purchased any of the expanded re-releases of his older albums or appearances on other artists releases you get a good selection of stuff like that such as his appearance at the dylan tribute concert in the early 90's, a tune from woodstock, his appearance with mike bloomfield and al kooper and the fillmore east, etc.


now the cons
-nothing pre 1968
-each disc is a little less than 70 minutes so actually you could fit 4 more songs on the set as long as they are all about 5 minutes. each disc should have been about 75 minutes
- nothing from the albums LIVE IN NYC 1997, I'M A BLUESMAN or WINTER OF 88 although they use a live version of "stranger blues" to represent WINTER OF 88
-not a lot of unreleased material. only 2 songs on here are unreleased. i know there is more in the vaults
- even though the best stuff he released was from 1968-1979 maybe 3 discs was a bit overkill because its hard to fit highlights from 1980-2014 on 1 disc. maybe this should have been 5 cd's.
- missing a lot of essential stuff in any version like "rollin and tumblin'", "silver train", "it's all over now (live)", the rock n roll medley from the live album TOGETHER with his brother, "messing with the kid", "like a rolling stone", "it's my life baby" and "johnny guitar"
-with some essential cuts missing its hard to explain the reasoning they included 2 live versions of "it's my own fault", and a live and studio version of "mean mistreater", "highway 61 revisited" and "mean town blues". with limited space and a lot of ground to cover whoever picked the songs should have only included 1 version of these songs.
-no dvd of highlights throught his career or a documentary



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-14 06:25 by keefriffhard4life.

a birthday milestone is reason to celebrate!

I love hearing you playing slide, Johnny... Happy birthday, man!