Yes, he is. In this long-awaited return album, Johnny Winter takes up where he left off. His fingers are fleet and sure as ever, his vocals have bite and growl, and the flash and power of yore are hanging right in there.
Winter wrote two of the ten tracks, most are more rock than heavily blues oriented, and all feature bassman Randy Jo Hobbs and drummer Richard Hughes. Producer and former guitar partner Rick Derringer is heard on a few tracks, as are various keyboards here and there—but the basic sound is power trio. Technical advice on the LP is credited to Bill Szymczyk, who also produced B.B. King's Alive And Well album, as well as the J. Geils Band and the James Gang.
bluesiest cuts are the standard "Rock Me Baby," done here with a sinuous riff and plenty of punch, and the acoustic "Too Much Seconal," a Winter original. Johnny plays National Steel and mandolin on this track, which also features the frenetic flute of Jeremy Steig—it's a burnt-out-woman blues in the old tradition, but modernized a bit by choice of pharmaceuticals.
"Can't You Feel It" was written by Dan Hartman, from Brother Edgar's group—predictably it's a straight ahead rocker; "Outside your window baby, tryin to get in,/My love for you goes deeper than sin." It matches up nicely with Johnny's other original, "Rock & Roll" ("You can't keep me, gotta use me while you can"), which features some electrifying slide work.
The two sidestep numbers on the album are "Cheap Tequila," a modish ballad by Derringer. Production includes Todd Rundgren on mellotron, but overall feel is nice—it's good to hear a less raspy vocal tone. "Ain't Nothing to Me" is a fine, double-tough C&W bar song. Johnny shows off another side of his Texas roots with a good vocal, and Derringer adds nice work on pedal steel.
We get a double taste of the Stones with two numbers. One is the new "Silver Train," reportedly written for Johnny. With swirling guitars, rippling piano and buried vocals, it has a definite Exile sound, and Johnny sounds more like Jagger in phrasing and pronunciation than himself. A good, rocking track, with "Paint It Black"-styled Eastern overtones. Some find it touched with smack references; to me it sounds like a hit single.
"Still Alive and Well" is a shock-of-recognition move. The song was first heard on White Trash's Roadwork album, and speculation was rife that Derringer had done it with Johnny strongly in mind. Here Johnny makes it a vital and personal statement with as much power and self-assertive cool as Muddy Waters had in "Hoochie-Coochie Man."
The album closes with an appropriately leering rendition of the Stones' "Let It Bleed," once again featuring the crystal-glass-chandelier-like lightning slide guitar work and a strutting vocal. At the end of the take Johnny asks, "Goddamnit, did that get it, or what?"
It did. Welcome back man, nice to see a survivor. (RS 133)
TONY
