Texas guitar legend Johnny Winter became a seeming overnight star in 1968 with the release of his first album on Columbia records. Winter was and remains an incendiary guitar player and a gruff, authoritative vocalist. An exceptionally fluid and dynamic soloist on both standard and slide guitar, his records in the 70's tended towards rock excess, but by the end of that decade he had returned to a much more pure blues approach which continues today. Along the way Winter was instrumental in helping the career resurgence of Muddy Waters, producing and playing on a number of acclaimed records. Winter was an important influence on a whole generation of musicians, including Chris Whitley and Stevie Ray Vaughn
