Johnny Winter – The Progressive Blues Experiment – EMI 72438-66568-2-7

Anticipation was running high in early 2012 in the lead-up to Johnny Winters’ scheduled downtown South Bend, Indiana performance at Club Fever, a relatively intimate venue to be witness to the vast skills of one of the blues’ biggest advocates, someone who, along with other artists such as George Thorogood and John Mayall, brought the blues to wanting Caucasian audiences.  Due to their efforts, the blues continued its march into the ears of White listeners everywhere, building upon the work of certain British interpreters who chose the music as their framework in the 1960s, enthralling audiences with their readings of the music of Black America.

Winter was to be joined on this show with The Blasters, the Southern California group who likewise took the framework of the blues and transformed it into their also unique vision of the expressly American musical art form.  Seeing that the Alvin brothers, Dave and Phil, the charter members of The Blasters briefly lived in South Bend, an eagerness to have the group perform in the city was also high, though on this tour, Dave was not on the show.

Nonetheless, the entirety of the evening was a musical triumph, with The Blasters thrilling the crowd with their meld of blues, R&B, gospel, rock, and even punk sensibilities, and Winter and his crew tearing the scene up with an ear-splitting festival of blues versions as only Winter could present them.  Seated the entire night, Winter played guitar with abandon and awe-inspiring speed, and singing with placid total assurance (it was not indifference), all the while his three-piece band churned, lurched, and chugged behind him.  It was a night to remember, and in fact, Winter returned in March, 2014 for another performance at the same site with renowned bluesman Eddy Clearwater opening the show.

The Progressive Blues Experiment, a ten-track outing, was originally released in 1969 on the Imperial label.  Accompanying Winter on this blues excursion was formidable bass man Tommy Shannon (who went on the great acclaim as Stevie Ray Vaughan’s bassist in the group Double Trouble) and rock-solid drummer John “Red” Turner.  The three produced a set that continues to stand the test of time, a collection that inspires to this day.

The collection was recorded in Austin, Texas in August, 1968 at the famed music venue The Vulcan Gas Company.  A strong meld of Winter original cuts and superb covers by the likes of Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Blind Willie McTell, B.B. King, and Roosevelt Sykes, what Winter and crew were able to accomplish here was to present Winter as the eminent guitar slinger of the day, and to find him without the trappings of rock’s mercantilism; there were no big-time pressures here. 

This assemblage is not crafted for the sonically meek; no, it hollers and screams, wails and pounds, and rips and tears.  But in all the right ways.  It is a perilous excursion to this day, and must have seemed even more so in 1969.  It reeks of attitude, yet is respectful in all the right ways, as Winter would remain staunch with the blues throughout his entire life.

Jump on board here when a trio of young White bluesmen presented their analyses of the blues to a wider like kind audience. 

Thank you, Johnny, for all that you did for the blues.  Highly recommended!