I'm A Bluesman

Performer: Johnny Winter
Engineer: John Shyloski; Ducky Carlisle; Scott Baggett; John Shyloski
Producer: Dick Shurman; Johnny Winter; Dick Shurman; Tom Hambridge
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Johnny Winter (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar); Johnny Winter; Paul Nelson (guitar); Paul Nelson (electric guitar); Reese Wynans (keyboards); Tom MacDonald, Scott Spray, Brad Hallen (electric bass); Scott Spray (bass guitar); Tom Hambridge (drums, percussion, background vocals); Wayne June (drums); James Montgomery (harmonica). Audio Mixers: Dick Shurman; Tom Hambridge; David Axelbaum; Ducky Carlisle. Recording information: Carriage House, Stamford, CT; Room 9 From Outer Space, South Boston, MA. Editor: Scott Baggett. Photographer: Ken Schles. On guitar-slinger Johnny Winter's 2004 outing, I'M A BLUESMAN, his spicy style of playing keeps with a legacy dating back to the late 1960s, when he was playing on the club circuit of tiny Beaumont, Texas. Tapping Roy Buchanan/Albert Collins producer Dick Shurman to man the console, Winter wisely brings his touring band into the studio with him. Although the albino axe-wielder's guitar tone sounds oddly compressed, his still-impressive playing does much to dispel any distractions. Such is the case when the sixtysomething Texan plays the spurned-lover card, be it on the organ-soaked howler "Cheatin' Blues" or the subtler, but no less suspicious, "I Smell Smoke." Despite nearly being eligible for Social Security, the rail-thin Winter still opens it up, as evidenced by the howling and crackling slide guitar adorning "Lone Wolf" and the equally tempestuous stomper "Sweet Little Baby." Winter also tips his Stetson to Lazy Lester and Hop Wilson with the former's "Sugar Coated Love," served up as a snappy, mid-tempo shuffle, and the latter's "That Wouldn't Satisfy," cast as a mournful, acoustic steel-guitar lament.

Texan blues guitarist Johnny Winter, surely the first albino blues guitar hero, was already a convincing artist in the '60s when still in his teens. At the dawn of the '70s, he embraced the sound of the time, adopting a louder, more frenetic blues-rock style. Backed by the McCoys, including guitarist Rick Derringer, he released a series of classic blues-rock albums, while his keyboard-playing brother Edgar, with whom Johnny played on and off over the years, achieved stardom in his own right. At the end of the '70s, Winter produced Muddy Waters, helping him make a triumphant comeback. In the ensuing decades, Winter maintained a prolific schedule of touring and recording.

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