Black Cat Bone: Electric Blues Man, Vol. 2

Performer: Johnny Winter
Distributor: Griffin

Notes: The sequel to Volume One, SUICIDE WON'T SATISFY, has the same creepy prismatic death-mask cover, tinted purple instead of green, along with 13 more rarities and outtakes from the Texas bluesman's long and varied career. Like its predecessor, BLACK CAT BONE is a mixed bag of Winter originals like the rave-up "Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone," standards like Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Gangster of Love" and J.B. Lenoir's "Mama Talk to Your Daughter," and some blues obscurities like the terrific "Sloppy Drunk Blues," which sounds like it's appropriately titled. About half of the album consists of originals like the oddball "Ballad of Bertha Glutz." It's a tribute to Winter's skills that with the exception of a ragged-but-right Delta-style take on Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes," it's nearly impossible to tell the originals from the covers.

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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