When I was a wee lad of about 14 years old, I ran across a 12” vinyl album at a flea market for 50 cents. That album was Johnny Winter And……Live. In my opinion, Johnny (Brother of Edgar Winter) was one of the greatest bluesmen and guitarists to ever bend a string. He could do it all; hard rocking blues, country blues and he is still my number one, absolute, all-time favorite slide player. I saw him live once in 1988 and he was amazing.

Here’s a clip of him live in 1979.

He was a huge fan of the blues in general and he produced and played on Hard Again, my favorite Muddy Waters album.

Johnny was on a European tour and played his final show last Saturday before he crossed over to the other side on July 18, 2014 at age 70. I am sure he’s blowing it up in blues heaven with Muddy right now. RIP Johnny.