Johnny Winter

On Saints & Sinners, Johnny Winter has retained the essentials of his blues style. But they
now appear in many more situations than in the past, giving this LP greater breadth than any
of its predecessors. His brother Edgar has achieved enormous commercial success doing
something very similar -- he was less rooted in blues to begin with -- and may have served
as a model for Winter's new direction. So has their mutual producer, Rick Derrin... More >

I think what puts me off this otherwise searing assertion of rock and roll prowess is the engineering. Rick Derringer has done the standard live-sound job, in which echo is amplified into unnatural "depth," and theoretically that's fine. The average live-sound band is too busy doing promotional tours for its current album to worry about material for the next, but here the songs are lovingly chosen--there's even a good one from the pitiful Richard Supa. Rock and roll the way Johnny likes it, however, was meant to have a human dimension, and since he has trouble projecting irony or intimacy anyhow, a lot of these die a little when Derringer mixes them into heavy cuts. (Grade: B)