Johnny Winter

Johnny Winter's first record is a perfect portrait of the times in which it was released. The year 1968 was the height of America's social revolution, and the frantic energy of this record, not unlike Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, released two years later, captures both the potent young guitarist and the raving American psyche in a fever pitch. Uncle John Turner's drug-drenched backbeat and Tommy Shannon's surging bass provide the armature for Winter's oft-mystic riffs, which, no doubt, found their way across the pond and into Jimmy Page's headphones.