Johnny Winter is one of the great figures in modern Blues, as this superb CD showcases with key recordings from his career. The slide feature ‘Dallas’ and ‘Mean Mistreater’, with Walter Horton on harmonica and Willie Dixon on bass, are taken from Johnny’s first eponymously-titled CBS album. ‘Walter gave me all kinds of trouble,’ he told Ben Sandmel. ‘(One) problem was he didn’t want to record anything but one time, and to him just checking levels for the engineer was like doing a final take. ‘Mean Mistreater’ was the only song we could use out of five or six tunes but Walter was something else, he was in rare form that day.’ ‘Bladie Mae’, ‘Mad Blues’ and ‘It Was Rainin’’ were recorded with the Muddy Waters band in March 1977. ‘Those guys were great to record with, regular blues guys who’ve been doing it all their lives, so we just went in and knocked it out in no time at all.’

‘Walking By Myself’, ‘Divin’ Duck’ and Johnny’s ‘One Step At A Time’ were cut a year later, with longtime bassist I.P Sweat in attendance, along with brother Edgar on piano, guitarist Pat Rush, drummer Bobby Torello, and on ‘One Step’, harmonica player Pat Ramsey. ‘Mother-In-Law Blues’ is from 1979, with Torello and bassist Jon Paris, while ‘Mean Town Blues’, recorded live at the Fillmore East, goes back to 1971, when Johnny was supported by ex-McCoys, Rick Derringer (guitar), Randy Jo Hobbs (bass) and Bobby Caldwell (drums). They’re also behind Johnny on a live 1970/1 version of B.B. King’s ‘It’s My Own Fault’, one of four bonus tracks here. Drummer Randy Z replaces Caldwell on ‘Rock And Roll, Hootchie Koo’, while flautist Jeremy Steig augments a 1973 recording of Robert Johnson’s ‘Come On In My Kitchen’, and brother Edgar, Tommy Shannon and Uncle John Turner propel ‘Johnny B.Goode’ from the 1969 album, Second Winter.