Johnny Winter - Nothin' But The Blues + White, Hot And Blue (1977-78; 2007) [FLAC]

Review by William Ruhlmann, allmusic.com

BGO Records continues its series of two-fer CD reissues of Johnny Winter's Columbia and Blue Sky LPs with this combination of two successive albums, 1977's Nothin' But the Blues and 1978's White, Hot & Blue. Both discs were informed by Winter's involvement with Muddy Waters, for whom he produced comeback albums prior to each of his own efforts, 1977's Hard Again and 1978's I'm Ready. After the Grammy-winning Hard Again, Winter toured with Waters, and when he came to make Nothin' But the Blues, he recruited Waters and his band as sidemen. (Waters only made a vocal contribution, singing "Walking Thru the Park.") Thus, Winter performed with harmonica player James Cotton and pianist Pinetop Perkins, among others. The result, as the title had it, was a Chicago-style blues session, a far cry from the blues-rock Winter had been putting on his Columbia/Blue Sky albums in an attempt to justify the label's view of him as a rock star. On White, Hot & Blue, he was not leading Waters' band yet again, but he was still playing in a Waters-like Chicago blues mode for the most part. This time, the backup band consisted of Winter's old Texas compatriot I.P. Sweat on bass and Bobby Torello on drums, although Pat Ramsey got so much space for harmonica playing that he practically deserved co-billing on the LP. Winter was credited for three original songs, "Slidin' In," "One Step at a Time," and "Nickel Blues," but there wasn't much original about them; they were standard blues tunes, with "Slidin' In" in 12-bar form, "One Step at a Time" in Chicago style, and "Nickel Blues" an acoustic folk-blues number. Maybe Winter wrote some new lyrics, but even those sounded mostly familiar. No matter. The spirited playing heard on the Waters albums carried over here, too. Edgar Winter sat in on piano on "Nickel Blues," doing his best Pinetop Perkins. Taj Mahal's "E-Z Rider" was rendered as a Rolling Stones-style rocker, but otherwise this was another blues-filled album, and it retained the glow of a comeback that may have been designed for Muddy Waters, but spilled over to Johnny Winter, too. Thus, the pairing of the two successive albums on a single CD is fitting.