Artist - Johnny Winter

Date - 1990/02/04 (February 4, 1990)

Venue - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA USA

Setlist And Fingerprints -

Track 01 - Sen-Sa-Shun
Track 02 - I'm Good
Track 03 - Mother-In-Law Blues
Track 04 - It's My Own Fault
Track 05 - Don't Take Advantage Of Me
Track 06 - Bony Maroney
Track 07 - You Don't Love Me
Track 08 - Mojo Boogie
Track 09 - Stranger Blues
Track 10 - Johnny B. Goode.

Lineage -

Stereo one-point tie mic >
Sony Walkman WM-F46 stereo cassette recorder >
Maxell UR 120 normal bias master tape >
SONY TC-WE405 stereo cassette deck >
Technics Quartz Synthesizer AM/FM Stereo Receiver SA-160 >
TEAC EQA-6 10 band per channel graphic equalizer >
JVC TD-W505 stereo double cassette deck >
Maxell XLII-S 90 high bias cassette tape, 1st gen EQ >
SONY TC-WE475 stereo cassette deck >
ZOOM H2 Handy Digital Recorder >
SanDisk SD 2 GB sound card (tracked wav files here) >
transferred wav files to HD >
Cakewalk Pyro 2005 (edited wav files here) >
Trader's Little Helper (encoded wav to flac, level 8,
aligned on sector boundaries)

Quality - 8/10 very good plus audience 1st gen recording
Has claims to ex- but I decided to grade conservatively.

10 tracks, 66:15 This is the ENTIRE concert.

I taped this show myself almost 21 years ago and I still remember it
as if it were ~ 2 years ago. You may find a description of my taping
adventure mildly amusing. I arrived at the venue a little before JW
came on. If there was an opener, I forget who it was ; I blew it off.
After driving through some fairly dangerous neighborhoods to get to the
venue, I got the very last parking space in the lot. I went in and found
a packed house. After going into the bathroom to "suit up", I returned
to find one of the last seats in the house. It was not good, being about
ten feet behind a column. My view of JW was pretty much blocked but I
was more worried about the sound than the sight, if you know what I mean.
The acoustics that night were not the greatest but the tape turned out
fairly well. There were not a lot of talkers around me but there were a
few idiots who kept screaming for "All Tore Down" all night long. JW
never did play it. I finally found out that evening how Johnny could
play so fast ; I was able to move for a while to another seat and saw
that he played with a pick but also played with fingerpicks. That
answered a few nagging ?s that I had had for a long time. He did not
play for very long. The entire show lasted ~ 70-71 minutes. I edited a
bit of yelling out and got the time down to 66 minutes and change. What
JW did not give us in duration that night, he made up for in excellent
guitar work. If you have seen him after ~ 1997, you have seen a mere
shadow of what he used to be. This concert contains some of the finest
guitar work that I have ever heard. You'll hear the wizardry if you listen
to this recording on headphones, which I heartily endorse doing. After ~ 70
minutes, it was all over. JW DID play there the following night and by a
lucky fluke, I got that recording several years later in a trade. I'll up
it iff'n you all want it but I warn you that it's not as good as this one
in SQ. Which brings me to a short discussion of the SQ of this one.......

I listened to this one the following night after work. I was pretty pleased
but found the master a little muddy. Within 5 years after this show, I
bought a graphic equalizer (a TEAC EQA-6 10 band per channel unit) and tried
my hand at EQing this thing. I was very pleased with the results. I hope that
you are too, as this upload is that tape. Believe me, it sounds much better
than the master!! Identifying the song titles on this tape was a PAIN IN THE
ASS!!! I knew 8/10 of the titles but finding the last 2 was an exercise in
insanity. But I persevered and you now have the correct titles. Johnny changes
the lyrics a bit in tracks 3 & 7, which were the corkers. Listen and hear...

Here is a brief description of the tape:

1) As mentioned above, this recording is complete.

2) The audience is fairly well-behaved. There is some shouting
somewhat close to the taper but the music volume tends to drown
most of it out. No whistling or screaming, very little talking.

3) There is no distortion present. There are no speed problems
or any other serious faults to prevent you from enjoying this
show.

4) This is a pretty clear recording. The instruments come through
clearly and distinctly. The vocals are usually clear. There is very
little stage banter. What there is is very difficult to decipher.

The concert is a bit short as his shows go but you'll shit your pants
in pure delight when you hear how he burns on guitar... your pants full
of shit...how much more of an endorsement do you need ???

So there you have it. This is the EQ'd recording that I've had lo
these many years. I changed NOTHING about this recording except
to EQ it and to remove very short sections of audience yelling and
applause. No music is missing. That's about all that I can think of
to say, so let's wrap this up....

Finally, please don't buy, sell or convert this show to mp3 or any
other lossy format. Please seed this as long as you can. Please trade
this freely as it probably is uncirculated. This show will be a
welcome addition to any Johnny Winter fan's collection. I will post a
sample to help some of you decide whether or not to download it, but
trust me, the show is pretty good. As you can see, the setlist is
fantastic. The song titles should be correct. I don't think that ANY
Johnny Winter fan will regret downloading this show. He burns down the
house on this one, so if you've seen him recently and think he's great,
you won't believe your ears when you hear the guitar work featured here.
You'll see the difference between JW 1990 and JW 2011. So, as Mr. Natural
is so fond of saying, have fun, don't freak out and enjoy the concert !

Remember the motto: It's what's up front that counts !

jojogunne 1/24/2011