Johnny Winter
The catalyst
St. Cruz, CA
1985-12-13


source: analog audience recording
gen: ?
taper: ?
files provided by: jormajeff
transfer: cd -> EAC -> Adobe Audition -> CDWave -> TLH (flac)
digital transfer/edit by mossa 2024-02 (16-44)


01 Succotash
02 Sound The Bell
03 /Mad Dog
04 Don't Take Advantage Of Me
05 My Time After A While//
06 //Good Time Woman
07 Johnny B. Goode
Encore:
08 Please Come Home For Christmas


Band:
Johnny Winter - Vocals, Guitar
Jon Paris - Bass, Harp, Vocals
Bobby Torello - Drums


Notes:
- rather poor sound - be warned!
- "Mad Dog" cuts in
- "My Time After A While" cuts off
- "Good Time Woman" cuts in
- as of the cd info this often is mislabeled as 1984-12-24 - some research dates this as 1985-12-13: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19851213.1.73&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------


Santa Cruz Sentinel Friday, Dec. 13 1985
Winter storms Catalyst By DAVE GINGOLD Sentinel Correspondent JOHNNY WINTER has collected more than tattoos in the the 25 years he has spent recording and performing blues and rock V roll music. On the road for more than half of his adult life, he has much to look back on, not all of it pleasant, as he tours nationally promoting his latest album "Serious Business," while fast approaching bis 42nd birthday. Winter plays the Catalyst tonight, with the Hydromatics opening. His 15-album career has taken something of a circular path, with Winter eventually finding his way back to the music he loves best, the blues. "Serious Business" is Johnny Winter's second album for Chicago's Alligator-label, and it's everything that its title promises. An all-electric effort, its stripped-down production spotlights the heart-stopping blues-playing and unmistakable vocals of this veteran musician. Alligator Records appears to be a comfortable home for Winter, with his previous release for them, "Guitar Slinger," becoming the best-selling record in the company's history (over 100,000 copies worldwide), and earning a Grammy nomination. This guitar player's label is logical turf for one of the biggest American guitar heroes ever, and an interesting stopping point in Winter's ride down the musical road. Bom John Dawson Winter III in Beaumont. Texas, he was raised in Texas and Mississippi, where his father battled to stay afloat as a cotton broker in his hometown of Leland. Taking naturally to music, as did his younger brother Edgar, Johnny first studied clarinet, which he played in the school band until age 8 or 9, when his dentist informed him that he would have to drop the instrument because of a bad overbite. The traumatized youngster spent days in tears, until his father brought him out of it by showing him some chords on the ukelele and banjo. Soon he was playing music with Edgar, starting with ukeleles and moving on to guitars. They won local talent shows and appeared on local TV, and even traveled to New York as children to audition for "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour." Winter became more interested in guitar as he heard more and more rock and roll from stations around the Texas Gulf and nearby Louisiana. He was tumed-on to blues by local musician and disc jockey Clarence Garlow (two of whose songs appear on "Serious Business"), and quickly formed his first band, Johhny and the Jammers, with brother Edgar on piano. At the age of 15, Winter cut his first single with the band, and began gigging in clubs in and around the then-wild town of Beaumont, gaining notice with his playing and striking albino appearance. The uniqueness of Winter's looks eliminated some of

Johnny Winter plays the resistance that might have been encountered when he first began to seek out and perform the all-black blues music that he loved. Winter went through a series of musical ventures, making many recordings for nominal pay that were later bootlegged and sold without his invovement, moving to Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston in search of his blues idols, and audiences from which he might earn more than the meager living to which he was becoming accustomed. The growing hippie movement, and faddish interest in the blues were giving Winter hope that his time was coming. In 1967, Winter went to England in search of a better recording offer than he could find in the States. It was while Winter was out of the country that a cover story about him came out in Rolling Stone, and when he returned to this country he found himself the most sought-after guitar player in the land. He put out a series of albums, adding Edgar on keyboards and saxto his Texas trio of Uncle John Turner on drums and Tommy Shannon (now with Stevie Ray Vaughan) on bass. Eventually, Rick Derringer, who'd sung the hit for the McCoys "Hang on Sloopy," was added on second guitar. -The lifestyle of a bigname rock star got to be too much for Winter, and exhaustion and other problems necessitated a rest from the music biz. He came back in 1973 with "Still Alive and Well," an album with a title track written for Winter by Derringer which has come to serve as his theme song. Johnny left Columbia Records in 1974 and moved to the fledgling Blue Sky label, which had been founded by his longtime manager Steve Paul. Winter also produced and played on four albums for Muddy Waters, from 1974-1980, three of which won Grammys. Besides rescuing his hero Muddy from obscurity, he gave a boost to harmonica giant James Cotton. Now, Johnny Winter is at Alligator, doing exactly the kind of music he wants to do, in his words. Gone is the dazzling acoustic slide work he did on albums like "Nothin' But the Blues," in favor of his current stinging electric approach. His live shows lean more toward uptempo boogie numbers, and scatterred hard-rocking hits like "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Johnnie B. Goode." but anyone hearing Winter play will recognize the finest white blues guitarist around. Tickets will be available at the Catalyst door beginning at 8:45 p.m.

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