Before signing with Columbia Records in 1969, and becoming one of preeminent blues guitar guitarists in the world, Johnny Winter recorded a number of singles and tracks with producers Ken Ritter and Roy C. Ames.

From that material, The Johnny Winter Story appeared on GRT Records in 1969, followed that same year by About Blues on the Janus Records label. The following year saw Janus release another collection: Early Times.

They became the definitive collections of the future legend’s early work.

Now, for the first time, the material from those compilations is available in one place: The Johnny Winter Story (The GRT/Janus Recordings). Featuring 33 tracks on CD and Digital, the years before Winter became a multiple Grammy® winner (for both his own records and his production work on three Muddy Waters classics including Hard Again and I’m Ready) are available in one place.

Newly remastered by Grammy®-winning engineer, Michael Graves, The Johnny Winter Story (The GRT/Janus Recordings) also features the original 1969 liner notes from producer, Testament Records founder/owner, and blues historian Pete Welding.

Before being on the cover of the first issue of Guitar World, before becoming the first non-African American performer inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, before being named as one of Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time, it had to start somewhere. It starts with The Johnny Winter Story (The GRT/Janus Recordings).

Disc 1:
1. Ease My Heart 2. That’s What Love Does 3. Crying In My Heart 4. The Guy You Left Behind 5. Shed So Many Tears 6. Creepy 7. Gangster Of Love 8. Road Runner 9. Leave My Woman (Wife) Alone 10. I Can’t Believe You Want To Leave 11. Broke And Lonely 12. Oh My Darling 13. By The Light Of The Silvery Moon 14. Five After Four A.M. 15. Parchman Farm 16. Livin’ In The Blues 17. Leavin’ Blues 18. Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Two, Twenty

The first disc opens on the low slung harmonica blues of Ease My Heart and the propulsive rock and roll of That’s What Love Does and then brings us the languishing Crying In My Heart, the twinkling blues pop rock of The Guy You Left Behind, the impassioned Shed So Many Tears, with the next cuts being the swinging guitar vibe of Creepy, the foot-tapper Gangster Of Love, and then both the emphatic Road Runner and the achingly fervent Leave My Woman (Wife) Alone.

Along next is the mid-tempo balladry of I Can’t Believe You Want To Leave and guitar riffs and tricks on the Johnny Guitar Watson classic Broke And Lonely and they are in turn followed by the Winter and the Crystaliers cut Oh My Darling, the rhythmic rocker By The Light Of The Silvery Moon, and then come the sweet, sweet blues of Five After Four A.M., the funky guitar work of Parchman Farm, the side rounding out on the psych blues rocker Livin’ In The Blues, the countrified twanging Leavin’ Blues and the low slung Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Two, Twenty.

Disc 2:
1. Bad News 2. Kind Hearted Woman 3. Out Of Sight 4. Low Down Gal Of Mine 5. Going Down Slow 6. Avocado Green 7. Stay By My Side 8. I Had To Cry 9. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye 10. Harlem Nocturne (Instrumental) 11. Easy Lovin’ Girl 12. Spiders Of The Mind 13. My World Turns All Around Her 14. Take A Chance On My Love (Instrumental) 15. Please Come Home For Christmas

The second disc begins with the jamboree Bad News and the languishing Kind Hearted Woman and then we are given the James Brown-esque Out Of Sight, the down South, picked blues of Low Down Gal Of Mine, the emotive ballad Going Down Slow, before both the flashback, Dylanesque gem Avocado Green and the seventies soul hipsway of Stay By My Side are brought forth.

Then we get the smooth I Had To Cry and the lonesome ode within Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the instrumental Harlem Nocturne, the seventies, Animalsesque bounce pop of Easy Lovin’ Girl, the Dylna-imbibed Spiders Of The Mind, the disc, and therein the collection culminating in the dutful hipsway of My World Turns All Around Her, the instrumental Take A Chance On My Love, and finally the simply mesmerizing Please Come Home For Christmas.

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