Edgar Winter Celebrates Brother’s Legacy With All-Star High-Octane Tribute Album

To any more frequent visitors of the blog or folks who know my music taste otherwise, this post shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. As somebody who digs blues and blues-rock, I simply couldn’t ignore Brother Johnny, Edgar Winter’s blazing new tribute to his older brother and Texas blues legend Johnny Winter, which came out last Friday (April 15). Sure, packing an album with impressive guests like Joe Bonamassa, Keb’ Mo’, Billy Gibbons, Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr doesn’t automatically guarantee a great outcome but, man, this album truly cooks!

In addition to renditions of Johnny Winter originals Mean Town Blues, I’m Yours and I’m Hers, Stranger, Guess I’ll Go Away and Self Destructive Blues, the 17 tracks on Brother Johnny feature a number of classics the guitar slinger from Beaumont, Texas covered, such as Johnny B. Goode, Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Got My Mojo Workin’. There are also two new songs written by Edgar Winter.

According to this Rock & Blues Muse review, the idea for a tribute album first emerged in the wake of Johnny Winter’s death in July 2014 at the age of 70.  “Many people immediately started trying to convince me to do a Johnny Winter tribute album,” Edgar recalled. “But I was totally devastated, and the timing just didn’t feel right to me.”

Edgar added, “It wasn’t until after I completed the Rock ‘N’ Blues Fest, a tour we were meant to do together with our respective bands, that the idea of a tribute record started to take form.” Looks like from there it still took quite a bit of additional time for the project to materialize, but the wait was certainly worth it. Let’s check out some of the goodies!

The fireworks start with the opener Mean Town Blues, featuring Joe Bonamassa on badass slide guitar. First released on February 18, the track is one of three songs that appeared as singles ahead of the album. Johnny Winter originally recorded Mean Town Blues for his 1968 debut album The Progressive Blues Experiment.

On Lone Star Blues, one of the tunes penned by Edgar Winter, things turn acoustic, sparse and personal. Keb’ Mo’ does a neat job on what sounds like a resonator guitar and also shares vocals with Edgar. “I don’t think this album would be complete without at least one, heartfelt, personal tribute from me to my brother–in the form of a song,” Edgar wrote in the album’s liner notes, as separately reported by Rock & Blues Muse. Well, I was born in Beaumont left when I was in my teens/I hit the highway, going down to New Orleans/I was playing music, searching for just what life means…

One of Brother Johnny’s standouts is I’m Yours and I’m Hers, featuring Billy Gibbons and Derek Trucks. Winter included this original tune on his eponymous sophomore album that came out in April 1969. With Trucks arguably being one the best contemporary slide guitarists and Gibbons being no slouch either, you just know this rendition has to be good. Well, check it out!

This review wouldn’t be complete without highlighting Johnny B. Goode, a track Winter recorded for his third studio release from October 1969, a double album somewhat misleadingly titled Second Winter. Johnny B. Goode became a regular of Winter’s live set. On Brother Johnny, the Chuck Berry classic is delivered with help from Joe Walsh (lead vocals), David Grissom (lead guitar), Bob Glaub (bass) and Gregg Bissonette (drums). Meanwhile, Edgar Winter demonstrates his saxophone chops with a nice solo. Additional vocals are provided by guitarist Phil X. Yes, Johnny B. Goode has been covered a million times, but this is just a killer rendition.

Let’s do one more: Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Winter included what is one of my all-time favorite Rolling Stones songs on his first live album Live Johnny Winter And, released in March 1971. Johnny Winter And was actually the name of Winter’s band at the time. This new version features the above-mentioned Phil X.

Some additional comments about the other musicians on the album. The above-mentioned Gregg Bissonette provides drums on all tracks except Stranger, which features Ringo Starr. Sean Hurley and Bob Glaub share duties on bass. Other guests include Doyle Bramhall II, John McFee, Robben Ford, Warren Haynes, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, Doug Rappoport, Bobby Rush, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Waddy Wachtel.

The album also features the late Taylor Hawkins who provides lead vocals on Guess I’ll Go Away. This marks the ex-Foo Fighters drummer’s first posthumous recording following his untimely death on March 25, as reported by Rolling Stone.

Here’s a Spotify link to the album.

The album was produced by Edgar Winter and Ross Hogarth. According to Discogs, his previous production credits include artists, such as Melissa Etheridge, Ziggy Marley, Rita Coolidge and Gov’t Mule. The album appears on Quarto Valley Records. According to Rock & Blues Mule, label founder Bruce Quarto was and remains a loyal and enthusiastic fan of Johnny, classic rock, and blues music. It was his positive energy that made Edgar realize that the time to pay musical respects to his departed brother had finally arrived.

Brother Johnny is a true labor of love. The one thing I find a bit unfortunate is the total absence of female artists. It certainly cannot be for lack of talent. Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge, Shemekia Copeland, Ana Popović, Dani Wilde and Sue Foley are some who in my mind could have been great fits. I understand Raitt and Wilde have shared the stage with Johnny Winter. Of course, there could be legitimate reasons for what on the surface does look a bit surprising.

Sources: Wikipedia; Rock & Blues Muse; Rolling Stone; Discogs; YouTube; Spotify

Best of What’s New

For those of you who celebrate, Happy Easter or Happy Passover; otherwise, happy Saturday! It’s time again to check for newly released music. All featured tunes in this post appear on albums that came out yesterday (April 15). Without further ado, let’s get to it!

Kurt Vile/Wages of Sin

My first pick this week is Kurt Vile, a Philadelphia-based indie rock singer-songwriter. Prior to launching a solo career in 2008, Vile co-founded Philly rock band The War on Drugs in 2005 and was their lead guitarist until 2009. To date, he has released nine solo albums including his latest titled Watch My Moves, stylized as (watch my moves). Initial work on the album started in 2019 during the tour that supported Vile’s previous studio release Bottle It In. We all know what happened next. Vile used the pandemic to build a home recording studio where he and co-producer Rob Schnapf worked on the majority of the tracks during 2020 and last year. Here’s Vile’s rendition of Wages of Sin, a song written by Bruce Springsteen during the Born in the U.S.A. recording sessions, which he released as an outtake on his 1998 box set Tracks.

Jerry Paper/Just Say Play

Jerry Paper is the music project of Lucas Nathan from Los Angeles, who Apple Music describes as an experimental pop musician. Here’s more from Jerry Paper’s profile: First surfacing during the early 2010s with a series of limited cassettes and LPs, Paper wrote woozy, lo-fi tunes in their bedroom using cheap keyboards, often singing existentialist lyrics relating to anxiety and hopelessness over smooth, Muzak-like backing tracks. On-stage, they would don a flower garland or silk robe, and give deadpan monologues related to their songs. Their subsequent recordings became more ambitious, but they still remained infatuated with blatantly synthetic keyboard tones imitating real instruments. In 2016, they released the lush, elaborate Toon Time Raw!, on which they were accompanied by BadBadNotGood (credited as Easy Feelings Unlimited). This brings me to Jerry Paper’s new album Free Time and Just Say Play. There’s just something about this bouncy tune, co-written by Nathan and Jonathan Tatelman.

Flock of Dimes/It Just Goes On

Flock of Dimes is a solo project by Jenn Wasner, a singer-songwriter hailing from Baltimore, Md. She first gained recognition as co-founder of indie folk-rock duo Wye Oak, which she formed with Andy Stack as Monarch in mid-2006. After five Wye Oak albums and a collaboration record with songwriter and producer Jon Ehrens, which appeared under the name Dungeonesse, Wasner released her Flock of Dimes debut If You See Me, Say Yes in September 2016. Her latest release Head of Roses: Phantom Limb is a compilation of previously unreleased songs, live takes and demos. Here’s the official video of the nice opener It Just Goes On.

Edgar Winter/Rock ‘n’ Roll Hoochie Koo

For my final pick, I have to give a shoutout to fellow blogger Hotfox63, who covered Edgar Winter’s new album the day before it came out. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known about Brother Johnny, a smoking all-star tribute to Edgar’s older brother and blues-rock guitar virtuoso Johnny Winter. While Johnny sadly passed away in July 2014 at the age of 70, his legacy surely lives on, and Edgar has done a beautiful job celebrating it. He got a little help from some friends, such as Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Keb’ Mo’, Billy Gibbons, Joe Walsh, Steve Lukather and Ringo Starr. Here’s a great rendition of Rock ‘n’ Roll Hoochie Koo, a song written by Rick Derringer. It first was recorded by Johnny Winter and his band Johnny Winter And, which included Derringer on guitar. The tune appeared on their eponymous album from 1970. Edgar Winter’s version features Steve Lukather showing off his impressive guitar chops. Check out his badass solo – Lawdy mama, this rendition is just cooking and makes me smile!

As usual, here’s a Spotify playlist featuring the above and a few additional tunes. Hope you enjoy!

Sources: Wikipedia; Apple Music, YouTube; Spotify