Johnny Winter and other vets ready to rock Daytona's Hippiefest
In 2003, a Rolling Stone poll ranked blues guitarist Johnny Winter 74th on its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Did Winter check to see who were the 73 guitarists rated better than him?
"Oh, I felt I should have been way higher," Winter said by phone during an interview last week between tour stops in the Northeast. "I was very disappointed."
Any eavesdropper on the conversation would have been hard pressed to tell whether Winter was truly bummed, or just kidding.
But a clue can be found when one questions Winter about his latest album, "Roots." Released in September 2011, the album was Winter's first studio work in eight years, and included his take on "Got My Mojo Workin'," "Maybellene" and other early blues and rock 'n' roll classics.
The album also featured such guest guitarists as Derek Trucks, Vince Gill, Sonny Landreth, Susan Tedeschi and Warren Haynes (as well as Johnny's brother, keyboardist Edgar Winter).
So, was there any clash of musician egos? Any sense of one-upmanship, what musicians call "cuttin' heads," during the recording sessions?
"Nah, I don't think anybody did," Winter said. "It went pretty smoothly. I put my parts on first and then everybody else came and put their parts on later. So they were playing over what I already played. I just played the way I always played."
Winter likewise will have plenty of company when he performs today at the Fourth Annual Hippiefest at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach. Along with Winter and his band, the concert also will feature performances by the Edgar Winter Group, guitarist Rick Derringer, Mountain guitarist Leslie West and Savoy Brown guitarist Kim Simmonds.
Of course Johnny, 68, and younger brother Edgar, 65, played music together while growing up in Beaumont, Texas. But classic rock fans also will know Derringer has been a frequent music companion to both brothers ever since Johnny was the first to record the Derringer-penned "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo."
Winter's version appeared on the 1970 album "Johnny Winter And" (which also featured Edgar and Derringer.) But it was Derringer's amped-up, polished re-casting of his own song that became a hit in 1973, eclipsing Johnny's far rootsier version of "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo."
But Winter, who had released his self-titled debut album in 1969 and played at Woodstock that same year, was finding his fortune in blues rock and straight-up blues.
Along with the "Johnny Winter And" album, such works as "Still Alive and Well" in 1973 and "John Dawson Winter III" in 1974 solidified his growing reputation.
Then Winter teamed with blues legend Muddy Waters. Winter both produced and played guitar on Waters' Grammy-winning 1977 comeback album, "Hard Again," as well as Waters' two Grammy-winning follow-ups, "I'm Ready" in 1978 and "Muddy Mississippi Waters Live" in 1979.
In 1988, Winter was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
Despite such lofty credits and credentials, a gig is still a gig for Winter, no matter how stellar the musician may be. When he got a call last year from William Shatner's camp to perform on the "Star Trek" captain's new music CD, "Seeking Major Tom," Winter was game.
The predictably campy result finds Shatner talking (no, not rapping -- talking) through Deep Purple's "Space Truckin'." The track features the Shat hamming up such lyrics as "Meeting all the groovy people, we've rocked the Milky Way so far, we danced around with Borealis, we're space truckin' 'round the stars." Meanwhile, Winter parachutes into the track and whips up some wicked electric slide guitar.
Shatner "just asked me to do it and I said sure," Winter said, chuckling. "I had no idea what to expect but I felt like giving it a try."
WHAT/WHO: Fourth Annual Hippiefest featuring the Johnny Winter Band, Edgar Winter Group, Rick Derringer, Mountain's Leslie West and Savoy Brown's Kim Simmonds
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. today. Street festival, featuring music by Tye Dye Road and Run Rhino plus food, beverage and merchandise vendors, begins at 4 p.m.
WHERE: Peabody Auditorium, 600 Auditorium Blvd., Daytona Beach
TICKETS: $39-$49 plus service fee, available at the auditorium box office and Ticketmaster. Admission to street festival is free.
INFORMATION: 386-671-3460 or peabodyauditorium.org