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thirteen seconds short of four minutes, ends the album with another one of those
songs that fit right in with today’s blues sound. That’s exactly what you get
throughout this fine release.
Norman Darwen
(www.facebook.com/geoff.newhall/)
Johnny Winter—A Rock ‘N’ Roll Collection—Floating
World FLOATD6486
Remember the scene in the film “Back To The Future”
where Marty McFly plays ‘Johnny B. Goode’ to a 50s
audience but then turns it into a 60s (and later) freak-out
that’s just too way out for them. Well, it came to mind
with Johnny Winter’s live version of the same song from
1971 that opens this set. Let me explain. “Blues
Unlimited” magazine championed Johnny Winter in the
60s when he was making 45s for small southern labels,
but by the time he recorded this version, they were
scathing. Johnny himself? He was busy creating what we’d now call top-notch
blues-rock, well into a career with Columbia/ CBS that would last until 1983. In the
middle of it, he also became a major factor in the career renaissance of one Muddy
Waters…
This release draws from Johnny’s albums from that time, offering a fine selection of
mostly powerhouse blues-rock material. There are plenty of borrowed blues
numbers and some early rock and roll – I certainly enjoyed the heavy blues cover
of ‘Bony Maronie’ - plus a few quieter numbers, including a previously unissued
rendition of Robert Johnson’s ‘Come On In My Kitchen’ with Jeremy Steig on flute.
The set ends with a live cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, recast as a real
blues-rock tour-de-force as Johnny pulls out all the stops.
In the 80s much of the blues audience per se accepted Johnny back into the fold –
being on Alligator Records helped. Today’s viewpoint (and this collection) suggests
he’d never really strayed too far anyway…
Norman Darwen
Davey Jones – Ball Cap Blues – Independent
Singer, multi-instrumentalist (he plays all the
instruments on this CD) and song-writer Davey Jones is
from Hattiesburg in south Mississippi, and it shows loud
and clear. He learned his music playing blues, southern
rock and country along the Gulf Coast, and the sounds
of the Magnolia State permeate his blues approach here
– and he has blended them into his own personal style.
… And that style ranges from the funk-flavoured ‘New
Groove’ to the straight downhome-tinged blues groove of the opener, ‘Banks Of The

