Customer Reviews

Live Bootleg Series, Vol. 4 (Original Recording Remastered)

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4 star:		(4)
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This CD is typical of what we have come to expect from Johnny Winter-a great selection of (mainly 12-bar blues) songs; strong, gritty vocals, and smoking hot guitar.

Johnny is equally skilled at slide and non-slide playing. In fact, there aren't many people who can match him on the slide guitar. Listen to "Serious as a Heart Attack," and you'll hear what I mean.

Other than "Just Like a Woman," the songs are mostly in the traditional urban blues form, but played with a hard edge. These tracks are very close to what Johnny did on his trendsetting "Progressive Blues Experiment" LP back in the late '60s. It's Chicago blues spiced with a dose of rock and roll.

This CD will be appreciated by anyone who appreciates expert guitar playing. If you are a rock fan but haven't listened to much blues, I encourage you to listen to Johnny Winter to see what you've been missing.

This fourth volume in Johnny Winter's much-lauded "Live Bootleg" series differs from volumes two and three in particular in featuring no less than nine songs (vol. two had six), and several of them are less than five minutes long! Now that's pretty tight for a live album featuring John Dawson Winter III.

"Live Bootleg vol. 4" is a terrific mix of blues and R&B, with a little bit of rock n' roll sensibility here and there. But it is mostly a blues record, a pretty tough and gritty one, and Winter's playing is sharp as some or other cliché about cutting or sharp stuff or something!
Sure, there are one or two lesser numbers here, but this is still a most rewarding listen with some wonderful, smouldering slow blues and a few fast ones as well. And bassist Jon Paris' occational harp playing complements Winter's guitar wonderfully, adding extra grit (and a very authentic rootsy atmosphere) to the lean and mean sound of the three-piece band.

"Live Bootleg vol. 4" opens with a fiery up-tempo instrumental, Pluma (not "Plummer") Davis' "Okie Dokie Stomp", before moving on to a swinging, swaggering "Looking for Trouble", a grinding mid-tempo blues with some terrific soloing, and then to the first Johnny Winter-original of the entire Bootleg-series, the hard-driving eight-minute R&B of "Serious as a Hard Attack". It's total blues cliché all the way, but it's supremely well delivered, and the solos burn!

Jessie Mae Robinson has been credited as "Jesse", which she probably wouldn't have appreciated. She was a prolific songwriter in the 50s and 60s, and she is the lady behind blues and R&B numbers like "Black Night (is falling)", Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have a Party", B.B. King's "Sneakin' Around (with you)", and "Cold, Cold Feeling", which was recorded by T-Bone Walker. Her blues ballad "Blue Mood" is perhaps a little bit at odds with the rest of the somewhat grittier and rather more edgy material gathered here, but Winter plays some excellent, low-key guitar, and he does well by the song all around. It's not a major highlight, though, and neither is the up-tempo R&B trifle "Sugaree". Sure, it's good enough, but it's really not a major song. And "Rushy" York didn't write it, either, Marty Robbins did and Rusty York recorded it.

I don't know quite how to feel about this rendition of the old proto-rock n' roll-chestnut "Ain't That Just Like a Woman", a staple for Louis Jordan and Fats Domino. The band powers along, and the live audience must have been thrilled, but to me Winter's vocals are sub-par. He yells out the lyrics rather than singing them, robbing the song of much of its original melodic appeal. But that's a matter of taste, of course.

This take on Elmore James' "Shake Your Moneymaker" is a pure gem, though. Again, Winter's vocals aren't the best you'll ever hear him do, but he gets the job done, and his screaming guitar completely dominates the song anyway. Sure, nobody out-Elmores Elmore James himself, he had the style, the voice, and all the feeling, but this is a tremendous cover nevertheless. And the equally explosive "Mad Dog" is another highlight...I don't think there are many people who doubt Johnny Winter's talents and versatility as a guitarist, at least not among those reading this, but if there are one or two out there, their doubts ought to be laid to rest after listening to this one!

The album winds down with an acoustic solo performance of the ancient 20s blues "Rollin' and Tumblin'", all clanging slide guitar and a powerful, focused vocal performance by Winter. It's not live, but it's a wonderful performance all the same. And that's it, a not-very-generous 49 minutes of music. But with performances like these, I suppose it can be forgiven!

Half of the songs are credited to the wrong composer, mis-titled or misspelled or something, and the sound isn't really 21st century state-of-the-art fidelity - obviously, since these performances were recorded decades ago. But once you are grooving to "Shake Your Moneymaker" or "Rollin' and Tumblin'", I doubt if you'll care.

Smokin' performance,the sound quality is very good though not perfect but that should be expected from a 'boot'.I've got all 4 vol.s of this series released so far and have not been disapointed with any of them.

In line with the three previous Bootleg recording. This one has more of the night club continuity to it though. Firstly, when it claims to be "remastered"...thanks, but it ain't straight off the board super-clean. Like the previous bootlegs, it's rough but totally listenable. Favorites are the 8 minute Serious As A Heart Attack where JW goes into some awesome country/hillbilly rock diversion. If you went to these shows, you know what I'm talking about, pure improvisational genius. He gets all over it on Mad Dog too. Only one slide offering on Shake Your Money Maker, get vol.3 also if you crave slide. With a total running time of 49:09 the recording left me wanting more and I sure hope there are more bootlegs in the future.

These bootleg CD's are finally giving us Johnny Winter the way Johnny Winter should be heard; live, bass, drums, and Johnny. Enough said. Killer.

Johnny winter - for whatever reason - never got the due of his contemporaries like Eric Clapton, but in many ways he is way more "authentic" as hes the real deal.

Muddy Waters chose Johnny to engineer his comeback and listening to this, you'll hear why.

Johnny is just a true original. This reminds me of live blues records from the 1950's, just roadhouse recordings of a singer, guitar, bass and drums. And thats what blues is all about - not overproduced crap like Gary Moore's take on blues or blooze.

I also enjoyed the excellent liner notes from Mambo Sons guitarist Tom Guerra - someone who recognizes Johnnys stature among the giants.

If you've never seen Johnny live, there is still time. Sure, he has slowed down a bit phyiscally, but he still can play like a house on fire and scream like a banshee.

Buy this record - You wont be disappointed in "Vol. 4!"

Right from Johnny's personal music collection the "Live Bootleg Series, Vol. 4" rocks just as much as the first three volumes. If you like fast blues guitar playing,(Johnny is the fastest and best blues guitarest there has ever been) you will love this CD. No ifs,ands or buts about it!

Johnny never gets old in this series. Te line up is the same over the 4 discs but man the sets are hot and not redundant.
If you have any of the others this stands up to all!
If you don't have any take the plunge.

Johnny Winter's "Live Bootleg Series Volume 4" is right in line, if not even a little bit better than the previous series releases.

From his boyhood idol, Gatemouth Brown's "Oakie Doakie Stomp" right through the Muddys' "Rollin' and Tumblin" done Robert Johnson style on the Dobro, this recording clearly demonstrates Johnny as the Blues Rock Master.

Enjoy,

Blues Deluxe

Johnny has shown time and again why he's the best blues guitar player to ever come out of Texas. Yes, I mean ever.