| Serious Business | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1985 | |||
| Recorded | Streeterville Studios, Chicago, Illinois | |||
| Genre | Blues | |||
| Length | 43:52 | |||
| Label | Alligator (US), Sonet (UK) | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Johnny Winter chronology | ||||
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Serious Business is an album by guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. It was released in 1985 on vinyl and CD by Alligator Records. [1]
Serious Business was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. [2]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [3] |
| The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings | [4] |
On AllMusic, William Ruhlmann said, "Signing to the Chicago-based independent blues label Alligator Records, [Winter] staged his own comeback with 1984's Guitar Slinger, and its follow-up, Serious Business, is in the same vein. That vein is straight Chicago-style electric blues in the manner of Muddy Waters.... He was already developing from his old mile-a-minute playing style into more of an expressive bluesman in the late '70s. Here, the transition is complete.... Maybe Johnny Winter isn't trying to be a superstar anymore, but his striving to be a consummate bluesman is wholly successful." [3]
Robert Lockwood Jr., a.k.a. Robert Jr. Lockwood, was an American Delta blues guitarist, who recorded for Chess Records and other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the only guitarist to have learned to play directly from Robert Johnson. Robert Lockwood was one of the first professional black entertainers to appear on radio in the South, on the King Biscuit Time radio show. Lockwood is known for his longtime collaboration with Sonny Boy Williamson II and for his work in the mid-1950s with Little Walter.
John Dawson Winter III was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums, live performances, and slide guitar playing from the late 1960s into the early 2000s. He also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Clifton Chenier, was an American musician known as a pioneer of zydeco, a style of music that arose from Creole music, with R&B, blues, and Cajun influences. He sang and played the accordion. Chenier won a Grammy Award in 1983.
David "Honeyboy" Edwards was an American delta blues guitarist and singer from Mississippi.
James Henry Cotton was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career.
Lonnie Brooks was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman." Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."
Carey Bell Harrington was an American blues musician who played harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass guitar for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s before embarking on a solo career. Besides his own albums, he recorded as an accompanist or duo artist with Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Taylor, Louisiana Red and Jimmy Dawkins and was a frequent partner with his son, the guitarist Lurrie Bell. Blues Revue called Bell "one of Chicago's finest harpists." The Chicago Tribune said Bell was "a terrific talent in the tradition of Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter." In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.
Bruce Iglauer is an American businessman and record producer who founded Alligator Records as an independent record label featuring blues music.
Nothin' but the Blues is a 1977 album by guitarist and singer Johnny Winter.
Third Degree is a 1986 album by Johnny Winter and the final one of the trilogy he made for Alligator Records. Following disagreements with Alligator's boss Bruce Iglauer during the production of Winter's previous album, Serious Business, the album was produced by Dick Shurman with Iglauer taking on an Executive Producer role.
Raisin' Cain is an album by Johnny Winter, released in 1980 by Blue Sky Records. A retrospective album review for AllMusic by William Ruhlmann notes the mix of rock and roll, Chicago blues, and New Orleans rhythm and blues/New Orleans blues tunes lacks any compositions by Winter. Ruhlmann gave the album three out of five stars and concluded:
The water-treading of Raisin' Cain suggests that a new approach is in order, maybe an outside producer who can bring a different perspective or somebody to look for good songs, if the artist isn't going to write his own material.
Guitar Slinger is an album by guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. Released in 1984, it was his first studio album in four years, and his first album for Alligator Records. It was the second consecutive album to feature no original Winter compositions.
The Winter of '88 is a 1988 album by Johnny Winter. It was released by MCA Records and it represents Winter's first album with a major after years spent with smaller labels such as Blue Sky Records and Alligator Records. The album contains three compositions by Jerry Lynn Williams who also had several of his songs recorded by Eric Clapton. Winter chose to record the album with his live band at the time, consisting in Jon Paris on bass and harmonica and Tom Compton on drums. He chose, however, to retain Ken Saydak on keyboards from his time with Alligator. Stylistically, the album indicates a return to a more rock-oriented sound.
"Bon Ton Roula" is a zydeco-influenced blues song first recorded by Clarence Garlow in 1949. The following year, it became a hit, reaching number seven in Billboard magazine's Rhythm & Blues chart and introduced the style to a national audience.
Clarence Joseph Garlow was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter who performed in the R&B, jump blues, Texas blues and cajun styles. He is best known for his recording of the song "Bon Ton Roula", which was a hit single on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart in 1950. One commentator called it "a rhythm and blues laced-zydeco song that helped introduce the Louisiana music form to a national audience."
Selwyn Birchwood is an American blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter from Tampa, Florida. He was the winner of the Blues Foundation’s 2013 International Blues Challenge, as well the winner of the Albert King Guitarist of the Year award, presented at the same event. To win, he bested 125 other bands from around the world. Birchwood plays electric guitar and electric lap steel guitar. His live performances feature his original songs. Living Blues magazine said, "Selwyn Birchwood is making waves, surprising people and defying expectations. Be on the lookout. He revels in the unexpected." The Tampa Tribune said Birchwood plays with "power and precision reminiscent of blues guitar hero Buddy Guy. He is a gritty vocalist [who is] commanding with his axe." Rolling Stone said "Birchwood is a young, powerhouse guitarist and soulful vocalist. Don't Call No Ambulance is a remarkable debut by a major player." The Washington Post said, "Selwyn Birchwood is an indelibly modern and original next-generation bluesman; his tough vocals, guitar and lap steel touch on classic Chicago blues, Southern soul and boogie."
Rick Estrin & the Nightcats are an American electric blues band formed in 2008.
True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story is a compilation album by blues rock guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. Comprising four CDs, and packaged as a box set, it contains songs selected from numerous albums – some recorded in the studio and some live – released over a 43-year period, from 1968 to 2011, as well as several previously unreleased tracks. The box set also includes a 50-page booklet of essays and photos. It was released by Legacy Recordings on February 25, 2014.
Remembrance Vol. 1 is a three-CD album by blues rock guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. It is a compilation of live recordings, many of them previously released, selected from throughout Winter's career. It was released on the Friday Music label on January 13, 2015.
Johnny Winter (1944–2014) was an American rock and blues musician. From 1959 to 1967, he recorded several singles for mostly small record companies in his native Texas. In 1968, Winter completed his first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, and in 1969, he was signed to Columbia Records. With the label, Winter had his greatest success on the American record chart; Johnny Winter (1969), Second Winter (1969), Live Johnny Winter And (1971), and Still Alive and Well (1973) all reached the top forty on the Billboard 200 album chart. In 1974, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Live Johnny Winter And gold, his only record to receive an award from the organization.