The Progressive Blues Experiment

Last updated
The Progressive Blues Experiment
Progressive.jpg
Studio album by
Released1968 (1968)
RecordedAugust 1968
Studio Vulcan Gas Company, Austin, Texas
Genre Blues [1]
Label Sonobeat
Producer
  • Bill Josey
  • Rim Kelley
Johnny Winter chronology
The Progressive Blues Experiment
(1968)
Johnny Winter
(1969)

The Progressive Blues Experiment is the debut album by American blues rock musician Johnny Winter. He recorded it in August 1968 at the Vulcan Gas Company, an Austin music club, with his original trio of Tommy Shannon on bass guitar and John "Red" Turner on drums. [2] The album features a mix of Winter originals and older blues songs, including the standards "Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Help Me", and "Forty-Four". [2]

Contents

Local Austin, Texas-based Sonobeat Records issued the album with a plain white cover in late 1968. After Winter signed to Columbia Records, the rights were sold to Imperial Records, who reissued it in March 1969. [3] The Imperial edition, with a new cover, reached number 40 on the Billboard 200 album chart. [4] In 2005, Capitol issued a 24-bit remastered edition of the album on compact disc. [2]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Rolling Stone (mixed) [1]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [5]

Track listing

Songwriters and track running times are taken from the original Sonobeat LP. [6] Other releases may have different listings.

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Rollin' and Tumblin'"McKinley Morganfield (a.k.a. Muddy Waters)3:09
2."Tribute to Muddy"Johnny Winter6:20
3."I Got Love If You Want It"James Moore (a.k.a. Slim Harpo)3:52
4."Bad Luck and Trouble"Winter3:43
5."Help Me" Sonny Boy Williamson, Ralph Bass 3:46
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Mean Town Blues"Winter4:26
2."Broke Down Engine" Blind Willie McTell [lower-alpha 1] 3:25
3."Black Cat Bone"Winter3:46
4."It's My Own Fault" B.B. King, Jules Taub (a.k.a. Jules Bihari)7:20
5."Forty-Four" Roosevelt Sykes [lower-alpha 2] 3:28

Personnel

Footnotes

  1. On the 1969 Imperial reissue, the credit for "Broke Down Engine" is shown as "Arranged & Adapted by Johnny Winter". [7]
  2. On the 1969 Imperial reissue, the credit for "Forty-Four" is shown as "C. Burnett" [7] (also known as Howlin' Wolf).

Related Research Articles

<i>Texas Flood</i> 1983 studio album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Texas Flood is the debut studio album by the American blues rock band Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, released on June 13, 1983 by Epic Records. The album was named after a cover featured on the album, "Texas Flood", which was first recorded by blues singer Larry Davis in 1958. Produced by the band and recording engineer Richard Mullen, Texas Flood was recorded in the space of three days at Jackson Browne's personal recording studio in Los Angeles. Vaughan wrote six of the album's ten tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Winter</span> American blues guitarist and singer

John Dawson Winter III was an American singer and guitarist. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. 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".

<i>Goodbye</i> (Cream album) 1969 studio album / Live album by Cream

Goodbye is the fourth and final studio album by Cream, with three tracks recorded live, and three recorded in the studio. It was released in Europe by Polydor Records and by Atco Records in the United States, debuting in Billboard on 15 February 1969. It reached number one in the United Kingdom and number two in the United States. A single, "Badge", was subsequently released from the album a month later. The album was released after Cream disbanded in November 1968.

<i>Couldnt Stand the Weather</i> 1984 studio album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Couldn't Stand the Weather is the second studio album by American blues rock band Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. It was released on May 15, 1984, by Epic Records as the follow-up to the band's critically and commercially successful 1983 album, Texas Flood. Recording sessions took place in January 1984 at the Power Station in New York City.

Tommy Shannon American bass guitarist (born 1946)

Tommy Shannon is an American bass guitarist, who is best known as a member of Double Trouble, a blues rock band led by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Born in Tucson, Arizona, Shannon moved to Dumas, Texas when he was nine, where he originally started as a guitarist, though he started playing bass at the age of 21. He appeared with Johnny Winter at Woodstock in 1969. He later joined Double Trouble in 1981 and became a permanent member of Double Trouble until Vaughan's death in 1990. Shannon and bandmate Chris Layton later formed supergroups such as the Arc Angels.

<i>Moanin in the Moonlight</i> 1959 compilation album by Howlin Wolf

Moanin' in the Moonlight is a compilation album and the first album by American blues artist Howlin' Wolf, released by Chess Records in 1959. It contains songs previously issued as singles, including one of his best-known, "Smokestack Lightning". Rolling Stone ranked it number 477 on its 2020 list of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

<i>The London Chuck Berry Sessions</i> 1972 studio album / Live album by Chuck Berry

The London Chuck Berry Sessions is the sixteenth studio album by Chuck Berry, and consists of studio recordings and live recordings released by Chess Records in October 1972 as LP record, 8 track cartridge and audio cassette. Side one of the album consists of studio recordings, engineered by Geoff Calver; side two features three live performances recorded by the Pye Mobile Unit, engineered by Alan Perkins, on February 3, 1972, at the Lanchester Arts Festival in Coventry, England. At the end of the live section, the recording includes the sounds of festival management trying in vain to get the audience to leave so that the next performers, Pink Floyd, can take the stage; the crowd begins chanting "We want Chuck!". His backing band were Onnie McIntyre (guitar), Robbie McIntosh (drums), Nic Potter (bass) and Dave Kaffinetti (piano). Both McIntosh and McIntyre would later form The Average White Band.

<i>Hendrix in the West</i> 1972 live album by Jimi Hendrix

Hendrix in the West is a live album by Jimi Hendrix, released posthumously in January 1972 by Polydor Records (UK), and in February by Reprise Records (US). The album tracks are split between those recorded in 1969 by the Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell and in 1970 with Billy Cox and Mitchell during The Cry of Love Tour.

<i>Second Winter</i> 1969 studio album by Johnny Winter

Second Winter is the third studio album by Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter, released in 1969. The original plan was to edit the songs from the recording session into one album but it was later thought that all the recordings were good enough to be released. The album was released as a "three-sided" LP, with a blank fourth side on the original vinyl. Two more songs, "Tell the Truth" and "Early in the Morning" were left unfinished but released on a 2004 re-release of the album.

<i>Johnny Winter</i> (album) 1969 studio album by Johnny Winter

Johnny Winter is Johnny Winter's second studio album. Columbia Records released the album in 1969, after signing Winter to the label for a reported $600,000. As with his first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, Winter mixes some original compositions with songs originally recorded by blues artists. The album reached number 24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

<i>Captured Live!</i> 1976 live album by Johnny Winter

Captured Live! is a 1976 album by Johnny Winter. The performances were recorded in 1975 at three California venues: Swing Auditorium, San Diego Sports Arena and Oakland Coliseum.

<i>Original Folk Blues</i> 1967 compilation album by John Lee Hooker

Original Folk Blues is a compilation album by American bluesman John Lee Hooker, released in 1967. It mostly features songs that Hooker recorded for Bernard Besman in Detroit, Michigan, between 1948 and 1954 the were originally issued by Modern Records.

<i>Hard Again</i> 1977 studio album by Muddy Waters

Hard Again is a studio album by American blues singer Muddy Waters. Released on January 10, 1977, it was the first of his albums produced by Johnny Winter. Hard Again was Waters's first album on Blue Sky Records after leaving Chess Records and was well received by critics.

<i>Third Degree</i> 1986 studio album by Johnny Winter

Third Degree is a 1986 album by Johnny Winter and the final one of the trilogy he made for Alligator Records. For the occasion Winter temporarily reunited with Tommy Shannon and Uncle Red Turner, who were the rhythm section on his first three albums, for three of the tracks. Another notable guest on the record is Doctor John, who performed on "Love, Life and Money" and "Tin Pan Alley". Winter also included a couple of solo acoustic numbers, "Evil on My Mind" and "Bad Girl Blues", practicing for months with a National Steel Guitar.

<i>Rainbow Bridge</i> (album) 1971 compilation album by Jimi Hendrix

Rainbow Bridge is a compilation album by American rock musician Jimi Hendrix. It was the second posthumous album release by his official record company and is mostly composed of recordings Hendrix made in 1969 and 1970 after the breakup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Despite the cover photo and subtitle Original Motion Picture Sound Track, it does not contain any songs recorded during his concert appearance for the 1971 film Rainbow Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ya Ya</span> 1961 Lee Dorsey song

"Ya Ya" is a song by Lee Dorsey. The song was written by Dorsey, C. L. Blast, Bobby Robinson, and Morris Levy. Levy's participation in the writing has been called into question; the Flashback release of the single lists only Dorsey and Blast as writers, as do the liner notes to the American Graffiti soundtrack.

<i>Fathers and Sons</i> (album) 1969 studio album / Live album by Muddy Waters

Fathers and Sons is the seventh studio album by the American blues musician Muddy Waters, released as a double LP by Chess Records in August 1969.

King of the Blues Guitar is a compilation album by American blues guitarist and singer Albert King, released by Atlantic Records in 1969. The album contains songs that Stax Records originally released on singles, including five that were also included on King's 1967 compilation, Born Under a Bad Sign. It reached number 194 on the Billboard 200 album chart in 1969.

Sonobeat Records was an independent record label owned by Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr. The father and son team created an eclectic library of hundreds of recordings of singers, musicians, and bands in Austin, Texas between the years of 1967 and 1976. Sonobeat released 24 singles, three commercial albums, and seven non-commercial promotional/demo albums on its own label. Two Sonobeat-produced albums were released nationally by Liberty Records and Liberty/United Artists Records labels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Winter discography</span>

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 main 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.

References

  1. 1 2 Burks, John (April 19, 1969). "Records". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on October 16, 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Koda, Cub. "Johnny Winter: The Progressive Blues Experiment Review". AllMusic . Retrieved June 23, 2012.
  3. . Ruhlmann, William. "Johnny Winter – Biography". AllMusic . Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  4. "Johnny Winter: Chart History – Billboard 200". Billboard.com . Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  5. Russell, Tony; Smith, Chris (2006). The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings . Penguin. p. 722. ISBN   978-0-140-51384-4.
  6. The Progressive Blues Experiment (Album notes). Johnny Winter. Sonobeat Records. 1968. Record labels. R-s1002.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  7. 1 2 The Progressive Blues Experiment (Album notes). Johnny Winter. Imperial Records. 1969. Back cover. LP-12431.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)