http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/07/17/blues-guitar-legend-johnny-winters-dies/Mostly known for 'Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo" and being albino. In some "favorite album" thread, I mentioned
Hard Again by Muddy Waters as sounding like a great party with jamming, hollering, drinking, and testifying that happened to be recorded. While guys like Eric Clapton and Van Morrison tended to trot out these blues guys from the '40's and '50's like organ grinder monkeys, Johnny essentially rebooted Muddy Waters career, and these albums sound fresh and vital, as opposed to some scratchy lost session castoffs. I would imagine Rick Rubin had these albums in mind when he recorded Johnny Cash.
From Wiki:
Quote:
In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist Muddy Waters. In 1977, after Waters' long-time label Chess Records went out of business, he got his chance.[2] Winter brought Waters into the studio to record Hard Again for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter's manager and distributed by Columbia. In addition to producing the album, Winter played guitar with Waters veteran James Cotton on harmonica. Winter produced two more studio albums for Waters, I'm Ready (with Big Walter Horton on harmonica) and King Bee and a best-selling live album Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live. The partnership produced three Grammy Awards for Waters and an additional Grammy for Winter's own Nothin' But the Blues, with backing by members of Waters' band. Waters told Deep Blues author Robert Palmer that Winter had done remarkable work in reproducing the sound and atmosphere of Waters's vintage Chess Records recordings of the 1950s. The albums gave Waters the highest profile and greatest financial successes of his life.