Johnny Winter to release new album

Legendary blues/rock guitar slinger, Johnny Winter, is in the studio recording his first new CD in more than eight years. Titled, Roots, the disc pays homage to the iconic blues heroes whose pioneering music influenced Winter’s own signature sound and style. Roots is the first disc under Winter’s new deal with Megaforce Records and is the follow up to his Grammy-nominated, I’m a Blues Man, which came out in 2004. It is slated for release later this year.

Several special guests already have stopped by Carriage House Studios in Conn., to join Winter in honoring his idols, including Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes, Billy Gibbons, Jimmy Vivino, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, and his brother Edgar Winter. Additional guests are expected and will be announced soon. Winter’s longtime guitarist, Paul Nelson, is producing.

Among the 15 tracks, that together represent a veritable history of the Blues, are songs by the genre’s elder statesman including Son House’s “Death Letter,” and Robert Johnson’s 1936 recording “Dust My Broom.”

Winter pays respect to the greats who came to prominence in the late 1940s and ‘50s including Elmore James (“Done Somebody Wrong”), Bobby “Blue” Bland (“Further On Up The Road”) and Chuck Berry’s first hit single, “Maybellene.” Also featured is “Come Back Baby,” written by Walter Davis and made popular by Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed’s 1961 hit, “Bright Lights, Big City,” and Muddy Waters’ version of “Got My Mojo Working.”

Edgar Winter guests on “Honky Tonk,” one of two instrumentals featured on Roots, along with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s jump blues “Okie Dokie Stomp” (1954).

Rounding out the collection are songs from Little Walter (“Last Night”), Little Junior Parker (“Mother-in-Law Blues”), Blind Lemon Jefferson (Pneumonia Blues”), Larry Williams' (“Short Fat Fannie) and T-Bone Walker’s “T-Bone Shuffle.”

Winter continues to tour nationally and internationally, performing more than 100 shows a year. His health has never been better, thanks in large part to his manager, longtime guitarist and friend Paul Nelson, who has helped Winter kick the drugs that have been a part of his life since the ‘60s. A totally clean Winter will head to Tokyo, Japan in April for his first shows ever in that country.

When he’s not touring, Winter stays busy with numerous recording and other projects including his popular “Bootleg” CD series. The recently released Volume 7, marks the seventh consecutive disc from the series to land on the Billboard Blues Chart. This past week, Winter sat in with his longtime friend Greg Allman and the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theatre in New York, and will appear on forthcoming CDs from both Sly Stone and William Shatner.