After more than 40 years on the road and a career colored by both hard knocks and critical accolades, Johnny Winter is considered a vintage blues artist—one short step away from the status of personal idols such as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Winter, along with his brother, fellow musician Edgar Winter, knocked around east Texas during the mid-1960s in a variety of different bands before two writers from Rolling Stone introduced the guitarist to readers as part of a 1968 article on the Texas music scene. Fame, a six figure Columbia Records deal and critical acclaim followed. Winter soon found himself jamming with contemporaries such as Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and performing with idols Freddie King and Muddy Waters, who themselves benefited from the blues revival Winter helped spearhead. Drug abuse, ill health and fiscal mismanagement dogged his career, but these days Winter is performing regularly. He does an 8 p.m. show tonight at the Turner Hall Ballroom.
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