Friday, December 18, 2015

Crying In My Heart



Guitar Slim
Elton Anderson, D.J.E. Publishing BMI

Wheeler-Winter Productions

Diamond (Diamond Jim) 204
1962

This is Johnny Winter.   On his association with the Diamond/Diamond Jim label see The Johnny Winter Story 
Johnny actually "cut his teeth" in Louisiana, and learned much from many of those artists. Johnny has always been kinda tightlipped on some of his real early session work, and understandably so. His guitarmanship with Burl Boykin, The Blues Kings, Elton Anderson and Margaret Lewis, shows some flaws. A rough lick here and there, as does some of his session work with Clarence Garlow. But it also shows is just how fast he became an accomplished guitarist. Most people think of 1962 as the earliest Johnny recordings, with the Jammer's 45 thrown in as a fluke for a 15 year old! That was hardly the case. Johnny was already working as hard as he possibly could at 15. Roy Ames tried to lay claim to taking Johnny to sessions when he was that young. Johnny was using every avenue available to him to fine-tune his skill, and actually Roy came along well after Johnny had been recorded many times. Still, in later years, Roy tried to claim Johnny's earliest works as "his doing". Claiming tracks like Geisha Rock, or Ice Cube were recorded even prior to Johnny and the Jammers, by him.  (http://yeech.altervista.org)

Diamond Jim Wheeler (1939-2010), owner of the label, was a lifelong musician and also worked as a pipefitter/welder with Local #195. 


 

2 comments:

  1. Big Winter fan, but wasn't aware of this period of his career..... THANX!

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  2. Big Winter fan as well and don't remember this from the many "cash-in" LP's that dogged the man throughout his entire career. Wow, he had all the elements in place even way back then, that solo wipes the floor with what anyone was playing back then.

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