Live Bootleg Series Vol. 6

Johnny Winter digs into his live archive for the sixth time on this collection and comes up with what sounds like a single show for the most part (there is no information provided about when or where the recordings were made), played before a large and raucous audience. The power trio of Winter, bassist Jeff Ganz, and drummer Tom Compton presents a set of extended electric blues workouts beginning with the instrumental "Sen-Sa-Shun," picking up speed with "Johnny Guitar," and slowing down considerably for "Blackjack." "She Likes to Boogie" is a jump blues, and the show closes with "White Line Blues." The nearly 15-minute final song, "It's My Own Fault," is billed as a bonus track, perhaps because it is noticeably inferior in sound quality, with some distortion on the vocals. A disclaimer on the back of the album warns consumers that "The original source tapes were not made on the most advanced equipment of the time," which is a way of signaling, if the series title itself didn't, that Winter's Live Bootleg albums are intended for fans. They should be happy to hear the guitarist in good form, as he is here, though even they might have liked to have more information about the sources of the recordings. ~ William Ruhlmann