Concert Review: Johnny Winter at the Capitol Arts Center, Bowling Green, KY 8/23/2008

In a fitting culmination to the 2008 Kentucky Blues Festival, veteran blues guitarist Johnny Winter's unique style of Texas blues was showcased in Bowling Green tonight. There's no one quite like Johnny Winter.

This show was all about the blues. Although Winter has had great success, especially in the 70s, playing rock and roll, there was no "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" or "Still Alive and Well" to be heard. But this was no surprise to the fans tonight (who appeared to be hard-core Winter fans) since he has been dedicated to his blues roots for years now. Nor was it a disappointment, because Winter's playing is so hard and raw that anyone into great guitar playing will usually find something that wows them. So the Kentucky Blues Society (www.kyblues.com), the organization that runs these annual festivals, booked the right act.

After a tight intro song by Winter's band, the master was introduced and sat right down center stage. Visually, Winter is frail-looking and not very animated on stage. The first impression is that there's no way he's going to pull off the show. But this just makes what follows even more impressive. Winter let's his guitar do the talking, and boy is he expressive there. His playing ranged from slower feel songs to quick riff songs to blistering slide guitar pieces. He often appears to be on autopilot, but his playing certainly is not robotic.

I did notice his vocals, which were always uniquely rugged, raspy, and deep in the past, lacked a bit of the old edginess. But these old characteristics did emerge sporadically, just enough to sufficiently invoke those fond memories of boisterousness. Anyway, it wasn't anything to fret over because, after all, we were really here to listen to the killer guitar.

The previous two times I saw Winter he's played with others, so his sets were about 45 minutes long. But on this night, as the headliner with no opening act, we were treated to a full hour and a half. So we all got to relax and kick back a bit to a nice mix of songs, many classic blues tunes. So along with his old reliable signature songs, "Johnny Guitar" and "Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited", we heard a lot more of a variety of songs. Two notables were Ray Charles' "Blackjack" and The Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now". And then there was Jimi Hendrix's "Red House", which was my personal favorite by a long shot. The two-song encore (which included "Highway 61") was truly impressive, as Winter strapped on his beloved '63 Gibson Firebird guitar (which was showing its' age but sounded great as ever) for some blistering slide work (a recreation of this guitar, in honor of Winter, is currently being marketed by Gibson for a whopping $7,700!).

So the question begs to be asked, and answered: Is Winter as good as ever? Honestly, I'd say he's a bit past his prime. He's not the showman he once was, since a back injury confines him to sitting down while playing. And there is the issue of his diminished vocals. And yes, all that does affect his playing a bit too. But Winter is such a master guitar player that he's still way up there on the list of performers to see. And his shows are just plain fun for the guitar-lover to witness.

If you were in or near Bowling Green tonight and you didn't make this show, you definitely missed a good one. Let's see what the Kentucky Blues Society comes up with next year. They definitely came up with a winner this year.