from Guitar International on guitarinternational.com

For over five decades, 63-year-old Texas guitar ace Johnny Winter has weathered the fierce crosswinds of rock ‘n’ roll with the rumblings of a Port Arthur-Beaumont Texas blues style that was scraped together from the hard tack vibes of old time country music, zydeco, gospel, New Orleans’ R&B, Cajun, swamp blues and swamp pop.

His recording career began around 1959 when he and his younger brother, Edgar, laid down the tracks to “School Days Blues” and “You Know I Love you” with their group Johnny (Macaroni) and the Jammers. Living in Beaumont, the boys must have heard of early local blues circuit runners like musicians Lonnie Brooks (Guitar Junior), Long John Hunter and Ervin Charles of the Hollywood Bearcats, Clarence “Bon Ton” Garlow, zydeco’s accordion king Clifton Chernier and, of course, a young spectacled Texan rocker named Buddy Holly.

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