Nothin' But the Blues

It’s no accident that 1977's Nothin’ but the Blues ranks among the best-realized albums in Johnny Winter’s 40-year-plus recording career. After producing Muddy Waters’ GRAMMY®-winning comeback album Hard Again, he was able to enlist Waters and his band to collaborate with him on his own project. The result is a true labor of love that fully realizes Winter’s lifelong love of the blues without commercial concessions. James Cotton's fluent harmonica lines and Pinetop Perkins’ tasty piano work help spur Johnny on to deliver some of his most soulful vocal performances on record. “Everybody’s Blues” and “It Was Rainin’” have a particularly tormented charm, recalling the gutbucket eloquence of Winter’s blues heroes. His guitar playing is even better, wrapping “Sweet Love and Evil Women” in barbed-wire licks and infusing “Bladie Mae” with stinging slide guitar magic. Waters steps into the spotlight to contribute his trademark vocal gravitas to his rollicking tune “Walkin’ Thru the Park.” Nothin’ but the Blues captures a younger musician paying tribute to a revered elder, and it’s a gritty, galvanizing release that does both artists proud.