Saints & Sinners

Produced by Johnny Winter’s guitarist and right-hand man Rick Derringer—who'd just scored his first huge solo hit with “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo”—Saints and Sinners is the leanest and most focused album of Winter’s '70s heyday. Derringer reined in his mentor’s meandering jams and forced him to focus on the kind of punchy rhythm guitar riffs that had made “Hoochie Koo” so popular. It was an easy shift for Winter; after all, he was the one who'd taught Derringer those very lessons. Whereas Winter’s early albums had operated under the premise of “just let it rip,” Saints and Sinners is at once tighter and more orchestrated. You can hear it on “Stone Country,” “Blinded by Love," and the funky, Latin-tinged jam “Feedback on Highway 101.” That’s not to suggest that Winter toned down his rowdiness. “Thirty Days,” “Stray Cat Blues," and “Bony Moronie” are some of the most brilliantly nasty performances of the guitarist’s career. If Winter’s earlier work sometimes felt like rocket-fueled journeys to other galaxies, then Saints and Sinners is very much the sound of a bad-ass hot rod burning rubber down the highway.