''The Progressive Blues Experiment'' is the unauthorized debut album by American
blues rock
Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...
musician
Johnny Winter. He recorded it in August 1968 at the
Vulcan Gas Company, an Austin music club, with his original trio of
Tommy Shannon on bass guitar and John "Red" Turner on drums.
The album features a mix of Winter originals and older
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
songs, including the
standards "
Rollin' and Tumblin'", "
Help Me", and "
Forty-Four".
Local Austin, Texas-based
Sonobeat Records issued the album with a plain white cover in late 1968. After Winter signed to
, the rights were sold to
Imperial Records, who reissued it in March 1969.
The Imperial edition, with a new cover, reached number 40 on the
''Billboard'' 200 album chart. In 1973, United Artists reissued it with another new cover under the name ''Austin Texas''. In 2005, Capitol issued a 24-bit remastered edition of the album on compact disc.
"Bill Josey, who owned Sonobeat Records, had recorded a live show at the Vulcan Gas Company in Austin so Johnny would have a demo to shop for a major label. However, Josey released that performance as ''Progressive Blues Experiment'' on his own label. But before the ink had dried on Johnny’s Columbia contract, Josey sold the LP to United Artists. This album is still one of Johnny’s best-selling and most highly acclaimed releases, but the artist never saw a penny. 'Bill Josey had the tapes and he got the money,' Johnny says. 'Even now when they sell that CD, I don’t get any money.'â€
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Track listing
Songwriters and track running times are taken from the original Sonobeat LP.
Other releases may have different listings.
Personnel
*
Johnny Wintervocals, electric guitar,
resonator guitar, National steel guitar, mandolin, harmonica
*
Tommy Shannonbass guitar
*John "Red" Turnerdrums
Footnotes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Progressive Blues Experiment, The
Johnny Winter albums
1968 debut albums
Imperial Records albums