The Woodstock Experience is a genius idea. Combining an artist's studio album and their Woodstock performance, along with a poster in nice little box set makes for one sweet package. There are five of these sets in total, (Santana, Johnny Winter, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jefferson Airplane).
For me, Johnny Winter’s is the best of the group. The only downside to the whole concept is most of the acts performing at Woodstock were terribly recorded. Unfortunately, only one song was recorded for many of the bands, such as Ten Years After. You could argue that some groups whose shows were perfectly recorded are so big, like The Who and The Band, their performances weren't released for contractual reasons.
In the case of Johnny Winter it's really a shame that his blues set was not appreciated at the time and was not given more prominence in original Woodstock film. Most folks would be surprised to hear that Johnny Winter even played at Woodstock. Paul Butterfield's set definitely did not show his band at its peak; Ten Years After’s set was plagued by recording equipment gone haywire.
The film crew only managed to get its cameras rolling in time for "I’m Going Home," the last song of the set. Canned Heat's contribution was barely released at all, but Joan Baez's performance was perfectly recorded. Oh the cruelty.
Johnny Winter, for me. is the king of Texas blues. He is so deeply rooted in the genre, that for his Woodstock set, he was allowed to step out of his studio shoes without having to stick with songs from his solo album, and it works wonderfully in this series. You don't end up with two versions of the same material, unlike Carlos Santana's Woodstock Experience set. Both discs are completely different experiences, although both include mostly familiar covers of blues greats such as Robert Johnson, and J.B. Lenoir. Johnny’s brother Edgar, even more unknown then Johnny at the time, comes on to play three songs near the end with "I Can't Stand It," "Tobacco Road," and "Tell the Truth."
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