Winters' only two originals in the live set “Leland Mississippi Blues,” and “Mean Town Blues,” show that there are few performers who understand the blues better then Johnny, and why among musicians he is so highly respected. His ten minute version of the multi-genre standard “Tobacco Road,” puts him at the top of the list of those who have covered it like the Animals, the Blues Magoos, and Spooky Tooth. Winter closes off the set with "Johnny B. Goode," and once again nails it perfectly, leaving the album with a high energy feeling.
The studio album is equally as amazing, if not better then the live performance, and only lacks the applause. Everything from the full band’s high energy "I’m Yours and I’m Hers," to the more subtle slide guitar on "Dallas," his three originals are once again amazing, and fit in perfectly with the six covers.
After the opening cut "I’m Your and I’m Hers," comes a typical slow blues song, with fast guitar playing, "Be Careful With a Fool," not the most impressive song on the whole album. However, it does show off Johnny’s amazing guitar skills, as does the more sparse "Dallas," with its really fine slide work.Winter is as good acoustic as he is electric, and it’s one of the highlights of the album. His gruff voice actually works better a lot of ways with these acoustic songs. Next comes "Mean Mistreater" originally titled "Mean Mistreatin’" by Jimmie Gordon, which features some really nice harmonica work from Big Walter Horton which reminds me a lot of Paul Butterfield’s playing on his first two albums. Johnny deftly keeps his guitar playing at a minimum and lets the harmonica power this one.
Winter’s last original song is “Leland Mississippi Blues,” the only song to appear on both the studio album, and the in the live Woodstock performance. Not much to say here, except that the live version outshines this track, and I have a feeling that if all of these songs on the studio album were on the live disc, the result would be the same.
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