American Blues News - "Dedicated to the promotion and celebration of the Blues."

Billy Johnson and Randy Magee of Leland, MS certainly know how to throw a good blues fest! The Leland Blues Project proudly presented the 11th Annual Highway 61 Blues Festival on Saturday, June 5, 2010. This year's festival was dedicated to John Dawson Winter III who headlined the festival. His sensational emergence on the national rock and blues scene in 1969 included the first of many hit records and featured the song, “Leland Mississippi Blues” which paid tribute to his roots there. The festival also honored the memory of veteran blues artist Lil' Dave Thompson who was tragically taken from us in an auto accident while returning home to Greenville, Mississippi from his last tour. The lineup included Big Jack Johnson, Big George Brock, T-Model Ford, John Horton and the Special Occasion Band, Mickey Rogers and the Soulmasters, The Mike Holloway Band, The Duff Durrough Band, Eddie Cusic, Pat Thomas, Alphonso Sanders and Howl-N-Madd Perry, Adam Gussow, The Jimmy Philips Band, Lazy Bone, 19th Street Red Band, and Kairos Gospel and Blues Band. Though it began as a blustery day, scattered light rain cooled the hot blues crowd and Johnny Winter scorched the evening with fiery Texas blues and a grand finale of “Highway 61 Revisited.”



On Sunday, June 6th, a Blues Marker was dedicated to Johnny Winter in Leland at 302 North Broad Street. Winter’s grandfather and father, a former mayor of Leland, owned and operated a cotton business, J. D. Winter and Son, on the corner where the Blues Marker is placed. The door to their office is now housed in the Highway 61 Blues Museum along with many other collectables from Johnny Winter and other blues legends from the area. Johnny Winter was born in Beaumont, Texas in 1944 while his father was stationed in the Army, but he spent some of his childhood in Leland. The Winter family, long prominent in local social, civic, and business circles, was also well known for its musical endeavors. Johnny and Edgar’s father, John Dawson Winter, Jr., played and sang at churches, weddings, Kiwanis and Rotary Club gatherings, and neighborhood front porch concerts at the Winter home. His father, John D. Winter, Sr., a native of Coffeeville, MS had been a partner in the Winter-Mann Co. which later became J. D. Winter & Son. The company sold locally produced cotton.

Johnny Winter saluted Leland in the song, “Leland Mississippi Blues” in 1969 on the first of his many hit albums for Columbia Records. Most of his favorite blues artists including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B. B. King, and Robert Johnson, were born in Mississippi. However, he says that his first exposure to the blues came in Beaumont listening to a blues radio show in the kitchen with the family’s maid. With encouragement from their parents, the Winter brothers began performing and recording in their teens. The self-titled album “Johnny Winter” created a sensation upon its release in 1969, establishing him as a premier figure in high-energy blues-rock circles. Multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter appeared on the following album “Second Winter” and began recording with his own groups for Epic Records, scoring pop hits with the singles “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.” In later years, Johnny produced albums by his idol, Muddy Waters, and recorded in the company of the Muddy Waters Band, James Cotton, John Lee Hooker, among other Mississippians. In 1988, after recording three albums for the blues label Alligator Records in Chicago, he became the first white musician elected to the Blues Hall of Fame. His biography, “Raisin’ Cain: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter,” was published in May of 2010.


I’m heading to Ireland to trace my Celtic roots, so y’all enjoy a wonderful summer and try to catch some blues on CD, the radio, or live… just try not to live ‘em!

Warm wishes,

“Fest Junkie” in Bluesiana

Article Photograph Copyright © 2010 Kim Welsh. All Rights Reserved.