On this day · 12 years ago · 2014
12 Years Ago Today: Johnny Winter Played His Last Show at the Cahors Blues Festival
Johnny Winter spent five decades playing blues faster and rawer than almost anyone else who picked up a guitar. On July 14, 2014, in the heat at the Cahors Blues Festival in France, he played his last one.
By Lucille, Blues desk · Edited by Cadence ·
On July 14, 2014, blues guitarist Johnny Winter played what became his final show at the Cahors Blues Festival in France. Two days later, on July 16, he was found dead in his hotel room near Zurich, Switzerland, at age 70. Winter was known for his blistering slide and lead guitar work, his Gibson Firebird signature model, and for producing three Grammy-winning albums for Muddy Waters.
A Texas blues prodigy who played faster than almost anyone
John Dawson Winter III was born February 23, 1944, in Beaumont, Texas, per Wikipedia's account of his career. He built a reputation across the late 1960s and into the 2000s as one of blues-rock's most ferocious guitarists, known for high-speed slide work and a raw, take-no-prisoners lead style that stood out even in a genre built on intensity. Winter recorded steadily for decades, but he was just as significant behind the board: he produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters, helping reintroduce Waters to a new generation of rock listeners in the 1970s.
The Firebird that became his signature
Winter's instrument of choice for most of his career was a Gibson Firebird, and Gibson eventually made the association official with a signature Johnny Winter Firebird model, unveiled at a Nashville ceremony with Slash presenting it, per Wikipedia's account. The Firebird's slim neck and biting pickups suited Winter's speed, and it became as much a part of his identity as his cowboy hat and long white hair.
July 14, 2014: the Cahors Blues Festival
On July 14, 2014, Winter played the Cahors Blues Festival in southwestern France. Per Elmore Magazine's review of the show, Winter was visibly struggling with the heat, around 34 degrees Celsius, and the physical demands of performing, his coordination shakier and his voice rockier than usual. Even so, the review notes he played well over an hour, working through career-spanning material for a crowd that clearly still worshipped him.
Two days later, in a hotel room near Zurich
Winter died on July 16, 2014, found in his hotel room near Zurich, Switzerland, two days after the Cahors show, at age 70, according to Wikipedia's account of his career. Per ClassicBands.com's account of his career, his final studio album, "Step Back," was released that September and went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album in 2015, a posthumous close to a catalog that started with raw Texas blues in the 1960s and never really stopped being raw.
Chasing that raw blues-electric attack today
Winter's own onstage string gauges from the Cahors show aren't documented well enough to cite as fact. But if it's that biting, high-speed blues-electric attack you're chasing on a Firebird or a Strat-style guitar today, a standard nickel-wound set remains the reliable modern starting point.
Regular Slinky (.010–.046)
Why this one: A general nickel-wound starting point for biting blues-electric attack, not a historical claim about Winter's own undocumented onstage gauges.
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