Johnny Winter - The King of the Gibson Firebird.
Johnny Winter made Jumping Jack Flash his own. And for a song already made famous by the Rolling Stones, this is truly saying something. High energy, ball busting rock and roll, to the blues, pure and simple, Johnny Winter did both genres proud.
Having first been bitten by the album Second Winter, from which the featured video below originally came from, I have listened to Johnny Winter for many years. His thumb picking style is certainly more blues than rock and roll, but Johnny covers both styles with grit, aplomb and no little amount of dexterity. Couple to this his very distinctive, throaty vocal style, and you have the definitive rock star.
There are many tabs of his tunes available, so if you are a guitar player yourself, you will certainly have plenty of his songs to work on.
Here is an excellent video of Johnny Winter in action with his Firebird, playing some scintillating slide guitar on his cover of Bob Dylan's Highway 61. I don't know how old Johnny was when this was recorded (probably in his sixties now) but he can still cut it, can't he!
Johnny Winter made the Gibson Firebird his own. You can see from the video exactly how it can and should be played. Fortunately, it is still possible to get copies of this guitar today.
Gibson Firebird Studio Electric Guitar (with Case)
Gibson USA extends the X-Factor series with the Firebird Studio, featuring Studio finishes at an attractive price. The Gibson Firebird Studio has the classic reverse-shape body, but with a conventional set neck, mini-Grover tuners on the side of the headstock, a tapered body, and the traditional Gibson dual-humbucker sound. The solidbody Firebird guitars were originally developed in 1963, and the original reverse-body Firebird has been in regular production since 1990.
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Johnny's guitar style started in Texas, but his geography must have gone awol as a youth because he seems to have wound up in the Mississippi Delta as well. Not withstanding that, Johnny Winter is a unique and talented individual, who, courtesy of sites like YouTube, is easily available to all who take the trouble to find and listen.
