And/Alive!

AMG Review of And/Alive!

Thom Jurek
All Music Guide

For some, Johnny Winter's debut album for Columbia remains his high-water mark for its seamless meld of lues and hard rock. For most of the rest, it was his later group, with Rick Derringer and Murray Krugman stepping into the producer's chairs (as well as Derringer being a member of the band), which provided the defining moments in '70s lues-rock. BGO assembles the first studio album and Live Johnny Winter into a smoking double-disc package that offers the real differences between what this band attempted to do in the studio -- it sounds undeniably dated with all of the phase shifters and primitive guitar pedal and keyboard work -- and the incendiary stage attack this band was capable of. The basic deal is this: BGO takes great care in their remastering efforts and in presentation with fine liner note essays, and it separates the albums onto two discs. The first disc has the original version of "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo," that Derringer scored with some years later, and the latter is all killer, no filler. Check "Mean Town Blues," for proof.