In 1968 Johnny Winter crashed the Austin music scene with his electrifying brand of southern blues. At 24, Johnny was already a seasoned veteran of the roadhouse, honky tonk, bar, and dive circuit and was well on his way to major auditoriums, like the Fillmore East in New York, where he performed in January '69. Based in Houston, Johnny's band toured from an old black hearse, making an indelible impression wherever they performed -- three white guys playing traditionally Black music with a vengeance. The band -- Johnny on guitars, mouth harp, and vocals, Uncle John "Red" Turner on drums, and Tommy Shannon on bass -- stormed Austin's hottest music venue, the Vulcan Gas Company on Congress Avenue, with a series of performances that left the audience of both hippies and hip college students stunned... and screaming for more.

At the time, Austin-based Sonobeat Records was recording Vulcan Gas Company regulars, The Conqueroo. There, one afternoon during Winter's rehearsals at the Vulcan, Sonobeat owners Bill Josey Sr. and Rim Kelley (Bill Josey Jr.) listened in awe, then met Johnny, Red, and Tommy. Johnny had no other recording deal and, as they say, the rest is history.

A master tape from the Sonobeat Winter sessions

To capture Johnny's "guttural, edgy" sound (as CREEM magazine writer Lester Bangs described it), Sonobeat recorded the trio at the Vulcan, where they could play at full throttle. Although the resulting tracks have a distinctive live sound, raw and primal, they were recorded during daylight hours without an audience. The band set up in a tight cluster, almost as if under a single spotlight, in the center of the Vulcan's dance floor and was covered with only half a dozen dynamic and condenser microphones. An additional mike, set up at the back of the hall, captured the Vulcan's cavernous acoustics, in part due to the fact that the Vulcan was built over a large cistern that created deep echoes. To set the mood, Vulcan Gas Company co-fiounder and artist-in-residence Jim Franklin set up a pulsating light show. Although the Vulcan sessions were not recorded before a live audience, they were mixed "live", meaning the instrumental tracks were recorded and mixed at the same time to a 2-track Ampex 354 recorder through Sonobeat's custom recording console, with vocals overdubbed later during the same sessions. The Vulcan sessions yielded eight electrified and electrifying tracks on which Johnny played a Fender Mustang and 12-string Gibson from which he'd removed 6 strings.

Johnny visits with Jack Josey (right) during the acoustic sessions at the Josey family home

Two acoustic tracks -- featuring Johnny alone -- were recorded in the cozy comfort of the living room at the Josey family home on Western Hills Drive in Northwest Austin. Johnny multi-tracked National steel standard guitar, mandolin, mouth harp, and vocals on Sonobeat's then-brand new half-inch 4-track Scully 280 recorder, which had been delivered to the Joseys too late for the Vulcan sessions. There's noticeably greater clarity in the acoustic recordings, and, for a more intimate effect, they were mixed with shallow reverb.

The Sonobeat single sleeve

Initially, Sonobeat released a Winter single in a black and white picture sleeve designed by producer Rim Kelley and featuring a close-up of Johnny shot by famed Austin photographer Burton Wilson. The single featured a high energy performance of McKinley Morgenfield's Rollin' and Tumblin' ("A" side) and the guitar tour de force Mean Town Blues ("B" side), written by Johnny. Incidentally, the Winter sleeve marked the first appearance of Sonobeat's stylized "S" logo. An alternate, two-sided sleeve featuring film strips from Burton Wilson's photo shoot with Winter on the backside, makes the odd appearance among collectors, although Rim has no recollection of designing it.

Sonobeat's advance pressing album cover

Shortly after releasing Winter's single, Sonobeat issued a limited non-commercial "advance" pressing of the 10-track album The Progressive Blues Experiment, featuring five original Winter compositions and five covers. Sonobeat's advance pressings were used to get early radio airplay and reviews and to market its recordings to larger national labels. After recording the album, in October '68 Johnny made a trip to the UK to check out the music scene there. He was introduced to the Vernon Brothers who owned a young but successful UK blues label, Blue Horizon Records. Johnny played played the Sonobeat album for the Vernons, and by November, Sonobeat had entered into negotiations to license The Progressive Blues Experiment to Blue Horizon for distribution in the UK, Europe, and Canada. By the time Jonnny returned to the US in early December, a Rolling Stone by article by Larry Sepulveda, proclaiming Johnny one of the hottest blues performers out of Texas, changed everything: wooed to New York by Steve Paul, owner of a hot Manhattan nightclub, Johnny signed a multi-million dollar contract with Columbia Records, who rushed him into its Nashville studios to cut an album.

The commercial release album cover

Meanwhile, on the heels of the Rolling Stone article, Sonobeat sold The Progressive Blues Experiment to Liberty Records and ceased negotiations with Blue Horizon in the UK as well as its own distribution of the Winter single. In May '69, Liberty released the Sonobeat album (LP-12431) on its Imperial label, beating Johnny's Columbia debut album to market by two weeks. Thus, the Sonobeat album holds the distinction of being both the first Winter album recorded -- although Johnny had previously recorded on several singles for other small labels -- and released. Johnny's reflection in his National steel standard guitar -- another stunning Burton Wilson photo -- graces the Imperial release's original cover. Rollin' and Tumblin' and Mean Town Blues were the "A" and "B" sides, respectively, of Johnny's first Imperial single pulled from the album. In April '69, the album peaked at the #49 position on the Billboard Top 100 album chart.

The tracks on The Progressive Blues Experiment were culled from dozens of alternate takes and false starts. Below we present clips from three of those alternate takes, which have been tucked away in Sonobeat's vaults for more than 40 years. Notably, the unfinished alternate take of Broke Down Engine, recorded in the Josey family living room rather than at the Vulcan, is a stripped down version -- just Johnny and his National steel standard guitar. The version that appears on the Imperial album features mouth harp and mandolin overdubs along with a light amount of reverb.

Sonobeat owners Bill Josey Sr. (right) and Rim Kelley (Bill Jr.) review the Liberty Records contract

Producer Bill Josey Sr. summarized in his album liner notes precisely what made Johnny's The Progressive Blues Experiment a seminal work that would become as legendary as the great albino bluesman himself: "Winter is hard and heavy in his hypnotic blues bag. Before the recording session, there was Johnny Winter and his guitar. During the session, Johnny became the guitar." To this day, The Progressive Blues Experiment is considered by blues aficionados and critics alike as one of Winter's finest works.

Uncle John "Red" Turner succumbed on July 26, 2007, to complications relating to hepatitis C. Not just the solid timekeeper on Johnny Winter's first three albums, including Sonobeat's The Progressive Blues Experiment, Uncle John formed seminal Austin band Krackerjack with former Winter bandmate Tommy Shannon and then-newcomer Stevie Ray Vaughn. Uncle John remained a major force in Austin's blues scene for 40 years.