If you are a fan of rock ‘n’ roll history then the Rock Con festival in New Jersey is the place you want to be. On three days — July 30 through August 1 — the festival promotes itself as the “Weekend … ►
Not exactly the picture of health these days, with his thin, frail frame ravaged by past drug abuse and time, the 63-year-old Johnny Winter is still capable of knocking out crowds every night with a dizzying array of electric blues-rock punches. ►
Chicago didn’t give birth the blues. But the genre metamorphosed there. The king of electric post-war Chicago blues was slide guitarist Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield, 1915-83). Filmed in 1981, “Live At Chicagofest” (Shout! Factory) shows him as down-home regal but aging. ►
Sunday’s lineup was again packed with rockers: The Band, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Ten Years After, Johnny Winter, and Jimi Hendrix. Attendance estimates kept rising, and the state police figure was 450,000, while others rounded it off to an even half-million. ►