Last year’s top prize for old-school guitar freaks was undoubtedly Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective, the seven-disc box set issued on the Rounder label. And now it looks like the biggest “oh-god-I-gotta-have-it!” item in the same category will be True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story, which arrives via Sony’s Legacy Recordings this Tuesday (February 25).

The four-disc package–which includes 56 tracks spanning 27 albums–hits the streets two days after Winter celebrates his 70th birthday with a show at the B.B King Blues Club & Grill in New York.

One of the many highlights of True To the Blues is bound to be the King-penned “It’s My Own Fault”, which captures Winter sitting in with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield at the Fillmore East in December of ’68. In the audience that night was a friend of famed record-mogul Clive Davis, who put the bug in his ear about this shit-hot albino blues-rocker from Texas.

Next thing you knew Winter had been signed to Columbia Records for the then-unprecedented amount of $600,000. The rest is history–and about 23-million of the wildest guitar licks ever laid down for mankind’s perpetual enjoyment.

Track listing

Disc: 1

• 1. Bad Luck and Trouble
• 2. Mean Town Blues
• 3. Mike Bloomfield’s Introduction of Johnny Winter – Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield
• 4. It’s My Own Fault – Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper feat. Johnny Winter
• 5. I’m Yours and I’m Hers
• 6. Mean Mistreater
• 7. Dallas
• 8. Be Careful With a Fool
• 9. Leland Mississippi Blues
• 10. Memory Pain
• 11. Highway 61 Revisited
• 12. Miss Ann
• 13. Hustled Down in Texas
• 14. Black Cat Bone
• 15. Johnny B. Goode

Disc: 2

• 1. Eyesight to the Blind
• 2. Johnny Winter’s Intro
• 3. Prodigal Son
• 4. Mean Mistreater
• 5. Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo
• 6. Guess I’ll Go Away
• 7. On the Limb
• 8. It’s My Own Fault
• 9. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
• 10. Good Morning Little School Girl
• 11. Mean Town Blues

Disc: 3

• 1. Still Alive and Well
• 2. Rock Me Baby
• 3. Rock & Roll
• 4. Rollin’ ‘Cross the Country
• 5. Hurtin’ So Bad
• 6. Bad Luck Situation
• 7. Self Destructive Blues
• 8. Sweet Papa John
• 9. Rock & Roll People
• 10. Harlem Shuffle – Edgar Winter & Johnny Winter
• 11. Bony Moronie
• 12. Roll With Me
• 13. Tired of Tryin’
• 14. TV Mama
• 15. Walkin’ Thru the Park
• 16. I Done Got over It – Johnny Winter with Muddy Waters & James Cotton

Disc: 4

• 1. One Step at a Time
• 2. Honest I Do
• 3. Nickel Blues
• 4. Talk Is Cheap
• 5. Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
• 6. Bon Ton Roulet
• 7. Don’t Take Advantage of Me
• 8. Master Mechanic
• 9. Mojo Boogie
• 10. Stranger Blues
• 11. Illustrated Man
• 12. Hard Way
• 13. Highway 61 Revisited
• 14. Maybellene – Johnny Winter & Vince Gill
• 15. Dust My Broom – Johnny Winter & Derek Trucks