Pieces & Bits: Johnny Winter

Let's hear it for truth in advertising: Pieces & Bits is exactly what you get in this hodgepodge of Johnny Winter sound bites, family pictures and concert footage that ranges from godawful to not half bad. Born Feb. 23, 1944, John Dawson Winter III, with his striking albino looks, first heard the blues around the age of 11 and it became the love of his life. Coming to national prominence thanks to a 1968 Rolling Stone article, Winter's white man's blues rock made him a mainstream force at the tail end of the '60s and early '70s before American musical taste shifted definitively toward rock; although his solo career languished, he would later do notable collaborations with Muddy Waters and Dr. John, among others. Unfortunately, even allowing for the substandard audio and video (especially on "Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo" and "Tell the Truth," with his brother Edgar), there are just not enough classic Winter tunes here to warrant purchase. Fans will enjoy "Love, Life & Money," "When You Got a Good Friend" and Winter's rendition of "Highway 61 Revisited," but what can you say about a DVD that omits his signature song "Johnny B. Goode"? Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)