Winter in Houston

It takes a special temperament to be a guitar instructor. You dedicate yourself to this instrument and get proficient enough to make a career with it and then you have to listen to crude beginners like me come in and totally desecrate it. A lot of tongue-biting surely is involved.

But as I've said before, my teacher is very encouraging and patient. He has the right disposition for the job and apparently so did Johnny Winter when he was still on his way up and coaching aspiring guitarists. An old friend of mine had a buddy whose uncle played in a band with Winter in Houston and they took a couple of lessons from Winter in 1964. Working out of his apartment on the Gulf Freeway, just across from the old Gulfgate shopping center, Johnny showed them some blues.

"We never even noticed how different he looked because he was a natural comedian with kids," my friend says. "He always wore bell-bottom jeans and a suede vest and smelled like balsam hair conditioner." Even my friend's mom liked Johnny. She said he had a good soul.

Historical aside: Joe Ely and Buddy Holly had the same guitar teacher way out yonder in Lubbock.