Johnny Winter
Guitar icon Johnny Winter’s emergence on the national music scene in 1969 created a sensation among rock and blues audiences. The first of his many hit albums for Columbia Records featured the song “Leland, Mississippi Blues,” which paid tribute to his roots here. Winter’s grandfather and father, a former mayor of Leland, operated a cotton business, J. D. Winter & Son, at this site. Winter was born in Texas in 1944 but spent parts of his childhood in Leland.
Johnny Winter and his younger brother Edgar were born into a prominent Leland family that was famed not only for its social, civic, and business leadership but also for its musical talent. Their father, Leland native John Dawson Winter, Jr. (1909-2001), played saxophone and guitar and sang at churches, weddings, Kiwanis and Rotary Club gatherings, and other events, including barbershop singing contests as a member of the Lamppost Quartet and front porch concerts with the Winters’ five-piece family band at the Winter home. His repertoire included pop songs such as “Ain’t She Sweet’ and “Bye Bye Blackbird,” along with comedy routines. Winter, Jr., who worked with his father, John D. Winter, Sr. (1879-1938), as a cotton classer, and later ran the family’s cotton brokerage firm, was elected mayor of Leland in 1936 and served until leaving for military service in 1941. John Dawson “Johnny” Winter III was born on February 23, 1944, while his father was away in the army. Although the family resided in Leland, his mother Edwina chose to go to her home town of Beaumont, Texas, for the birth of Johnny, as well as of Edgar on December 28, 1946. The Winters then permanently moved to Beaumont.
With encouragement from their parents, the Winter brothers, both albinos, began performing as youngsters and were already recording while still in their teens, playing rock ‘n’ roll, blues, and R&B. Despite his early childhood here in the heartland of Delta blues, Johnny only discovered the blues in Texas, listening to the radio in the kitchen with the Winters’ African American maid. Mississippi-born bluesmen Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B. B. King, and Robert Johnson became his favorite blues artists, along with Bobby Bland from Tennessee, and Winter developed a fiery electric synthesis of rock and blues that began to attract national attention in the late 1960s.
The self-titled 1969 album Johnny Winter, which featured guest appearances by Mississippi natives Willie Dixon and Big Walter Horton, established Winter as a premier figure in high-energy blues-rock circles. He went on to record several more albums for Columbia Records, all of which appeared on the national charts. Multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter played on his brother’s Second Winter LP and began recording with his own groups, scoring 1970s pop hits with the singles “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.” In later years Johnny Winter produced albums by his idol, Muddy Waters, and recorded in the company of the Muddy Waters band, James Cotton, John Lee Hooker, and other Mississippians. In 1988, after recording three albums for the blues label Alligator Records in Chicago, he became the first white musician elected to the Blues Hall of Fame
The Mississippi Blues Trail markers tell stories through words and images of bluesmen and women and how the places where they lived and the times in which they existed–and continue to exist–influenced their music. The sites run the gamut from city streets to cotton fields, train depots to cemeteries, and clubs to churches. We have a lot to share, and it’s just down the Mississippi Blues Trail.
The Mississippi Blues Trail is an ongoing project of the Mississippi Blues Commission. Funding for this project has been made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, AT&T, and the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University plus additional support from the Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division.
For more information visit msbluestrail.org.
Mississippi is also known for its literary history. Several Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, including William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams, hailed from the state.
In the 1820s, significant numbers of white settlers began to arrive in the region, establishing plantations and cultivating cotton as the primary cash crop. The county's fertile soil and proximity to the Mississippi River made it ideal for large-scale agriculture, leading to the rise of a plantation-based economy that relied heavily on enslaved African American labor.
During the Civil War, Washington County played a significant role as a strategic location along the Mississippi River. The city of Greenville, the county seat, served as a Confederate supply depot and became a target for Union forces. The Battle of Greenville in 1864 resulted in the Union's control over the city, leading to the end of slavery and the decline of the plantation system.
In the years following the Civil War, Washington County experienced economic and social changes. Reconstruction brought increased political participation for African Americans, and many former slaves became landowners and entrepreneurs. However, the county also faced challenges including racial tensions, economic instability, and the impact of natural disasters such as the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
Today, Washington County continues to be an important agricultural region, with cotton, soybeans, and rice being major crops. The county also has a diverse cultural heritage, with a rich African American history and contributions to the blues music scene. While the challenges of the past still have an impact, Washington County remains a vital part of Mississippi's history and economy.
Washington County Timeline
This timeline provides a concise overview of the key events in the history of Washington County, Mississippi.
- 1800: Washington County, Mississippi, was established.
- 1827: Greenville, the county seat, was incorporated.
- 1837: The Mississippi River flood devastated the county, causing significant damage.
- 1844: The first county courthouse was built in Greenville.
- 1871: Major flooding occurred along the Mississippi River, causing a significant loss of property and life.
- 1892: The Mississippi Levee District was established to protect the county from flooding.
- 1927: Another devastating flood occurred along the Mississippi River, causing widespread damage.
- 1942: The United States Army Airfield, now known as the Mid-Delta Regional Airport, was constructed near Leland.
- 1940s-1950s: The county experienced a decline in agricultural production due to mechanization and a decrease in labor demand.
- 1960s: The Civil Rights Movement had a significant impact on Washington County, with several key events occurring in Greenville.
- 1998: The Washington County Convention Center was opened in Greenville.
- 2005: Hurricane Katrina caused some damage in Washington County, although it was not as severely affected as other coastal areas.