I frequently turn to writer Greil Marcus for music recommendations. His 1978 book, Stranded: Rock and Roll For A Desert Island has been an invaluable resource for releases from the 50s to the late 70s. It provides short reviews of some of his favorite songs and albums. Used copies of it are easily available on Amazon. One review in particular caught my eye and my ears have been ever so appreciative:

Johnny Winter, "Second Winter" 1969

"Leaving behind one of the great forgotten albums of the sixties, the albino Texas guitar flash shattered all categories, somehow merging a dozen sorts of blues, classic rock, Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited," and "Bill Haley's preaching Armageddon" into a thrilling personal statement matched only by Eric Clapton's "Layla". Then, like Clapton, he turned to heroin."

As a lover of the entire Layla album, I had to check it out. Here's the Dylan cover, with loads of inspired guitar work that's infuses the entire album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yclRjptWlW8

Best of all, it can be yours for 89 cents on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Second-Winter-Johnny/dp/B0000024V2

Note: A remastered version is also available at a greater expense of course but the original version sounds just fine to me.

Peter T.