Winter's wife has blues listening to his new album NEW YORK (AP) — Johnny Winter's wife says listening to her late husband's newest album is bittersweet because it's one of his best works but was released after his death. "Step Back" was on top of Billboard's blues albums chart for three weeks. Nelson, who produced the new album, said the Texas blues legend likely died of emphysema. When something like that happens in a hotel, they immediately think Jimi Hendrix, they think Jim Morrison and all that's going on — a musician, a blues guy, a rock guy, a guitar player, is this some kind of thing? Winter, on Rolling Stone magazine's list of top 100 guitarists of all time, was a leading light among white blues guitar players, including Clapton and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. A video of Winter's final studio recording, a version of Son House's "Death Letter," debuted last week on NPR's website.