FEATURED ITEM - EXTREMELY RARE

JOHNNY WINTER and THUNDERTREE
RARE - VINTAGE Original 1st printing concert poster for JOHNNY WINTER and THUNDERTREE at the Labor Temple in Minneapolis, MN on 3/22/1970 for two shows - Tickets were $4.00. JOHNNY WINTERJohn Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014), known as Johnny Winter, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Best known for his high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". When the band, The Good Idea disintegrated in 1969. The organist, John Miesen landed a deal with "Roulette" on the basis of an unreleased The Good Idea's track which he later explored with Thundertree. Thundertree, whose members hailed from Minneapolis, was formed by Miesen and vocalist/guitarist Bill Hallquist to exploit the former's fortuitous "Roulette" contract. The band managed only one eponymous album for Roulette (SR-42038) which appeared in 1970, but a combination of psychedelia and progressivism turned a highly-experimental album into an increasingly hard to find collectable. The emphasis is very much on psych guitar and organ, and generally the album bristles with new ideas and innovation. Strangely, given that most of the band's songs were written by Miesen, he has disappeared without trace, while Hallquist went on to record two solo albums under the name of Persephone Billy, both of which, with their pleasant, dreamy folk-rock style, have become minor collectables in their own right. VG with color spots in top right corner.

ABOUT THE MINNEAPOLIS LABOR TEMPLE:
The Labor Temple was on the 100 block of 4th St. SE. (Central Ave & 4th St). The Minneapolis Labor Temple was demolished decades ago. It was next door to todays Aveda Institute. Address: 117 SE 4th Street (now a surface parking lot for Aveda).

In January, 1969, the third floor of the Labor Temple in Minneapolis started holding concerts on Sunday nights, featuring national (and international bands). The first concert was held on February 2, 1969 and featured The Grateful Dead with local band Blackwood Apology opening up with their rock opera called “House of Leather.” The third floor was packed and people were turned away at the door due to the lack of room. Community News, a local company, began doing the light shows for the concerts, using home made “movie screens” draped across the back of the stage, as well as the posters for the events.

The Labor Temple was supposed to hold 3,000 people for these Sunday night concerts, however, the local fire department required folding chairs to be used and a maximum capacity of 1,250 people, due to safety concerns. The reduced crowd size and other issues with the City of Minneapolis became a financial burden and the concerts at the Labor Temple came to an end in the middle of 1970.

The Labor Temple concerts were never professionally recorded, but there are some bootlegs that can be found. Dicks Picks Volume 26 is the 26th installment of the Grateful Deads archival series was recorded on April 27, 1969 at the Labor Temple in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Juryj “George” Ostroushko is a Twin Cities artist with a passion for music. As part of Community News, his job was to create images and effects for the light show for each concert at the Minneapolis Labor Temple. He was always trying new effects with gels, oils, lights, screens and drapes. Additionally he designed each main poster for every concert. Already an artist and hippie from the West Bank of Minneapolis, Juryj always carried a sketch pad with him and when ideas came up he drew them. Many of these sketches were used in the posters he designed. Juryj traveled to San Francisco in the hey-day of the Haight-Ashbury and Fillmore Era days. As a known artist in the Bay Area, he knew many other posters artists, and they shared their works with each other. His influences can be seen in the likes of Fillmore and Avalon posters, just as they influenced his work. He is a true artist and influencer of the psychedelic era and continues his passion for fine art and music to this day.

THIS POSTER IS UNSIGNED - AND CAN BE SIGNED BY THE ARTIST PRIOR TO SHIPPING FOR $50 ADDITIONAL FEE. IF ACCEPTED THIS WILL BE ADDED ON TO YOUR SHIPPING FEE

VG