Being born to sing is talent specific and generous enough. But also to play several instruments, stringed and keyed and vocalise at the same time, is special – let alone to compose superb material to boot.
But when full organ is the main one of those instruments, you have a phenomenon in any sphere of music.
Brummie Steve Winwood threw off writing and singing top 10 hits with the Spencer Davis Group from the age of 15.
Steve Winwood -- Recently Named One of Rolling Stone's '100 Greatest Singers of All Time' - Celebrating the New Year with Select East Coast Concert Performances in January 2009
NEW YORK, Dec. 1 -- Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Steve Winwood, recently named one of Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time," will ring in the New Year with a series of East Coast concert performances in January. Winwood's upcoming East Coast concert dates mark the first U.S. headline tour since 2007 for the legendary rock superstar, who last toured the states with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in the summer of 2008.
"The miracle of Steve Winwood's voice in the Sixties, on his churning R&B hits with the Spencer Davis Group and in the bucolic psychedelia of the first Traffic records, was that a white English teenager could sound so black and adult," wrote Rolling Stone's David Frick. "The wonder of ... his new album, is that Winwood, almost 60, sings the fighting words with the ecstatic force of his youth. His voice is a deeper, huskier shade of British blues, but it's consistent in its strength and optimism all over Nine Lives."
In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Steve Winwood is ranked 33rd on the magazine's list of the top 100 greatest singers of all time.