State College will get a little taste of Texas tonight when Johnny Winter takes the stage.

"He's a legendary blues guitarist," said Greg Gabbard, owner of City Lights Records, 316 E. College Ave. "He's created a lot of albums and he has a lot of fans."

Joe Apfelbaum, programming manager at The State Theatre, agrees.

"He's a living legend," Apfelbaum said. "There are a lot of people who follow him around. We expect it's going to be a big crowd."

Winter, who will play at 8 tonight at The State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave., is a Grammy-winning guitarist and record producer known for his Texas-style blues playing.

"It's definitely a blues-rock kind of feeling," Gabbard said.

As well as his unique brand of Texas blues-rock, Winter has an unmistakable onstage presence. Winter has albinism and according to the biography on his Web site, www.johnnywinter.net, his long white hair and pale skin have always made him stand out on the blues music scene. Despite his differences, the music he loved embraced him from an early age.

"The joke always was he used to sneak into clubs and play with all these blues legends," Apfelbaum said. "All along, he was just interested in playing the blues."

Winter is also the older brother of Edgar Winter, famous for recording the instrumental hit "Frankenstein." According to Winter's biography, the brothers got their start in music playing in a band and have recorded together several times.

Winter has been recording since 1969 and his Texas blues legacy has influenced a number of later musicians even as he has continued to record and tour.

"He's the godfather of people like Stevie Ray Vaughan," Gabbard said.

His influence on later artists is evidenced by the fact that Tommy Shannon, Winter's bassist on early albums such as Johnny Winter and Second Winter, went on to play with Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble band. Besides producing the record, Winter also played guitar on the legendary blues singer's 1977 Grammy winning album, Hard Again.

Gabbard said it isn't often that such a well-known and accomplished artist makes a stop in State College. "For a lot of people, it's a big deal," he said.