Steve Winwood's 'Nine Lives' (Updated December 19, 2012)

The last few decades have certainly been kind to Steve Winwood. The legendary singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has proven time and again that he hasn't forgotten his roots – a combination of blues, R&B, folk, jazz and rock that pours through the speakers and from the stage at every one of Winwood's live appearances.

It was 1994 when Winwood reunited Traffic for the album "Far From Home." Another solo effort, "Junction Seven," came three years later as he crisscrossed the U.S. and sang with with James Taylor at the VH-1 Honors. And in 1998, he joined with several other musicians to form a band called "Latin Crossings" for a European tour.

Winwood's 'reinvention' continued through the turn of the century, as he released the studio album "About Time" in 2003 and "Nine Lives" in April 2008. That album opened at #12 on the Billboard 200 album chart, his highest US debut ever. It came as he continued to perform with Eric Clapton on the Crossroads Guitar Festival, including three sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden.

The 2012 calendar year has also been kind to Winwood. In June, he was inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville. And on December 3, it was announced he would team up fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Rod Stewart for a 2013 10-city tour called "Live the Life." It will kick off on April 10 in Chicago and sweep through major cities like Boston and New York before wrapping on April 21 in Newark, NJ.

About Steve Winwood tickets

Steve Winwood has had more musical lives than most rockers. A monumentally talented instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer, Stephen Lawrence Winwood, who was born in 1948 in Birmingham, England, was a force on the music scene at the young age of 15, when he his musician brother Muff joined guitarist Spencer Davis to form the Spencer Davis Group. Winwood's voice was already displaying a soulfulness older than his years, and his keyboard skills were also well-established. The band scored international hits with the singles 'Keep on Running,' 'I'm a Man' and the driving, undeniable smash 'Gimme Some Lovin',' which stands among the era's most iconic hits. But Winwood was a sophisticated musician, and after a few years split with Spencer Davis to form his own group, Traffic, in 1967, joining guitarist Dave Mason. Traffic was a departure in style from the R&B; and Spencer Davis, featuring a more heady, jazzy, psychedelic sound in line with progressive bands of the late 1960s. The debut album, Mr. Fantasy was followed by Traffic in 1968, then the group disbanded while Winwood teamed up with Eric Clapton to form the super group Blind Faith, along with drummer Ginger Baker. Blind Faith recorded only one album, a monster hit, before Winwood reformed Traffic and scored huge hits with the albums John Barleycorn Must Die and The Low Spark of High- Heeled Boys in 1971. Still, after all that success, it was Winwood's solo career, begun modestly in 1977, that has brought him his biggest fame and fortune, especially in the 1980s with his solo effort Arc of a Diver on which he played all the instruments, followed by the even bigger Back in the High Life in 1986, and Roll With It in 1988. These days, Steve Winwood has a lot of material to choose from on stage, and Steve Winwood tickets are a chance to see one of rock's true renaissance men.