Stevie Ray Vaughan first entered my radar screen in 1986 shortly after I had joined a blues group as a bassist, marking the beginning of my short but intense three-year period as an active band musician. To get up to speed with our setlist, I was given a music cassette, which among others included Vaughan’s amazing rendition of Tin Pan Alley, off his second studio album Couldn’t Stand the Weather. The moment I heard his guitar sound, I fell in love with it. In this post, which is part of an irregular feature called My Playlist, I’d like to celebrate the music by who I think is one of the best blues guitarists of all time.
Vaughan’s web bio characterizes his guitar-playing as follows: With his astonishingly accomplished guitar playing, Stevie Ray Vaughan ignited the blues revival of the ’80s. Vaughan drew equally from bluesmen like Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins and rock & roll players like Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack, as well as jazz guitarists like Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery, developing a uniquely eclectic and fiery style that sounded like no other guitarist, regardless of genre. I feel they hit the nail right on the head!
Before getting to some music, I’d like to provide a bit of additional background on this extraordinary artist who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Vaughan picked up the guitar as a seven-year-old, initially inspired by his three-and-a-half-year-older brother Jimmie Vaughan. Five years later, he started playing in garage bands, followed by semi-professional groups. By the age of 17, Vaughan dropped out of high school to focus on music. In 1971, he formed his first own blues band, Blackbird.
Fast-forward to 1979 when Vaughan played in Triple Threat Revue, a band he had formed two years earlier. After the group’s vocalist Lou Ann Barton left, they became Double Trouble, named after an Otis Rush song. In addition to Vaughan, the initial line-up featured Jack Newhouse (bass) and Chris Layton (drums). In 1981, Newton was replaced by Tommy Shannon, putting in place the core line-up of the group that would back Vaughan for the rest of his short life.
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble became regulars and gained popularity on the Texas club circuit in the early ’80s. In 1982, they played the Montreux Jazz Festival and came to the attention of David Bowie and Jackson Browne. Impressed with Vaughan’s guitar chops, Bowie offered him to play on his upcoming album Let’s Dance. Vaughan ended up contributing lead guitar for six of the tracks on what became Bowie’s commercially most successful album.
Meanwhile, Browne offered the fierce trio three free days at his Los Angeles studio, which they used to record a demo over the Thanksgiving weekend in November 1982. That tape found its way to record producer John Hammond who had worked with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. He secured a contract for the band with Epic Records. The demo recordings were subsequently remixed and mastered in New York City and released in June 1983 as their debut Texas Flood.
Texas Flood was the first of five albums that were recorded and appeared during Vaughan’s lifetime. A sixth, The Sky Is Crying, was released in November 1991, three months after Vaughan and four others had been killed in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wis. following a gig. He was only 35 years old, a loss I think was comparable to Hendrix. Time for some music!
Let’s kick it off with Pride and Joy from the aforementioned Texas Flood, which Chris Layton noted Vaughan wrote for a new girlfriend he had at the time. Apparently, the same woman also inspired another song on the same album titled I’m Cryin’. As you can guess, the inspiration for that song was less cheerful, namely a fight between Vaughan and her. Pride and Joy has an infectious shuffle that makes you want to move!
Obviously, I can’t skip Tin Pan Alley, a great slow blues composed by Bob Geddins, a San Francisco Bay area blues and R&B artist and record producer. This song, off Couldn’t Stand the Weather, is a great illustration of Vaughan’s incredible sound. Check out his amazing tone, which still gives me chills!
Vaughan also composed some great instrumentals, including this one called Say What! The tune appeared on Soul to Soul, his third album with Double Trouble, which came out in September 1985. By the time of the recording, the band had grown into a four-piece and now also included Reese Wynans on keyboards.
The House Is Rockin’ – the title says it all! This is pure rock & roll that reminds me a bit of Chuck Berry. Stevie Ray Vaughan wrote this gem together with Austin blues musician Doyle Bramhall who as a high school student had played in a band with Jimmie Vaughan. It was included on June 1989’s In Step, the fourth and final studio album with Double Trouble, which appeared during Vaughan’s lifetime. Wikipedia notes that the album title can be viewed as an acknowledgment of Vaughan’s successful rehab from years of drug an alcohol addiction.
In 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan made an album with Jimmie Vaughan titled Family Affair. Released as The Vaughan Brothers in September of the same year, it was the only album Stevie recorded with his brother. It also was his last studio release prior to his fatal helicopter crash. Here’s the closer Brothers, which the two guitarists penned together.
The last track I’d like to call out is another great instrumental, which is on The Sky Is Crying, the above-mention post-mortem album. This compilation of songs Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble recorded throughout their career was released in November 1991. Here’s their cool rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing, which originally appeared in December 1967 on the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s sophomore album Axis: Bold as Love. I think Jimi would have been proud of it!
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s impact on reviving blues and blues rock among mainstream audiences cannot be underestimated and perhaps is his biggest legacy. He also influenced many other guitarists like John Mayer, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Albert Cummings and Chris Duarte.
Vaughan, who has sold over 15 million albums in the U.S. alone, is ranked at no. 20 in Rolling Stone’s just released eclectic 2023 list of The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time – probably too low, but these lists are highly subjective. Vaughan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, along with Double Trouble bandmates Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon and Reese Wynans. The Blues Hall of Fame was a bit faster in getting their act together, inducting him in 2000.
I’d like to leave you with a career-spanning Spotify playlist, which includes the above and 14 other tracks. Hope you dig Stevie Ray Vaughan as much as I do!
Sources: Wikipedia; Stevie Rau Vaughan website; Rolling Stone; YouTube; Spotify
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