A Brief History of the Blues #5:Stevie Ray Vaughn

"Music has become really important now. It's helped me to open up more and take a chance on loving people. Music is a good reason to care. It's just a vehicle though. It's a way to try and give somebody something that you feel."

Stevie Ray Vaughn



With stinging melody lines, ripping chordings and a thumping Texas boogie bass line, Stevie Ray Vaughn, with his band, Double Trouble, roared onto the national music scene with their 1983 release, "Texas Flood" like a Texas tornado. From his humble beginnings in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff to his launching pad of Austin, Texas, his story reads like a primer for the modern day blues man.

SRV, the little brother to fellow Texas blues guitarist and founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmie Vaughn, said in many interviews that Jimmie was his first and most profound influence. Jimmie had taken up the guitar first and Stevie, like most little brothers, wanted to do what his big brother was doing. He would sit, watch and listen to Jimmie as he would play old blues records, slow them down on their turntable and try to figure them out note for note. Stevie would pester Jimmie constantly for instruction and when he was feeling charitable, Jimmie might show him a line or two or a few chords but mostly the comment was "Don't touch my guitar!" When Jimmie would leave the house, Stevie would sneak into his room, plug the amp in and start to play.

It didn't take long but eventually Stevie was playing as well as Jimmie on his own. Once Stevie said that "Jimmie taught me an important lesson. He taught me how to teach myself, which is the right way I suppose."

Stevie continued to follow in Jimmie's footsteps all the way from Dallas to the blues clubs in Austin. There Stevie joined The Nightcrawlers and from there to The Cobras where he began to get notice in and around the Austin area. His next band,Triple Threat included Lou Ann Barton on the vocals. After five years as one of the premier bar bands, SRV and Barton left to form Double Trouble. Shortly thereafter, Barton left Double Trouble, which then became the power trio that almost single-handedly brought about a blues revival that continues.

Double Trouble featured SRV on vocals and guitar with Chris Layton on drums and bassist Tommy Shannon, who had also played with Johnny Winter's band in the late sixties.

In 1982, with their local legend firmly in place, word of this fiery blues guitarist reached the Rolling Stones who hired them to play a private party in New York. But it was veteran producer Jerry Wexler that took notice of SRV and arranged for Double Trouble to play at the 1982 Montreaux Jazz Festival. It was the first time that an unsigned band was permitted to play the festival. In the audience was David Bowie who was stunned by the fretwork of Vaughn. He invited him to sit in on his new album. Stevie added the guitar work for "Let's Dance", one of Bowie's biggest hits of the 80's. Impressed with the work, Bowie asked Vaughn to tour with the band to promote the release of "Let's Dance" but Vaughn turned him down and returned to the United States with Double Trouble.

Legendary producer John Hammond became vital in bringing SRV and Double Trouble to the national scene when he signed them to a deal with Epic in 1982. In 1983, Epic released "Texas Flood", which reached #38 on the charts and Stevie Ray Vaughn became a household name amongst rockers and blues fans alike. Double Trouble followed up "Texas Flood" (#31) the following year with "Couldn't stand the weather" which helped cement SRV and the band in the national blues / blues-rock scene. Adding keyboardist Reese Wynans in 1985, the band recorded their third album, "Soul to Soul" (#34). It was the same year that Stevie Ray Vaughn became the first white player to win the W.C. Handy Blues Foundation Blues Entertainer of the Year award.

Even with a promising career in full swing and acknowledgment of his guitar prowess coming in from around the world, Stevie sank deeper into the ravages of alcohol and cocaine abuse resulting in his collapse in the midst of tour of Europe in 1986. During his 4-week stay at a rehab center in London, Eric Clapton stopped by to give Stevie encouragement; oddly comforting in that Clapton was one of Stevie's main influences on the guitar and then acting as an inspiration to get clean and sober. Vaughn returned to the United States and checked into a rehab center in Georgia. After emerging from rehab, along with a now clean Double Trouble, they recorded and released what many critics and fans alike have said was their finest work "In Step". The album was their most commercial success as well, peaking at number 33 on the charts, garnering the band a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Recording and going certified gold in just over 6 months of it's release.

The album was a very personal recording for Vaughn; in the recording "Wall of Denial", he outlines his experience with addiction.



In the spring of 1990, Stevie joined up with his brother to record "Family Style", something that the brothers had wanted to do for years, the album was slated for release in the fall of that year. In late summer, SRV and Double Trouble headed out on the road for a major American tour to support "In Step". On August 26th, 1990, after ending the show in a major jam session with Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and his brother Jimmie Vaughn, Stevie boarded a helicopter to fly to Chicago where he was going to open Buddy Guy's new night club. Moments after it's 12:30 AM takeoff, the helicopter, bound in fog crashed into the hillside killing Vaughn and four other passengers. He was 35 years old at the time of his death.

To both blues and rock fans alike, Stevie Ray Vaughn's legacy will be felt for years to come. His guitar work sounds as fresh and passionate today as it did when first released. His name is always one of the first mentioned when discussions turn to that forever asked question in blues circles: "Who was the greatest blues guitar player of all time?" And even 17 years after his death, he continues to inspire countless guitarists.

I think Stevie Vai said it best when speaking of Vaughn: "His playing reached out to you. He wasn't so concerned with technique and flash, but at the same time, he had it by the truckload. He never let technique rule his heart; he always played directly what was on his mind. You can hear a lot of his influences in his playing, but by the same token, he rolled it into one unique guy. He was one of the few musicians who could really pick a lane and drive. You can see his legacy in the inspired guitar playing in the world. It definitively had its impact. Sometimes players come along that are just so stunningly technical that they dazzle, and then you have players that come along that with their musicianship, they're great songwriters, and they pretty much inspire a person by their sense of melody. But Stevie Ray Vaughan could roll it all into a very well-balanced package."