Vaughan, Stevie Ray

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Stevie Ray Vaughan

Guitarist

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s 1982 appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival signalled the beginning of yet another blues revival and another guitar hero. Vaughan’s mixture of Texas blues and Jimi Hendrix-inspired rock helped open the door for acts like the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray, Los Lobos, and a host of other authentic roots bands.

Vaughan’s earliest exposure to music came from his parents. While neither of them were musicians, they held many dance parties at their house in the Oak Cliff suburb of Dallas. At other times, members of Bob Wills’s band (the Texas Playboys) would come over to play dominos and pick on their guitars, mixing popular hillbilly, swing, and country tunes of the day.

Following the lead of his older brother, Jimmie of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Vaughan began playing the guitar in 1963, stealing practice time whenever his brother would set the instrument down. “Jimmy actually was one of the biggest influences on my playing,” Vaughan told Guitar Player.”He really was the reason why I started to play, watching him and seeing what could be done.” Both brothers dove into the blues head first, buying albums by B.B. King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, and all the masters, trying to absorb their feel and sound.

Starting his performing career in clubs at the age of fourteen, Vaughan played in a succession of bands, including Blackbird, the Shantones, the Epileptic Marsh-mallow, and Cracker Jack. He also played bass in Jimmie’s band, Texas Storm, for a brief period. On New Year’s Eve, 1972, one year before his high school graduation, he dropped out and moved to Austin, again following Jimmie who had been there since 1970. After forming the Nightcrawlers in 1973, Vaughan left for a rhythm and blues combo, the Cobras. “Actually, he was just too much of a guitar player for a band like that,” former bandmate Denny Freeman offered in Guitar Player.”He’d do a solo and play all the guts out of a song.”

The Cobras were offered a contract by Rounder records but, wary of being taken advantage of, never signed it. A year with them led Vaughan to the group Triple Threat in 1975, which consisted of five lead singers, including Lou Ann Barton. Three years later Vaughan and Barton left to start a new band, the original Double Trouble, named after the Otis Rush song.

Personnel changes saw Barton leave to start a solo career. Bassist Tommy Shannon had played with Vaughan previously in Blackbird and Cracker Jack, and more notably, with fellow Texan Johnny Winter’s trio during the blues revival of the late 1960’s. Along

For the Record…

Born c. 1956, in Dallas, Tex.; son of Jim (an asbestos worker) and Martha (Cook) Vaughan; divorced from wife, Lenny. Education: Left high school in 1972 to pursue a career in music.

Began playing guitar in 1963; began playing clubs in the Dallas, Tex., area at the age of fourteen; performed with a number of bands, including Blackbird, the Shantones, the Epileptic Marshmallow, Cracker Jack, and Texas Storm; moved to Austin, Tex., 1972, and performed with the Nightcrawlers, the Cobras, and Triple Threat; founder of Double Trouble, 1978; first recorded on David Bowie’s album Let’s Dance, 1983; signed by CBS and released first album, 1983; has toured extensively throughout the United States.

Awards: Named Blues Entertainer of the Year by W.C. Handy Blues Foundation, 1985; Grammy Award nomination, 1987, for Live Alive!; winner of numerous magazine readers poll awards.

Addresses: Agent—Classic Management, Inc., P.O. Drawer T., Manor, TX 78653.

with Chris “Whipper” Layton on drums, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble began to astound audiences with their high-energy sound. “I’d call it rhythm and blues, but sometimes we get out there with it,” Vaughan told Bruce Nixon. “A lot of people think of it as blues-rock, although I’d like to have it thought of as just music.”

Whatever the label, around 1982 things started happening for the trio. Members of the Rolling Stones flew the band to New York to play a party at the Danceteria club. Next, record producer Jerry Wexler decided to pull some strings. While working on Lou Ann Barton’s debut album, Wexler heard Vaughan performing in an Austin club and immediately got the band a spot at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival. They became the first band without a record ever to play there.

David Bowie heard the group’s performance and asked Vaughan to play on his next album and the ensuing tour, with Double Trouble as the opening act. “From what I understand,” Vaughan told Guitar Player, “Bowie was looking for somebody who played this style anyway, and I was the one he picked.” The album, Let’s Dance, was a major hit for Bowie. The six cuts that Vaughan played on showed a brand new audience the power of his Albert King-style licks. But in mid-May, just two days before the tour, Vaughan backed out. Reasons for his departure vary, but according to Bowie in Guitar World, “Stevie didn’t make it to the touring stage with us last tour because he had his own illustrious career to get on with, and he did very well, indeed.”

Bowie and the Stones weren’t the only artists to recognize Vaughan’s talents. Jackson Browne jammed with him several times and offered Vaughan his own recording studio, Down Town, free of charge. The ensuing songs were purchased by none other than John Hammond (discoverer of Count Basie, Billie Holliday, Charlie Christian, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen) who signed the group to CBS and became the executive producer of their first album. “I was so delighted by Stevie’s sound,” Hammond stated in Guitar World.”It’s unlike anyone else’s—and he’s such a marvelous improviser, never repeating exactly the same thing twice. He’s the kind of creative force one looks for but rarely finds.”

The debut album, Texas Flood, was distributed by Epic in June of 1983. From the Chuck Berry-in-overdrive “Love Struck Baby” to the beautiful liquid tone of “Lenny”, the album showed how different Vaughan’s style was from his brother’s, or for that matter, any other guitarist. As Dan Forte wrote, “He doesn’t just play his guitar; he mauls it.” With instrumentals that pinned listeners to the wall and enough unique licks to make even veteran bluesmen shake their heads, Vaughan was on a mission. The album won Best Guitar Album in the 1983 Guitar Player readers poll, and Vaughan was also voted Best New Talent and Electric Blues Guitarist (topping Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter).

Vaughan’s 1984 follow-up, Couldn’t Stand the Weather, laid to rest any flash-in-the-pan notions that may have been floating around. Jimmie was brought in on second guitar for the title cut, and there was even some jazzy sax on “Stang’s Swang” (courtesy of Stan Harrison’s tenor). But the real stopper was the unbelievable rendition of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”. For nearly fifteen years guitarists had been copying Jimi, but never before had anyone duplicated the sound of an entire song so expertly. Anyone who thought studio tricks were the secret needed only to see Vaughan live. Playing with the guitar behind his back, on the floor, or with hands over the fretboard, Vaughan tore into other Hendrix tunes with equal vengeance. Again he won the Guitar Player readers poll Guitar Albumn and Electric Blues categories.

In 1985 Vaughan had the opportunity to work with one of his idols and earliest influences, Lonnie Mack. The two had met years before when Vaughan was playing in a small club. Mack wanted to record Vaughn and have him play in his own band, but things didn’t work out. As it was, Vaughan ended up producing and playing on Mack’s comeback effort, Strike Like Lightning.”They were his tunes and I just tried to help him by doing the best I could to do what he wanted to do with the record,” Vaughan told Guitar World.”That’s what I think producing is … just being there, and, with Lonnie, just reminding him of his influence on myself and other guitar players.”

In addition to winning the Guitar Player readers poll Electric Blues category again, in 1985 Vaughan also became the first white artist to win the W.C. Handy Blues Foundation’s Blues Entertainer of the Year award. Vaughan also released his third album, Soul to Soul. With the additon of Reese Wynans on keyboards as a permanent group member and Joe Sublett providing sax, the sound was fuller and more up-tempo. It contained the obligatory nods to Hendrix, “Come On” and an original wah-wah tour de force entitled “Say What!” But rather than just being vehicles for Vaughan’s solos, the songs were now beginning to have more meaning, especially for Vaughan. He had been battling alcohol and cocaine for quite some time, trying to live up to the superstar image. Vaughan was struggling to get a focus on his life without following Hendrix to the grave.

While touring to promote Soul to Soul and mixing tracks for an upcoming live album, Vaughan collapsed and fell off the stage in London. He had been stretching himself too thin and had to be checked into a clinic to seek help. In September of 1986 Vaughan entered the Marietta clinic under the supervision of Dr. Victor Bloom. Vaughan stayed there a month—with visits from Jackson Browne and Eric Clapton offering support—and then transferred to a treatment facility in Georgia.

His fourth album, Live Alive!, was released in 1986 and contained a remake of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” which eventually became a video. Although a double album, critics like Gene Santoro complained: “It’s not that the performances are uninspired, exactly; just that they don’t bring anything new to the material. And while the sound is ok, as often as not it’s muddy an plagued by overloads.” Regardless, Live Alive! received a Grammy nomination, and Stevie again won the Guitar Player readers poll for Electric Blues, beating Eric Clapton for the fourth year in a row (Jimmie Vaughan placed third).

Vaughan seemed to come to terms with his status and addictions and was back on the road playing with vigor and aggressiveness. “I can honestly say that I’m really glad to be alive today,” Vaughan told Bill Bilkowski, “because left to my own devices … I would’ve slowly killed myself.” In the future Vaughan plans to enter the studio with Jimmie to record an album.