It's seems like only yesterday we awoke to the news.... Alpine Vally, Wisconsin We miss ya, man............ "The sky is crying, can't ya see the tears roll down the street?" Albert King
I do too but at the time I just didn't realize how famous he was. He was just a family friend to us. RIP
I was helping my dad in the garage, working on his Avanti, when it came over the radio on KLOL that his helicopter had crashed. I was 13 yrs old, but I still have exact moment etched in my mind. One of my favorite performances. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFZRyQvF0kw rip
http://1gos.com/blogs/today_in_blues/archive/2007/08/27/today-in-blues-august-27.aspx Usually - no matter who was born or died or recorded on a particular day, several paragraphs of trivia associated with the life and times of particular bluesman will be posted. However, as fitting tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan's legacy as a contemporary, *the one* we could call our own; other folks, even those who shared the fatal ride are mentioned only in relative passing, and a short summary of that day's tragic events is shared. He reignited The Blues, IMHO.
"Well. it's flooding down in Texas....... All of the telephone lines are down........." Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wolfie knew him personally, I have entrusted my news collection to him, in Germany, at the Coffee Shop.... Image Unavailable, Please Login
A close friend of mine has this same Album autographed. His aunt managed bands and worked with the individual (?) who managed SRV. I've only seen him once, and that was at the Houston Colosseum with Jeff Beck. Since then, I've managed to run into Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton on occasion here in Austin, and seen them play with many many performers. Only other stories I know about SRV on a personal basis are from a former coworker of mine. His name: David.... oh darnit, I forgot his last name. He told me stories of being next to Stevie's deathbed when he was messed up on drugs and how he had to call up Jimmy who was in Seattle at the time to come and visit him. Maybe Mike knows who I am talking about? Mike, if you have any stories, would love to hear them!
I went to Austin to attend UT in 1976, about the time he came down from Dallas... This was back when Antone's Club was just north of campus on Guadalupe. By my second year I was in a little apartment less than one block away...walking distance! The Thunderbird's were just getting started as the house band......Double Trouble had yet to be formed, and Albert King called him "Little Stevie"!!!! We'd see his car at a restaurant out by Lake Travis...IIRC, a red Impala convertible, white interior???? He lived up in the hills above Travis, northwest of town..Jonestown I think... We were pulling my speedboat on the way back in and never stopped to bother him.....Austin was just like that in those days...Sarah Brown, Marcia Ball, you were just as likely to see them in the grocery store as onstage! Back in Houston when I was home, he'd play Fitzgerald's in the Heights...it's the subject of the song "If the house is rockin', don't bother knockin.....come on in!....Been a Hall for years, start spreading the news....." That's Fitzgerald's he's talking about! At that point I recall him in a big Cadillac Sedan, two tone paint and pinstriping....Black/dark silver? I recall leaving that night seeing the car at the foot of the stairs the band used to load out equipment. Sarah Fitzgerald recently said he stayed there for a time and had another story, maybe best not mentioned here......wild times fo'r sure! Many years later I found a repro poster of that night and added it to my collection. I also have a 8" x 10" of him in the Astrodome playing the Star Spangled Banner for an Houston Astros game, back in the 'Rainbow Shirt' years.......he's in a red/purple velvet suit! Wolfgang has that photo now, as well! This was before he attended AA and wrote Family Style....
Randy, The Jeff Beck/SRV show at the new Woodlands stage was in fact his last Houston appearance, I gave it a miss, as I am not a big Beck fan.... ........within a few months he was gone. Rocking Robin Guitars here has a Fender hanging, signed by them both, it must be from that event.....
Back in Austin, I attended a Rockin New Year's Eve Show in the Old Coliseum, a double bill with The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Double Trouble, at this point at the high point of fame! Man, what a time! I was with a new girl I had recently met, and my OLD gf noticed us as we were on the floor, dancing right in front of the stage. That was that, and the new girl went on to be my wife..... "You'll always be my first wife baby, remember, no one can ever take that away from you........" ROTFLMAO! The Live at Montreaux 2 CD set is a good snap shot of the the period....the first CD the audience actually 'boos' him as being too electric, as Dylan found once......the second one is a few years later and of course by then they LOVED him, his biography mentions how hurt he was that first show and how he barely made it thru the set before retiring backstage depressed at the response........good book. I do not have the author info here but check that out......
Another hidden gem of SRV material can be found as a guest on Lonnie Mack's album.........Strike Like Lightning. The day he died I went looking for some material and all of it was sold out! But under Lonnie Mack, the King of the Flying V guitar, there it was... Oreo Cookie Blues.. If ya Have to Know... Give that a listen if you want to hear a good performance of Stevie at his best, performing with one of his long time idols. Memphis was one of the first songs he learned, sneaking into Jimmie's room when he wasn't home in Oak Cliff, to listen to the music and try to learn it...... The duet CD with Albert King from a radio studio session is also very heartfelt, as Albert complains about needing a fresh set of strings and talks about passing the torch on to a younger generation....Albert King played Houston here just before passing as well, in an old Bavarian Gardens Hall on Feagan, now gone. There was greatness on the stage that night for sure... The Hall is gone now, Greg328 lives about a block from the location, as the neighborhood redevelopes into townhomes.....
Jimmie was supposed to be on the 'copter, too, you know.. When only one seat was left, he told him to go for it....... Think about that for awhile.......... He walked the crash site, until he found the lost amulet Stevie wore all the time...
Stevie wrote the song, Life Without You when his custom guitar builder in Dallas passed away...it's always been one of my favorite instrumentals of his...the searing, soaring guitar work on it is very very thought provoking to relisten, given all that happened.......it's on Soul to Soul, and the album is dedicated to him.... Doyle Bramhall Sr. would later release Living Life by the Drop, an SRV tune he said he bugged him for, for YEARS, until he finished writing it.......LOL! SRV and Doyle were early mates, you can hear similarities in vocal style as he moved from Lead Guitar to the microphone. Oh, a gallery here, Tracy Hart Galleries, has a huge volume of prints of SRV, the famous Indian Headress shot and others, she was kind of a groupie but it all came good when her documentation of 'the scene' became so valuable.....I still see her sometimes shooting shows at the Continental Club....so check out her work...
Somebody else give us some vignettes, and then I'll tell you about his funeral......it was HOT in Dallas, that day.....
I have a 2 disc set titled "The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble". 33 songs from all phases of his career. Disc one 1. Shake for Me (Live) 2. Rude Mood/Hide Away (live) 3. Love Struck Baby 4. Pride and Joy 5. Texas Flood 6. Mary Had a Little Lamb 7. Lenny 8. Scuttle Buttin' 9. ouldn't Stand the Weather 10. The Things (That) I Used to Do 11. Cold Shot 12. Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place in Town) 13. Give Me back My Wig 14. Empty Arms 15. The Sky is Crying (Live) 16. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (live) Disc Two 1. Say What! 2. Look at Little Sister 3. Change It 4. Come On (Part lll) 5. Life Without You 6. Little Wing 7. willie the Wimp (live) 8. Superstition (live) 9. Leave My Girl Alone (live) 10. The House is Rockin" 11. Crossfire 12. Tightrope 13. Wall of Denial 14. Riviera Paradise 15. Telephone Song (the Vaughan Bros) 16. Long Way From Home (The Vaughan Bros) 17. Life By The Drop I only had the opportunity to see SRV live once. It was at a 1/4 asphalt oval in Odessa, Texas about a year before his death. He was opened by Sawyer Brown if I am not mistaken. That is quite a few years ago. I just remember being mesmerized by his guitar stylings. I will always remember that show. 1. Stephen Thomas Erlewine Ray Vaughan 2. Stevie Ray 3. Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Number One, his Fender guitar has a real story behind it. When Stevie Ray was really young he had no money and would borrow guitars for some of his gigs. One day he came in and asked if he could borrow this old red beat up Fender Stratocaster hanging on the wall at Heart of Music in Austin. Ray Hennig the owner told him he could and took it to play that night. The next day Stevie Ray came back to Ray and offered to trade his only owned guitar, a blue Stratocaster, for the old red one. Ray let him and the legend of Number One started. It had a '62 body and a '63 neck. Stevie Ray played with very heavy strings and sometimes the strings would start to peel off the callouses that SRV had built up. Stevie Ray would use superglue and keep the callouses in place. Number One only missed one performance after Stevie Ray traded for it. Its neck had been snapped by some stage equipment at the Garden State Center in New Jersey and had a another '63 neck replaced on it. It was with Stevie Ray the night he played his last concert in Alpine Valley. Rumor is that Number One was buried with him,,,,,,does anyone know if this is true or not? In 2003 Fender built a replica guitar right down to the scratches and gouges. SRV playing "Number One". Image Unavailable, Please Login
Found this picture of the other two members of Double Trouble and their self proclaimed biggest fan "Jamestown James". Also some tickets stubs and passes...... 1. Tommy Shannon on the left, Jamestown James in the middle, Chris Layton on the right. 2. 1989 Austin Texas performance ticket 3. Crew backstage pass 4. Stevie Ray/Jeff Beck all-events pass Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
And these posters... 1. The Cobras, Stevie Ray 2nd from left 2. Stevie Ray at A.J.'s, Luckenbach, Texas 3. Stevie Ray with Cobras 4. Stevie Ray Birthday Poster 5. Stevie Ray/Jeff Beck, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas 6. Stevie Ray Norway Poster 7. Stevie Ray, Double Trouble with Lou Ann Barton 8. Stevie Ray NYC Newspaper ad. 9. Stevie Ray, Royal Theater, Victoria BC 10. The final performance poster with Eric Clapton Alpine Valley I hope all these help show just how much of a superstar Stevie Ray really was. How big would he have been by now? I just hope that this is in even a small way a fitting tribute to this "guitar master". Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
