Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan was born in Dallas, Texas in 1954, and at the age of 7, he got his first guitar. It was a Sears toy guitar, and Stevie soon started learning songs and in 1963, he bought his first record, Wham by Lonnie Mack.  He played it so many times that his father broke it!  Around this time, Jimmie, Stevie’s older brother gave him an electric guitar.  It wasn’t long before Stevie’s first band, the Chantones, was formed.

It was whilst working for a fast food restaurant that Stevie vowed to never have another job, except as a musician.  In 1971, Stevie and his new band Blackbird moved to Austin, and begin to play the blues venues in Texas.  Over the next few years, Stevie’s playing improved dramatically.

Stevie Ray Vaughan joined the band Krackerjack for a few months in 1973, and played with his future bass player, Tommy Shannon.   In 1973 he played on the Nightcrawlers still unreleased album.  This band featured Doyle Bramhall, who would begin a 17-year writing partnership with Stevie.

In Austin, Texas in 1974, Stevie got the Fender Stratocaster guitar that would be synonymous with him, Number One. Stevie also joined Paul Ray and The Cobras, and averaged five shows a week for the next two and a half years.

In 1977, The Cobras released a single, and the group won Band of the Year in an Austin Music Poll.  Stevie soon left the Cobras and formed Triple Threat Revue with Lou Ann Barton, WC Clark, Mike Kindred and Freddie Pharoah.

In 1978, Stevie Ray Vaughan formed Double Trouble, and in 1980 the band recorded their album In The Beginning at the Steamboat 1874 in Austin. 1981 saw Tommy Shannon work with Stevie.  Tommy had played at Woodstock as part of Jonny Winter’s band.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double trouble played a private party for the Rolling Stones, in New York in 1982, and the July of that year say them become the first unsigned band to play the Montreux International Jazz Festival in Switzerland.  Based on their performance of Texas Flood at Montreux, the band wins a Grammy award.

Later on in 1982, the band recorded Texas Flood, their debut album.  David Bowie asked Stevie to play on his Let’s Dance album, which went on to sell three times as many copies as his previous best selling album.

In 1983, the renowned record producer John Hammond, managed to get the band a deal with Epic records, and Stevie quit the David Bowie tour in order to focus on his own band.   Hammond is credited for discovering Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen amongst many others. 

Texas Flood was released in June 1983, and later on in the year, Stevie was voted Guitar Player Magazine’s Best New Talent, Best Electric Blues Guitar Player, and texas Flood won Best Guitar Album.  Stevie joined Jeff Beck as the only other triple award-winning guitarist.

The next album, Couldn’t’ Stand The Weather, was released in 1984, and Stevie won two WC Handy National Blues Awards, for Entertainer of the Year, and Blues Instrumentalist of the Year.

Soul To Soul was released in 1985, and featured new band member, keyboard player Reese Wynans. The band’s fourth release, Live Alive was recorded during shows in Austin and Dallas, and released in November 1986.  Later on that year, Stevie collapsed on stage due to years of drug abuse, and the rest of the tour was cancelled while he undertook rehabilitation.

The band’s Daytona Beach show was broadcast on MTV as part of the Spring Beach coverage.  Stevie appeared in the movie Back to the Beach, and appeared on BB King’s Cinemax TV special with Eric Clapton, Albert King and others.

The band performed at President Bush’s inaugural party in Washington in 1989, and later that year the album In Step is released, which wins a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Record.

1990 saw the album Family Style released, which was a collaboration between Stevie and his brother Jimmie. By August, all 5 of Stevie’s albums were certified gold, with sales of over 500 000.

August 26, 1990. The Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. A sold out (30 000) concert encore featured Stevie, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Cray. Shortly before 1am, the helicopter carrying Stevie back to Chicago crashed only seconds after take off.  Stevie was killed.

Stevie’s legacy cannot be underestimated.  He was arguably responsible for making the blues popular again during the lean times of the late 1970s and 1980s.  Like both Robert Johnson and Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s technique and equipment are the stuff of legends.

Many words have been written on the subject of Stevie’s gear, and how he got his tone.  Everyone from his guitar technicians, various audience members, to guitar salesmen, and other musicians have their own ideas and opinions on exactly what Stevie Ray Vaughan used.  There is a lot of fact and also a lot of fiction. 

From the type of amplifiers used, and how those seen on stage might not have actually been the ones used, to the type of guitar leads used, to the exact specifications of the components changed in his distortion pedal, are all regularly discussed topics when talking about Stevie Ray. 

He regularly used Fender Stratocaster guitars, but modified them, and used heavier strings, and a left-handed tremolo arm (Jimi Hendrix played left handed, but used a right handed guitar upside down). His amplifiers were modified and very specific. 

If you combine the “Robert Johson selling his soul to the Devil” mysticism, with the effect that John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers album hads when it was released, and  Jimi Hendrix’s talent and ability, you are still not even close to discovering what  effect Stevie Ray Vaughan had on the blues.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's influences can be heard on almost every modern blues release, and the blues is popular again. Many of the younger generation of blues afficionados owe their love of the blues to Stevie Ray Vaughan. His reworking of classic blues songs, and his respect for the elder statesmen of the blues has allowed people to trace the history of the blues, and in turn disover many more blues artists.

I personally discovered SRV through a review of a boxed set of SRV and Double Trouble.  The review basically said that if you like the blues you should buy it, and if you are a guitarist, you should buy it. Being a blues loving guitar player, I bought it. And love it.  I have gone on to buy all of SRV’s albums and discovered a lot more about him.

“I use heavy strings, tune low, play hard and floor it. Floor it. That’s technical talk” SRV

“In late ’68, I heard a tape of Albert king and decided to dedicate myself to the blues. Listening to the great bluesmen – how they played so well and were so relaxed – really inspired me. I’m still trying to play that way. I’ll probably pursue that the rest of my life” SRV