Tony's Guitarist Picks - Stevie Ray Vaughan

Alpine Valley,
In the middle of the night,
Six strings down,
On the heaven-bound flight,
Got a pick, a strap, guitar on his back,
Ain’t gonna cut the angels no slack,
Heaven done called,
Another blues-stringer back home…

-          Jimmie Vaughan, Six Strings Down

Music in the early 1980s left a lot to be desired.  Led Zeppelin called it a day in 1980 after John Bonham died.  The Who were running out of gas after Keith Moon died.  The Allman Brothers Band broke up for the second time in 1982 after putting out two very shitty albums for Arista.  Synth pop from the likes of the Human League, Soft Cell, and A Flock of Seagulls dominated the airwaves.  Michael Jackson’s Thriller reigned supreme.  Lionel Richie’s solo career was in full flight.  Hall & Oates were very popular.  Hair metal was beginning to take off.  We were inundated with crappy music from the likes of Night Ranger, Motley Crüe, Quiet Riot, White Lion, and Poison.  If you turned on the radio, within 10 minutes Def Leppard would be on.  For people like me who like their blues-based music, the early 1980s was a musical wasteland.  Then, when all seemed lost, there was a ray of sunlight.

It all started with David Bowie.  In 1983 he released Let’s Dance.  KILO-94 in Colorado Springs played the hell out of the singles – Modern Love, China Girl, and Let’s Dance.  But one day they played a deep track – Cat People (Putting Out Fire).  That song had something I hadn’t heard from a Bowie song in a long time – raw, fiery guitar playing.  It quickly got my attention.  I had to find out who that guy was.   On the strength of that one song I bought an album, which I don’t usually do.  I found out who the guitar player was – a Texan named Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Shortly after Let’s Dance, SRV released his own album, Texas Flood.  Love Struck Baby and Pride and Joy got lots of much-welcomed airplay.  Blues-rock was going to make a comeback, and Stevie Ray Vaughan led the way.  I wasn’t alone in thinking that.  Dickey Betts once said this:  “Stevie Ray Vaughan singlehandedly brought guitar- and blues-oriented music back to the marketplace.  He was just so good and strong that he would not be denied.  When I heard Pride and Joy on the radio, I said ‘Hallelujah.’”

Couldn’t Stand the Weather came out in 1984, followed by Soul to Soul the following year.  Couldn’t Stand the Weather was almost a carbon copy of Texas Flood, but he did show the world that he was a devotee of Jimi Hendrix.  The title track, Cold Shot, and Voodoo Child [Slight Return] got a lot of airplay on KILO-94.  Keyboardist Reese Wynans joined Double Trouble for Soul to Soul and stayed until the end.  His Hammond B-3 gave Double Trouble a fuller sound, and his piano was another solo instrument added to the mix.  These albums saw more sides of SRV’s talent and taste – hard psychedelic rock and jazz were added to the hard-core Texas blues one would expect from SRV & Double Trouble.  While he recognized and honored those of who influenced him, he also began to write more original material.

Carol and I were fortunate enough to see SRV & Double Trouble in concert three days before we got married in 1987.  We saw him in Pueblo, Colorado at the Colorado State Fairgrounds.  Gregg Allman opened the show.  I’m No Angel was a hit at the time, and he played plenty of Allman Brothers tunes.  It was the first time of ten times that we saw Gregg, but the only time we got to see SRV.  SRV wasn’t a big guy, but that night he was a giant on-stage.  I don’t remember the exact setlist, but I do remember that I heard everything I wanted to hear.  That feat doesn’t happen very often, but since he had only four albums to his credit at the time, it was easier for him to do that than others who had been around a lot longer.  I thought there would be more chances to see SRV in the future, but it wasn’t to be.  About a week before I was to deploy to Saudi Arabia to support Operation Desert Shield, I got the word on the radio he had been killed in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin.  He had one album with his brother Jimmie in the can [Family Style] a copy of which Carol sent to me when I was in the desert.  I played the hell out of it and In Step when I was in the sandbox.

SRV’s Heroes.  Albert King, Buddy Guy, Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins, big brother Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, BB King, Howlin’ Wolf, Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Kenny Burrell, Jimi Hendrix.

Hendrix.  Texas Flood was all about the blues.  In 1984 the follow-up, Couldn’t Stand the Weather, came out.  This album had a surprise – an astounding cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child [Slight Return].  Hendrix was [and still is] the gold standard for guitar players.  SRV had the stones to tackle Hendrix, and it didn’t suck.  Not only did it not suck, I’ll make a bold statement and say SRV’s version is as good as the original.  On Soul to Soul, SRV covered Hendrix again.  Actually, the song in question, Come On [Part III], was an Earl King song covered by Hendrix on Electric Ladyland.  SRV’s version has the same arrangement as Hendrix, and SRV’s version is better than Hendrix’s.   On the posthumous release The Sky Is Crying, there is a version of Little Wing that SRV recorded during the Couldn’t Stand the Weather sessions.  The expanded Soul to Soul has a live version of Little Wing coupled with Third Stone From the Sun.  Where Jimi Hendrix was concerned, SRV was most definitely “dialed in.”

Take the Voodoo Child [Slight Return] taste challenge…

Voodoo Child [Slight Return] – SRV & Double Trouble

Voodoo Child [Slight Return] - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Lonnie Mack.  SRV once said that Lonnie Mack’s Wham! was the first record he ever owned.  A wonderful version of the song Wham! can be found on The Sky Is Crying.  Scuttle Buttin’, which is the lead track from Couldn’t Stand the Weather, is SRV’s instrumental homage to Lonnie Mack’s Chicken Pickin’.  SRV produced Lonnie Mack’s 1985 blues-rock comeback for Alligator Records, Strike Like Lightning.  It was Lonnie Mack’s first album in seven years. Not only does SRV produce, he also plays second guitar throughout the album.  For getting Lonnie Mack back into a recording studio, that fact alone should get SRV enshrined in some kind of Hall of Fame.

Live at Carnegie Hall.  This is another posthumous release.  Unlike most things released after a musician’s death, this one did not scream “cash in.”  This live document could easily have been released during SRV’s lifetime.  It is a much better live album than Live Alive.  The concert was recorded at Carnegie Hall on October 4^th, 1984 – the day after SRV turned 30.  The show was a benefit for the T.J Martell Foundation that funds medical research focused on finding cures for leukemia, cancer, and AIDS.  In addition to SRV and his band Double Trouble, other musicians played as well, including Dr. John, Jimmie Vaughan, Angela Strehli, and the Roomful of Blues horns.  These were no mere guest appearances – the additional musicians augmented SRV & Double Trouble throughout most of the set.  The set included songs from Texas Flood and Couldn’t Stand the Weather, but there were some songs in the set that SRV hadn’t recorded.  I can think of only one adjective to describe the show – blistering.  It’s one of the best live CDs I own.

The set:

Scuttle Buttin’ / Testifyin’ / Love Struck Baby / Honey bee / Cold Shot / Letter to My Girlfriend / Dirty Pool / Pride and Joy / The Things That I Used to Do / C.O.D. / Iced Over / Lenny / Rude Mood

Songs recorded for [but not included on the CD]: Voodoo Child [Slight Return], The Sky Is Crying.  They later appeared on the SRV box set.

Life By the Drop.   Sometimes the quietest thing can make the biggest statement.  SRV didn’t play the acoustic guitar much.  For Life By the Drop, SRV played an acoustic 12-string guitar.  Written by songwriting partner Doyle Bramhall, it’s about the friendship between two recovering addicts [Bramhall and SRV].  Recorded after completion of the In Step album for some future release, Life By the Drop is the last song on The Sky Is Crying.  Of all the songs in SRV’s catalog, this one has perhaps the most emotional impact on any listener.

Life By the Drop

The gear:

SRV’s main guitar was a beat-up ’62 Stratocaster he called ‘Number One.”  He liked big necks on his guitars.  Fender made necks in terms of size A, B, C, and D, D being the biggest.  SRV had “D” necks with jumbo Gibson frets.  Some used to say the frets were bass frets, but according to his guitar tech Rene Martinez that wasn’t the case.  With the big necks, SRV also liked to used heavy strings.  The string gauges from high to low were .013, .015, .019, .028, .038, and .058.  His strings had high action and tuned down half a step, and given how heavy they were he must have had superhuman strength in those hands to do the stringbendng he liked to do.  “Lenny” was a brown-stain ’65 Strat that SRV found in an Austin pawn shop.  Not only would SRV record his instrumental “Lenny” [song and guitar named for his wife] for Texas Flood, he also used the instrument to record my favorite SRV instrumental, Riviera Paradise [from In Step]. If you want a ‘Lenny’ replica, be prepared to part with $13,500.  He had a ’62 Strat which he called ‘Red,” a single pickup yellow Strat, and a white Strat with lipstick pickups [like you’d find on a Danelectro] that was modified by luthier Charlie Wirz, for whom SRV wrote Life Without You for Soul to Soul.  If he played anything other than a Stratocaster, I never saw it.

For amps, two Fender Super Reverbs; a 150-watt Dumble Steel String Singer with a 4x12 Dumble bottom; a 250-watt Marshall Major head with a 4x12 Dumble bottom; a Fender Vibroverb with one 15” speaker that was used to power a Leslie-type Fender Vibrophone with a rotating speaker.

For pedals, he used vintage ‘60s wah-wahs, a vintage Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, a ‘60s Tycobrahe Octavia, and Ibanez Tube Screamers.

His playing:

I can describe his playing in one word – intense.  Not only intense, but LOUD.  He did the multi-step bends Albert King; the jazzy leanings of Kenny Burrell, and the chord-melodies of Hendrix.  That’s quite a musical stew.  Of SRV’s last performance, Eric Clapton had this to say – “Stevie Ray had been sober for three years and was at his peak. When he played that night, he had all of us standing there with our jaws dropped. I mean, Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan and Buddy Guy were just watching in awe. There was no one better than him on this planet. Really unbelievable…”

The iPod list:

Texas Flood

Love Struck Baby / Pride and Joy / Texas Flood / Testify / Rude Mood / Mary Had a Little Lamb / Dirty Pool / Lenny

Couldn’t Stand the Weather

Scuttle Buttin’ / Couldn’t Stand the Weather / The Things That I Used to Do / Voodoo Child [Slight Return] / Cold Shot

Soul to Soul

Say What! / Lookin’ Out the Window / Look at Little Sister / Ain’t Gone ‘n’ Give Up on Love / Change It / Come On [Part III] / Life Without You / Little Wing-Third Stone From the Sun

Live Alive

Superstition / Willie the Wimp

In Step

The House Is Rockin’ / Crossfire / Tightrope / Let Me Love You Baby / Leave My Girl Alone / Travis Walk / Wall of Denial / Scratch-n-Sniff / Riviera Paradise

Family Style

Hard to Be / Hillbillies From Outerspace / Long Way From Home / Telephone Song

The Sky Is Crying

Boot Hill / The Sky Is Crying / Little Wing / Wham! / May I Have a Talk With You / Life By the Drop

SRV [Box Set]

If You Have To Know / I'm Leavin' You (Commit A Crime) (Live) / Rude Mood/Pipeline (Live) / The Sky Is Crying (Live) / Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (Live) / Crossfire (Live)

Live at Carnegie Hall – the whole thing!

Stevie Ray Vaughan was great.  I try to visit him whenever I’m in Dallas.  I still miss him…