Artist of the Week II

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan, sometimes simply referred to as SRV, is best known for his amazing guitar skills. It has been twenty years since he passed away and Stevie has yet to stop influencing musicians everywhere.

Stephen Ray Vaughan was born on October 3rd, 1954 in Dallas, Texas. He began playing guitar in 1963, just nine years old. Stevie was very influenced by his older brother Jimmie, who was three years older than him and would go on to form The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Stevie and his brother were both very influenced by great blues artists such as Albert Collins, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Joe Perry.

In 1970, Vaughan was working at a local burger joint called Dairy Mart. One night when he was standing on a barrel of grease to clean out the trash bins, the top fell through and he landed in grease up to his chest. At that moment, Stevie decided to quit his job and pursue music as a full time career.

The next year he dropped out of high school during Christmas break and moved to Austin with his R&B band named Blackbird. Stevie left Blackbird in 1972.

In 1973, Stevie joined the rock band Krackerjack but quit a few months later when the lead singer suggested they wore makeup on stage.

Later that year, he was invited by Marc Benno to join The Nightcrawlers. The band traveled to L.A. to record an album for A&M Records, but the label refused to release it. Disappointed, the band went home to Texas. The album was never released until 2009 by Blue Skunk Music.

Back home, Stevie found his "first wife." One day in '73 he purchased a battered Fender Stratocaster from Ray Henning's Heart of Texas. Vaughan always claimed it was a '59, but it has been discovered that the body is stamped saying 1963, and the neck says 1962. Stevie fell in love with this guitar and named it Number One. He used it for most of his career.

SRV showing Number One some love.

Stevie left The Nightcrawlers to play with popular Austin R&B band Paul Ray and the Cobras in 1974. For the next two and a half years, Stevie would continue to develop his style playing in Austin clubs about five nights a week.
The Cobras won Band of the Year in an Austin music poll in 1977. In September of that year, Stevie left the band and formed Triple Threat Revue (the word "Revue" was eventually dropped).
In 1978, Triple Threat became Double Trouble. The lineup consisted of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton, Fredde Pharoh, Johnny Reno, and Jackie Newhouse.
In early 1980, Barton left Double Trouble. This is when Stevie began to use his full name and the band eventually became more commonly known as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

In 1982, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble were recommended by producer Jerry Wexler to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The band was booked to play on an acoustic night of the festival and was therefore booed offstage. However, this performance signaled the beginning of a blues revival.

David Bowie heard their performance in Switzerland and was impressed. He asked Vaughan to play on his latest album and tour. Stevie played guitar on Bowie's 1983 release Let's Dance, which was a great stepping stone for him. Just two days before Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour began Vaughan backed out to focus on Double Trouble. 
Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne was also impressed with the band and offered to let them use his recording in L.A. studio for three days. Double Trouble was able to record an album's worth of music in 1982.

Double Trouble scored a record deal with Epic Records thanks to producer John Hammond. The band used the material they recorded during the three day stay at Browne's studio to release their debut album, Texas Flood, which was release on June 13, 1983. Texas Flood became one of the most popular blues albums in years, which came as a great surprise to Stevie. It peaked at #64 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

One of Vaughan's best known songs, "Pride and Joy" was recorded on this album.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble recorded and released their second studio album in 1984 and it's called Couldn't Stand the Weather. This album was also successful and Vaughan began to gain recognition in Europe.

The day after Stevie's thirtieth birthday, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble played at New York City's Carnegie Hall alongside several guests, one of them being Jimmie Vaughan.

Also in 1984, Vaughan won two W.C. Handy National Blues Awards, one for Entertainer of the Year and another for Blues Instrumentalist of the Year.

SRV and Double Trouble released their third studio album on September 30, 1985 titled Soul to Soul. This album saw the addition of keyboardist Reese Wynans. Around this time, Vaughan's use of cocaine and alcoholism became extremely heavy.

With live performances compiled from the band's July 16, 1985 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival (which received better reception by the audience than their performance in '82), July 17-18, 1986 performances at the Austin Opera House, and July 19 performance at Dallas Starfest, the band released their first live album, Live Alive, on November 15, 1986.

During Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's European Tour 1986, Stevie became very ill on their September 29th show in London, England after years of drug abuse. He struggled to play that one last show before checking into a London clinic where he was under the care of Dr. Victor Bloom, who had helped fellow musicians Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton with their heroin addictions. The clinic suggested Vaughan enter a rehabilitation center in Atlanta Georgia. While the last thirteen shows of the tour were canceled, Stevie became sober on October 13, 1986.

For part of its spring break coverage, MTV aired the band's performance in Daytona Beach, Florida in spring of 1987.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble performed for former president George H.W. Bush's inaugural party in 1989 in Washington D.C.

Later that year, on June 6th, the band released their fourth studio album, In Step. The title referred to Vaughan's sobriety and would be the last album he would record with Double Trouble. In Step won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

On January 30, 1990, Vaughan played on MTV Unplugged with an acoustic twelve string guitar.

On September 25 of that year, Stevie and his brother Jimmie (together as the Vaughan Brothers) released a blues-rock album titled Family Style. It's the first and last album they ever made together. In fact, it's the last album SRV recorded at all. The end of the liner notes of Family Style say "Thanks Mama V. for letting us play."

By mid August, all five of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's albums had went gold, selling over 1,000,000 copies each.

On August 26, 1990, Vaughan played a sold out show to an audience of 30,000 people at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. The concert featured an encore jam with Stevie, Jimmie, Robert Cray, Eric Clapton, and Buddy Guy.

After the show, on August 27, roughly before 1:00 AM, Stevie got on a helicopter which was on its way to Chicago. It crashed merely seconds after takeoff, killing Vaughan. Four days after his death, funeral services were held in Dallas, Texas with over 1,500 people attending and approximately 3,000 more outside the chapel. Several posthumous albums have been released after Stevie's death with great success.

Yesterday the world reluctantly celebrated the 20th anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan's death.

Memorial for Stevie Ray Vaughan in Austin, Texas.
Rest in Peace.