Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan (born October 3, 1954, Dallas, Texas, U.S.—died August 27, 1990, East Troy, Wisconsin) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist best known for his boisterous, sometimes frenetic, guitar-playing style that heralded a revival of blues-rock music during the mid-1980s. Vaughan released six albums during his career, which was cut short by his death at age 35. The prominent American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Vaughan as the 12th best guitarist on its 2015 list of the top 100 guitarists.

Early life

Stevie Ray Vaughan grew up in Dallas, the youngest son of Jimmie Lee Vaughn, an asbestos worker, and Martha Jean Vaughan, a secretary. As a child he was inspired by his brother Jimmie, who played the guitar; Vaughan began to play the instrument at age seven. Together they listened to the music of great blues guitarists such as B.B. King, Albert King, and Freddie King and rock guitarists such as Lonnie Mack and Jimi Hendrix. Vaughan was also influenced by jazz guitarists Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. By 1969 Vaughan was playing guitar with local bands. At age 17 he dropped out of high school and relocated to Austin, Texas, with his first band (a blues outfit called Blackbird). He played with other Austin-area bands in the early 1970s, including the Cobras, a popular group, in 1975. He developed his own project, called Triple Threat Revue, with vocalist Lou Ann Barton in 1977.

Career

After the departure of several members from Triple Threat Revue in 1978, Barton and Vaughan renamed the band Double Trouble in honour of a song by the same name by American blues guitarist Otis Rush. When Barton left Double Trouble in 1979, Vaughan and the band’s remaining members (drummer Chris Layton and bassist Jack Newhouse) continued to perform under the name Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, which had become a power trio, with Vaughan taking over the vocalist role. Vaughan and the band continued to perform in Texas clubs and built a considerable local reputation, especially after the addition of bassist Tommy Shannon in 1981; they were invited to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1982 and were a hit. Impressed by their performance, British singer-songwriter David Bowie hired Vaughan to play on his album Let’s Dance (1983). Talent scout John Hammond, also impressed by the band, soon signed Vaughan and Double Trouble to a contract with Epic Records.

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Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble released four studio albums during Vaughan’s lifetime. Their first album, the hard-edged, blues-influenced Texas Flood (1983), peaked at number 38 on the Billboard album chart. It featured two singles, “Love Struck Baby” and a blues shuffle called “Pride and Joy,” the latter reaching number 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Vaughan’s guitar sound on Texas Flood—a bold, over-driven tone shaped by a Fender Stratocaster played through vintage amplifiers—became his signature.

Texas Flood was followed by Couldn’t Stand the Weather (1984) and Soul to Soul (1985), which reached number 31 and number 34, respectively, on the Billboard album chart. Couldn’t Stand the Weather featured three remakes of blues classics, “The Things (That) I Used to Do” by American blues guitarist Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones), “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” by Hendrix, and “Cold Shot” by W.C. Clark and Michael Kindred. All three were released as singles.

During the mid-1980s Vaughan struggled with substance abuse. While on tour in Germany in 1986 he collapsed onstage, and he entered a London treatment centre shortly thereafter. The band released a live double album called Live Alive later that year. It was the group’s last until In Step (1989), the gap being the result of writing and recording limitations imposed on Vaughan during divorce proceedings from his wife Lenora Bailey. In Step peaked at number 33 on the Billboard album chart. It contained the band’s first number one hit, “Crossfire,” along with “The House Is Rockin’,” “Tightrope,” and “Wall of Denial,” a song about his addiction and rehabilitation. In Step also earned a Grammy Award for best contemporary blues album in 1989, the second of six Grammy awards he would win during his lifetime.

Death

Vaughan lost his life early on August 27, 1990, after a performance at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin. Vaughan and Double Trouble had joined British rock guitarist Eric Clapton and other blues musicians on Clapton’s tour of the United States that summer, and Vaughan along with three members of Clapton’s road staff were killed in a helicopter crash shortly after takeoff from the theatre’s grounds. The albums Family Style (1990), which was recorded with his brother Jimmie, and The Sky Is Crying (1991), which was recorded with Double Trouble, were released posthumously. Both debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard album chart. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

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