| Stevie Ray Vaughan |
Stevie Ray Vaughan performing on Austin City Limits in 1989 |
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Stephen Ray Vaughan |
| Also known as |
SRV |
| Born |
October 3, 1954(1954-10-03)
Dallas, Texas |
| Died |
August 27, 1990(1990-08-27) (aged 35)
East Troy, Wisconsin |
| Genres |
Blues rock, electric blues, Texas blues, instrumental rock |
| Occupations |
Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments |
Guitar, vocals |
| Years active |
1965 (1965)–1990 (1990) |
| Labels |
Epic, Legacy, Sony |
| Associated acts |
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Roomful of Blues, Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker |
| Website |
srvofficial.com |
| Notable instruments |
| Fender Stratocaster |
Stephen Ray "Stevie" Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American guitarist, singer-songwriter, and recording artist. Often referred to by his initials, SRV, he is best known as the leader of the blues rock band Double Trouble, with whom he recorded four studio albums. Influenced by guitarists of various genres, Vaughan emphasized intensity and emotion in his guitar playing, and favored vintage guitars and amplifiers. He became the leading musician of the blues rock sound, and encompassed multiple styles, including jazz and ballads.
Born and raised in Dallas as the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan, he moved to Austin at the age of 17, and became involved with the Austin live music scene; he formed a band, Triple Threat Revue, that evolved into Double Trouble in 1978. Accompanied by drummer Chris Layton, bassist Tommy Shannon, and later, keyboardist Reese Wynans, Vaughan became an important figure in Texas blues, a loud, swing-driven fusion of blues and rock. Double Trouble's debut Epic album, Texas Flood (1983), was a breakthrough success, though he entered a long period of alcohol and drug addiction. In 1986, he successfully completed rehabilitation and ultimately released In Step (1989). On August 27, 1990, while departing a concert venue by helicopter in East Troy, Wisconsin, Vaughan was killed when the helicopter crashed into the side of a ski hill. His death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and as many as 3,000 people reportedly attended his public memorial service in Dallas.
Vaughan has received critical recognition for his guitar playing, ranked at #7 on Rolling Stone's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists" in 2003. He ranked #3 on Classic Rock magazine's list of "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes" in 2007. Vaughan won six Grammy Awards, including Best Contemporary Blues Performance for In Step. Vaughan was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2000 and won five W.C. Handy Awards. As of 2012, Vaughan has sold over 11.5 million albums with Double Trouble.
Life and career
Early life (1954–1964)
Stephen Ray Vaughan was born on October 3, 1954, the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan, at Methodist Hospital in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, a community southwest of the central business district. His mother, Martha Jean Cook, was a secretary, and his father, Jimmie Lee "Big Jim" Vaughan, was an asbestos worker, who was a US Navy veteran of World War II. Throughout his childhood, Vaughan lived in several different cities. Martha acknowledged that the family traveled when Big Jim didn't find work in Dallas. In July 1997, Jimmie recalled their early childhood:
It wasn't really a comfortable 'Leave It to Beaver' kind of a deal, you know. There was a lot of tension, and there was moving all the time, and never really getting to know people ... on the highway all the time and going to school for two weeks here and three weeks here ... It was the absolute perfect training for us to do what we did ... They were great parents, and my mother's the sweetest mother in the world. And I love my dad. There was a lot of happy times and it wasn't all weird and crazy, but there was a lot of that too. We didn't ever know what our old man was gonna do, you know. He'd go off like a rocket. [But] we had the absolute best parents in the world for being the guitar players that we are, when I look back on it now.
After watching Jimmie begin playing guitar, Vaughan became fascinated with the instrument, and when he turned seven, Big Jim bought him a toy guitar from Sears. Among the first songs he learned to play were "Wine, Wine, Wine" and "Thunderbird" by the Nightcaps, a Texan garage rock band formed in the 1950s. He also learned to play songs by Jimmy Reed, which ignited Vaughan's love for blues music. Vaughan would spend hours playing along to records note for note and soon became consumed with playing the instrument; he would often practice to records that Jimmie brought home, which exposed him to guitarists such as Lonnie Mack, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King. One of the first to take notice was musician Doyle Bramhall, who said that Vaughan "had it from the get-go", and collaborated with Vaughan extensively in later years.
Vaughan attended Justin F. Kimball High School and was described by Vaughan as "beserk". He often would receive a note from the principal every day stating that his appearance was unacceptable to attend school. After failing music theory, Vaughan briefly attended Southern Methodist University after winning a scholarship to an evening experimental art class. He later fondly spoke of the class, saying: "It was a night class and it was a few kids from all over the city. It was completely wide open. We brought records and talked and worked. If you were working on a piece of sculpture and you decided to come in and smash it, you did it. If you wanted to look at it, you did that. The class was great, I learned a lot in it, but it was on the nights when I was supposed to be rehearsing."
Early career and Double Trouble (1965–1982)
Vaughan began performing with bands at age 10, playing bass guitar in Jimmie's band, Texas Storm, and forming his own group, Blackbird. He made his first recordings with Cast of Thousands, a group that featured future actor, Stephen Tobolowsky, on vocals. By the time he entered high school, Vaughan began getting paid for late-night performances in local bars and clubs, leaving him exhausted for class the next morning. After Jimmie moved out of the home at age 15, Vaughan's parents were starting to express apprehension on his career choice. He took a job washing dishes at a local dairy mart for $0.70 an hour, later falling into a barrel of grease. He ultimately quit and devoted his life to being a professional musician:
When I was about twelve, I had been a dishwasher for a while, and part of my job was to clean out the trash bin. That involved standing on these big 55-gallon barrels with wooden lids on them, where they'd put all the hot grease.
One day I was out there cleaning out the bin, having a blast, and the top broke and I fell in. Just as I finally got out—I'd been up to my chest in grease—they came with two fresh hot vats of boiling grease and I got out just in time. If I'd taken a break later, I would have been a fried guy! The woman fired me because I broke the lids on the barrel, and right then and there I decided, 'Wait a minute. This is not what I want to do. I want to play guitar like Albert King!' And that's the last job I've had other than playing guitar. So, thank you, Albert, for helping me there.
Vaughan left school after seven weeks of his senior year and moved with Blackbird to Austin, Texas. Upon arrival, Vaughan recalls that he lived in a club called Rolling Hills—which later became the Soap Creek Saloon—and slept on either the pool table, stage, or floor, though he also said that it was one of his favorite times. In December 1972, Blackbird reformed as Krackerjack and included bassist, Tommy Shannon. After two months Vaughan parted with the band to join Marc Benno and the Nightcrawlers, which included singer, Doyle Bramhall. With the help of producer, David Anderle, the Nightcrawlers recorded an album at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood for A&M Records. Vaughan co-wrote two of the songs from the album including "Crawlin'" and "Dirty Pool". When co-founder, Jerry Moss, suggested adding horns to the album, Benno refused. As a result A&M shelved the project, and the Nightcrawlers returned to Texas without Benno. The group continued to perform in venues like the Armadillo World Headquarters only to break up a year later. In 2006, the recordings were later released by Blue Skunk Music.
In 1975 Vaughan joined guitarist, Denny Freeman, in Paul Ray and the Cobras, a group that appeared weekly at the Soap Creek Saloon. After two years of performances, Paul Ray was diagnosed with nodes on his throat, leaving the vocal duties to Vaughan during his absence. This prompted Vaughan to quit the Cobras and form a group called Triple Threat Revue, which included vocalist Lou Ann Barton, bassist W. C. Clark, and drummer Fredde "Pharoah" Walden. After Clark left to form his own band, he was replaced by Jackie Newhouse, and the group was renamed Double Trouble after a song by Otis Rush. Chris Layton replaced Walden after he quit the band in July 1978. Barton was later fired due to a drunken incident following a performance, and Double Trouble became a power trio. Tommy Shannon, who played with Vaughan in Krackerjack, replaced Newhouse after attending a Double Trouble performance in Houston.
Texas Flood, Couldn't Stand the Weather and Carnegie Hall (1983–1984)
Stevie Ray Vaughan performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1982.
In 1983 Vaughan contributed to David Bowie's album, Let's Dance; the album sold over three times as many copies as Bowie's previous best-seller. Vaughan was invited to join Bowie's band for the Serious Moonlight Tour, but Vaughan declined at the urging of his management. Double Trouble's reputation began to build, and a July 1982 appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival brought them to the attention of record producer John H. Hammond. In March 1983, Double Trouble signed with Epic Records, a subsidiary of CBS Records. In June of the same year Epic remixed and released Texas Flood. The album had spawned several singles, including "Pride and Joy", "Love Struck Baby", and "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
In the fall of 1983 Double Trouble opened 17 shows for The Moody Blues; the band received $5,000 per show, plus a bonus for successful ticket sales. In December 1983, Double Trouble performed for a taping of Austin City Limits; the show aired on February 28, 1984, and featured Jimmie's band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Producer, Terry Lickona, agreed that Vaughan's performance was "a combination of nervous, paranoid, and so insecure", saying that he had "zero self-confidence" and was "sweating big-time the whole night". Double Trouble also performed a sold-out show in New York City's Beacon Theatre, with Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger in attendance. By the end of 1983, Texas Flood received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional Blues Recording. "Rude Mood" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Couldn't Stand the Weather, Double Trouble's second album, was released in 1984 to generally favorable reviews. Allmusic gave positive, although reserved, feedback, saying that there aren't "many weaknesses on the record, aside from the suspicion that Vaughan didn't really push himself as hard as he could have". Music critic Robert Christgau called it "a roadhouse album with gargantuan sonic imagination". The album was commercially successful, and while it did not receive better accolades, it peaked at number 31 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
On October 4, 1984, Double Trouble performed a sold-out benefit concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall. In celebration of Vaughan's thirtieth birthday, the show featured many special guests including the Roomful of Blues horn section, keyboardist Dr. John, Jimmie Vaughan, vocalist Angela Strehli, and drummer George Rains. The band wore custom velvet "mariachi" suits and designed a stage set of blue and gold. Vaughan originally planned to film the performance for future video release, though CBS Records declined. Strehli recalls: "...it was supposed to be videoed and at the last minute they pulled some kind of union thing: 'Well, this show is going to run past eleven, so that means we get double time.' So they had to cancel the video part, which is just a shame."
Stevie Ray Vaughan performing at Carnegie Hall.
The concert was sold-out with Vaughan's closest friends, and family in the audience; the proceeds benefited the T.J. Martell Foundation's work in leukemia and cancer research. Vaughan was extremely excited and nervous, saying: "The last time I was that nervous is when I got married, but I couldn't show that to anybody ... I calmed down about halfway through 'Voodoo Chile.' I looked over at Tommy [Shannon], and he was just sort of staring at me, and that's when I knew it was gonna be all right." An afterparty was thrown by MTV for the band, record company, and other VIPs. According to the Dallas Times Herald, it took Vaughan an hour just to walk from the bar to the table across the room where his parents were sitting; the article also said, "Stevie Ray found his father, a retired asbestos worker who hadn't taken a plane ride since the Korean War, and hugged him until they both cried." After the show, Jimmie recalled that he was worried that the crowd would have been "a little stiff", saying "[It] turned out they're just like any other beer joint."
Following the Carnegie Hall performance, Double Trouble toured Australia and New Zealand, performing two shows at the Sydney Opera House. With increasing exposure, Vaughan's talent earned him two W. C. Handy Awards. He was the first white musician to receive Entertainer of the Year and Instrumentalist of the Year. Vaughan also co-produced and played on Lonnie Mack's album Strike Like Lightning. Released in April 1985, the album become Alligator Records' best seller.
Soul to Soul and substance abuse (1985–1986)
In April 1985, Vaughan appeared on opening day at the Houston Astrodome to perform "The Star Spangled Banner". Although he was the first guitarist to have opened a major league baseball game with the national anthem, Vaughan supposedly did not receive a positive reception for the rendition; one reporter said, "I was sure he'd be dead by the time he hit 30." Double Trouble's third studio album, titled Soul to Soul, was released on September 30, 1985, and featured new keyboardist Reese Wynans. Vaughan suggested that the album was named Soul to Soul because the band "learned a lot" and "grew a lot closer". Two singles from the album—"Change It" and "Look at Little Sister"—both peaked at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
In March 1986, Double Trouble shared the bill with The Fabulous Thunderbirds during a tour of Australia and New Zealand. The band recorded live concerts across three nights of a subsequent US tour in Austin and Dallas. These recordings, along with a 1985 appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, were released as Live Alive on November 17, 1986. The album included a previously unreleased cover of Stevie Wonder's song "Superstition". Vaughan later admitted that the album wasn't his best, saying, "I wasn't in very good shape when we recorded Live Alive. At the time, I didn't realize how bad a shape I was in. There were more fix-it jobs done on the album than I would have liked. Some of the work sounds like [it was] the work of half-dead people. There were some great notes that came out, but I just wasn't in control; nobody was."
Vaughan developed a serious alcohol and cocaine habit while touring with Double Trouble; his performance contract called for two fifths of Crown Royal and one fifth of Smirnoff. His cocaine use increased to a quarter-ounce a day (about seven grams) and spiraled into a life-threatening dependency. Doyle Bramhall recalls that there were "mounds of cocaine laying on top of the organ", saying, "Where I was doing a lot, Stevie was doing five times, ten times more than I was doing." Vaughan's stomach became fiercely scarred from dissolving half a gram of cocaine in alcohol, leaving hundreds of small cuts in the stomach lining. During a tour of Europe a month later, Vaughan was hospitalized in Ludwigshafen, who suffered from near-death dehydration after years of alcohol and substance abuse. Tommy Shannon said that as Vaughan tried to get up from his hotel bed, he vomited all over his chest and was covered with a puddle of blood. Layton recalled:
We called an ambulance, and these German medics showed up in long white coats, shouting German to one another. They pulled out I.V.'s and we were screaming, 'Hey! Wait a minute! What the hell's going on?' They spoke not a word of English, and we spoke no German. They put I.V.'s in him, and they wanted to take him to the hospital. We were yelling, 'Where are you taking him? What's happening? How will we find him?' They were giving him saline solution because they'd determined, by looking at his eyes and checking his vital signs, that he was suffering from near-death dehydration. They were trying to hydrate him. While he was laying on the bed, I looked into his eyes, and it was like looking into the eyes of a dead deer on the side of the road. They were almost dry, with no life in them. I got scared shitless.
All of a sudden, the life came back into his eyes, and he said, 'I need help,' real weakly. I took that as the moment where he realized this has got to change. Not like, 'I need to get better so I can go back to doing what I've been doing,' but 'everything has to change.'
Rehabilitation and final years (1986–1990)
Vaughan was urged by a doctor to check into Peachford Hospital, a drug rehabilitation clinic in Atlanta, to begin a full recovery. About a month later, he checked out of Peachford and went back to touring. Fully recovered and healthy, Vaughan began living a more spiritual, ascetic lifestyle. He became more health-conscious and quit smoking cigarettes. To maintain his sobriety and prevent a relapse, Vaughan removed a stipulation for being provided with alcohol backstage.
In October 1988, Vaughan began recording his fourth studio album with Double Trouble, In Step (1989); he enjoyed the chance the album gave him to express his experience with sobriety. Vaughan brought with him his deep devotion to music and sobriety, which had an impact on the band's positive attitude during the album. His goal to improve his guitar playing on the album was largely driven by a desire to make better music, or as drummer Chris Layton put it, more "essential music". Many of the songs written for In Step were composed during the Live Alive Tour. The album was stylistically unlike their previous albums, with less blues and more original, groove-oriented material.
Vaughan performing at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin on August 25, 1990.
In January 1990, Vaughan gave a speech at an AA meeting; a recording and transcript of the speech have been widely circulated on the internet. On January 30, Vaughan made a guest appearance on MTV Unplugged in New York City, performing "Rude Mood", "Pride and Joy", and "Testify". In March, Vaughan collaborated with his brother, Jimmie, to record Family Style, produced by Nile Rodgers which was released on September 25, 1990. Containing ten songs, the album was a long-awaited project for both brothers; Jimmie said that the sessions "seemed natural" and "almost like we were back home". Vaughan said, "We've probably gotten closer making this record than we have been since we were little kids at home, and I can honestly say I needed it." In August 1990, Double Trouble opened for Eric Clapton during two concerts held at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin. The second of the two shows took place on August 26 and featured a jam session, including Vaughan, with Clapton, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, and Jimmie Vaughan, who performed "Sweet Home Chicago" as the finale to Clapton's set; Clapton introduced them as "the best guitar players in the entire world". Drummer Chris Layton recalled the conversation he had with Vaughan backstage after the show:
The conversation was actually very light; there was nothing heavy in it. It was just like, 'this is a great coupla nights and wasn't it great to be here,' and talked about the record that he and Jimmie just made, how they had a lot of fun and that was exciting. He was looking forward to that coming out and looking forward to us making another record. He was in great spirits. I mean, we just had two great nights and we talked about all kinds of stuff, talked about the son that my wife and I were getting ready to have–we didn't know it was a boy–but just anything and everything. We talked for, I guess, almost 30 minutes.
Then he got up and said, 'I'm gonna go back down to the dressing room for a minute.' I don't know, maybe five minutes or so later, he came back up and he had his jacket on, he had his bags. He was making this turn, and I said, 'Hey, what are you doin'?' And he said, 'I'm gonna go back to Chicago.' I said 'Well, now?' And he said, 'Yeah, I gotta get back. I want to call Janna,' his girlfriend, in New York. I thought, 'Jeez, you could actually call her anywhere and then call her later,' but he turned around and said, 'Call me when you get back. I love you,' and kinda gave me that wink of the eye he would do. And then he was gone. He just disappeared into the night.
Death and memorial
On August 27, 1990, all of the musicians boarded four helicopters bound for Chicago, which were waiting on a nearby golf course. According to a witness, there was reportedly haze and fog of varying intensity with patches of low clouds. Despite the conditions, the pilots were instructed to fly over a 1000-foot ski hill. Vaughan, along with three members of Clapton's entourage, boarded the third of the four helicopters–a Bell 206B Jet Ranger–flying to Meigs Field. At about 12:50 am (CDT), the helicopter departed from an elevation of about 850 feet, veered to the left and crashed into the hill. All of the passengers, including the pilot, Jeff Brown, were killed instantly.
At 4:30 am, Civil Air Patrol was notified of the accident, ultimately locating the crash site almost three hours later. Both Clapton and Jimmie were told to identify the bodies; a Coptic cross necklace, worn by Vaughan, was given to Jimmie. The Walworth County coroner conducted an autopsy and found that Vaughan suffered from multiple internal and skull injuries. The cause of death was officially stated as "exsanguination due to transverse laceration of the aorta". According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a veteran pilot for Alpine Valley suspected that Brown attempted to fly around the ski hill, but misjudged the location. Clapton issued a statement the next day, saying that the victims "were my companions, my associates and my friends. This is a tragic loss of some very special people. I will miss all of them very much."
Vaughan's memorial was held on August 30, 1990, at Laurel Land Cemetery in Dallas, where he was buried next to his father, and was preceded by a private chapel service for close friends and family. Reverend Barry Bailey of the United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, who was Vaughan's AA sponsor, opened the service with personal thoughts: "We're here to thank God for this man's life. He was a genius, a superstar, a musician's musician. He captured the hearts of thousands and thousands of people. I am thankful for the impact of this man's influence on thousands of people in getting his own life together in the name of God." Kim Wilson, Jeff Healey, Charlie Sexton, ZZ Top, Colin James, and Buddy Guy attended the event. Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, and Bonnie Raitt sang "Amazing Grace" at the event. Nile Rodgers gave a eulogy, while a member of the Nightcrawlers read chapters five and eleven from The Big Book, a self-help book by Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1995, the Vaughan family received an undisclosed settlement for wrongful death.
Death aftermath
The Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Statue in Austin.
In the months that followed his death, Vaughan sold over 5.5 million albums in the United States. On September 25, 1990, Epic released Family Style, with several promotional singles and videos. In November 1990, CMV Enterprises released Pride and Joy, a collection of eight Double Trouble music videos. Sony signed a deal with the Vaughan estate to obtain control of his back catalog, as well as permission to release albums with previously unreleased material and new collections of released work. On October 29, 1991, The Sky Is Crying was released as Vaughan's first posthumous album with Double Trouble, and featured studio recordings from 1984–1985. Other compilations, live albums, and films have also been released since his death.
On October 3, 1991, former Texas governor Ann Richards proclaimed "Stevie Ray Vaughan Commemoration Day", during which a memorial concert was held at the Texas Theatre. In 1993, a memorial statue of Vaughan was unveiled on Auditorium Shores and is the first public monument of a musician in Austin. In September 1994, a Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Run for Recovery was held in Dallas; the event was a benefit for the Ethel Daniels Foundation, established to help those in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction who cannot afford treatment. In 2005, Martha Vaughan established the Stevie Ray Vaughan Scholarship, awarded by W.E. Greiner Middle School to students who intend to attend college and pursue the arts as a profession.
Personal relationships
Lenora "Lenny" Vaughan
Vaughan and Lenora "Lenny" Bailey met in 1973 after one of Vaughan's performances with the Nightcrawlers at La Cucaracha, a nightclub in east Austin. Although moved by Vaughan's musical prowess, she was attracted to his charmingly modest personality. Double Trouble's song "Love Struck Baby", he said, was written about her, after claiming July 5 as their "love struck day". The couple were married on December 23, 1979, between sets at the Rome Inn in Austin, using pieces of wire for rings. Drummer, Chris Layton, described the ceremony as "spontaneous", saying, "It wasn't like there was invitations sent out or a certain group of people attended—it was just whoever was there was hanging around." Layton also said their marriage was "pretty excitable and passionate".
Vaughan's manager attributes the demise of their marriage to "jealousy" and "unfaithfulness", and as a result, they were both brokenhearted. Upon return to their home in Austin from touring, Vaughan found the house padlocked, electricity shut off, and Lenny nowhere to be found. Biographers, Joe Nick Patoski and Bill Crawford, wrote that she, "squandered his road earnings on dope while running around with other men that one acquaintance glibly described as 'police characters.'" After she declined to visit Vaughan in treatment for substance abuse, he filed for divorce three months later. The case was settled out of court, with Lenny receiving alimony, plus $50,000 in cash and twenty-five percent of net royalties (excluding albums after Live Alive).
Janna Lapidus
On March 12, 1986, Double Trouble arrived in New Zealand for a performance at the Wellington Town Hall, where Vaughan was sitting outside his hotel room. Lapidus, who was born in Russia, ran into Vaughan on the street and immediately struck up a friendship. In October 1986, while Vaughan was in the London Clinic for substance abuse, Lapidus visited him; they both decided to be together after seeing an older couple in front of them during a walk in Hyde Park.
During Vaughan's last two years before his death, he referred to Lapidus as his fiancée. They often made public appearances together including a commercial for Europa, a New Zealand-owned oil company. They first lived at Vaughan's childhood home in Dallas, then moved to a house on Travis Street on May 3, 1987. Lapidus found modeling work in New York City, and they relocated to a Manhattan apartment at Park Avenue and 24th Street in May 1990, splitting their time between Dallas and New York City.
Musicianship
Influences
Vaughan's music took root in blues, rock, and jazz. He had been influenced by the work of blues artists such as Albert King, B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Guitar Slim, and Muddy Waters. According to nightclub owner Clifford Antone, who opened Antone's in 1975, Vaughan jammed with Albert King at Antone's in July 1977 and almost "scared him to death", saying that "it was the best I've ever saw Albert or the best I ever saw Stevie". He was influenced by rock artists including Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack, along with jazz guitarists like Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, and George Benson. While Albert King had a substantial influence on Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix was Vaughan's greatest inspiration. In reference to Hendrix, Vaughan declared: "I love Hendrix for so many reasons. He was so much more than just a blues guitarist–he played damn well any kind of guitar he wanted. In fact I'm not sure if he even played the guitar–he played music."
Vaughan owed his guitar technique in large part to Lonnie Mack, who Vaughan observed in live performance as "ahead of his time". Mack later recalled his first meeting with Vaughan in 1978: "We was in Texas looking for pickers, and we went out to see the Thunderbirds. Jimmie was saying, 'Man, you gotta hear my little brother. He plays all your [songs].' He was playing a little place called the Rome Inn, and we went over there and checked him out. As it would be, when I walked in the door, he was playing 'Wham!' And I said, 'Dadgum.' He was playing it right. I'd been playing it wrong for a long time and needed to go back and listen to my original record. That was in '78, I believe." Vaughan owed part of his enduring style—especially his use of tremolo picking and vibrato—to Mack. He also acknowledged that Mack taught him to "play guitar from the heart".
Instruments
Vaughan owned and used a variety of guitars during his career. However, his guitar of choice (and the instrument that he became most associated with) was the Fender Stratocaster, his favorite being a 1963 model acquired in a trade in 1974. He started using the model during high school and thereafter used them exclusively in his live performances and recordings. Vaughan bought many Stratocasters and gave some away as gifts. A sunburst Diplomat Strat-style guitar was purchased by Vaughan and given to his late girlfriend Janna Lapidus to learn to play on. Vaughan used heavy strings, tuned a half-step below standard tuning. Heavy use of the vibrato bar necessitated frequent replacements; Vaughan often had his roadie, Byron Barr, obtain custom stainless steel bars made by Barr's father. In addition to Stratocasters, Vaughan was also photographed playing a National Duolian, Epiphone Riviera, Gibson Flying V, as well as several other models. Vaughan used a Gibson Johnny Smith to record "Stang's Swang", and a Guild twelve-string acoustic for his performance on MTV Unplugged in January 1990. On June 24, 2004, one of Vaughan's Stratocasters, dubbed "Lenny", was sold at an auction to benefit Eric Clapton's Crossroads Centre in Antigua; the instrument was bought by Guitar Center for $623,500.
Amplifiers and effects
Vaughan was a catalyst in the revival of vintage amplifiers and effects during the 1980s. His loud volume and use of heavy strings required powerful and robust amplifiers. Vaughan used two black-face Fender Vibroverbs, which were crucial in shaping his clear overdriven sound. He would often blend other amps with the Vibroverbs including black-face Fender Super Reverbs, and brands such as Dumble, and Marshall. While his mainstay effects were the Ibanez Tube Screamer and a Vox wah-wah pedal, Vaughan experimented with a range of effects. He used a Fender Vibratone, designed as a Leslie speaker for electric guitars, and provided a warbling chorus effect, which can be heard on the track "Cold Shot". He used a vintage Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face that can be heard on In Step, as well as an Octavia.
Legacy and influence
Vaughan throughout his career revived blues rock and paved the way for many other artists. Vaughan's work continues to influence numerous blues, rock and alternative artists, including John Mayer, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Mike McCready, Albert Cummings,[123] and Los Lonely Boys, among others. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Vaughan as "the leading light in American blues" and developed "a uniquely eclectic and fiery style that sounded like no other guitarist, regardless of genre". In 1983, Variety magazine called Vaughan the "guitar hero of the present era".
Awards and honors
Vaughan won five W. C. Handy Awards[127] and was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2000. In 1985, he was named an honorary admiral in the Texas Navy. Vaughan had a single number one hit on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for the song "Crossfire". His album sales in the US stand at over 15 million units. Family Style, released shortly after his death, won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album and became his best-selling, non-Double Trouble studio album with over a million shipments in the US. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked him seventh among the "100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time". He also became eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
Discography
See also
Citations
References
- "Best of Stevie Ray Vaughan". In the Studio. Album Network. June 21, 1993.
- Digiovanni, Joe. Vaughan, Eric Clapton aides die in copter crash. The Daily Gazette. August 28, 1990.
- Fricke, David. The New Guitar Gods: John Mayer, John Frusciante and Derek Trucks. Guitar World. [archived March 27, 2010; cited January 25, 2012].
- Hall, Ken. Cold Shot to Cold Turkey. Music. November 5, 1987.
- Hopkins, Craig. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Day by Day, Night After Night: His Final Years, 1983-1990. Backbeat Books; October 18, 2011. ISBN 9781617740220.
- Joseph, Frank. Before the Flood: Stevie Ray on the making of Texas Flood. Guitar World. September 1983.
- Joule, Steve. Life Without Booze. Kerrang!. June 25, 1988.
- Milkowski, Bill. The Good Texan. Guitar World. December 1990.
- My Guitar Heroes. Request. July 10, 1989.
- Paul, Alan. Blue Smoke. Guitar World. August 1999.
- Rhodes, Joe. Stevie Ray wows Carnegie crowd. Dallas Times Herald. October 6, 1984.
- "Stevie Ray Vaughan". Legends. VH1. October 3, 1997. No. 15, season 1.
- White, Timothy. SRV: Talking With The Master. Musician. June 1991.
External links
