Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble
Texas Flood (1983)
Epic/Legacy
Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble
Couldn’t Stand the Weather (1984)
Epic/Legacy
Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble
Soul to Soul (1985)
Epic/Legacy
Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble
In Step (1989)
Epic/Legacy
“He played like an angel who’s run with the devils,” exclaims writer Michael Ventura in the newly written liner notes to the reissue of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s debut album, Texas Flood . It’s an apt description of Vaughn’s high tension, tightrope walking guitar style, and sets the stage for the sounds you hear on all of these magnificent remastered, revamped, and recently re-released albums.
Steeped equally in the hot blooded hoodoo of Hendrix and the knife edged urban blues of Freddie King, Austin’s Steve Ray Vaughn forged a legendary role for himself with the release of these four studio albums in his shockingly short career. Within six years he redefined the sound and style of blues rock, while pushing it into new territory and playing every note as if it were his last.
It’s taken almost a decade after his tragic death in a plane crash in 1990 to set SRV’s recorded oeuvre straight, but these elaborate and intelligently repackaged albums are a lesson to other record companies on how to handle the catalog of a musical legend correctly.
From intellectual, glowing, yet down to earth liner notes written by different respected blues writers, to the short, illuminating audio interviews with the artist included on each new edition, to the 20 minutes of additional material which has been added to close out the discs, to the warmth, detail and clarity in the remastering process, this series is a textbook lesson on how to reissue already available albums with grace, affection and above all respect for the artist. Sony’s Legacy division who has worked similar magic with the catalogs of the Byrds, Spirit, Miles Davis, and Santana, and has plans this year to revamp classic discs from Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and Janis Joplin, has not only shown other labels how this process should be done, but has proven that it can be accomplished without marring the concept and intent of the artist’s original albums.
Even if you’re not a fan of Stevie Ray Vaughn, maybe especially so, these reissues are required listening. Through the expertly written liner notes, extra cuts, expanded booklets with classy new designs and previously unreleased rarities, they illuminate the genius and love of music Vaughn exuded from his very soul.
Listen as he articulately describes how Jimi Hendrix expanded the blues form though his unique chord structure (in a short interview tacked onto the Soul to Soul album), and then sizzles through a blistering 14 minute “Little Wing/Third Stone From the Sun” medley (previously unreleased) that will have your jaw sweeping the floor before it’s even half over. Why this and the 13 other newly added cuts divvied out over the four reissues were allowed to sit in Sony’s vault for the better part of a decade is beyond me, but they’re available now, and I’m here to tell you that these expanded editions are of brain boggling quality.
Amazingly, they’re also available at a discounted price, so even if you already own all these albums, it won’t break your bank account to replace them with these definitive editions, which every Vaughn fan is hereby advised to do. As one of the few blues-rockers respected and loved by both ornery blues purists who seldom veer further afield from their genre than the Chess catalog, and fist-raising, hard drinking rock and rollers more comfortable with a steady diet of Foghat, AC/DC, and yeah, Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn carved a unique and unforgettable niche for himself in the history of roots rock and roll.
These reissues not only prove why, but further cement his status a bluesman with a rock and roll heart, who ran with the devils, but played like an angel. There will never be another like him, and Sony Legacy has done his catalog and fans proud with these immaculately crafted reissues.
