Stevie Ray Vaughan
| Videos | |
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| Stevie Ray Vaughan Interviewed |
Stevie Ray Vaughan 'Little Wing' |
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| Stevie Ray Vaughan 'Pride and Joy' |
Stevie Ray Vaughan 'Texas Flood' |
| Guitarist Quick-Facts |
| Name: Stevie Ray Vaughan |
| Born: October 3, 1954 |
| Origin: Dallas, Texas |
| Guitar Gear |
| Guitars: Fender |
| Amplifiers: Marshall |
| Bands: Past & Present |
| The Chantones, Blackbird, The Nightcrawlers, Paul Ray & The Cobras, Triple Threat Revue, Double Trouble, Krackerjack |
Stevie Ray Vaughan was born on October 3, 1954, in Dallas, Texas. Vaughan got his first guitar when he was only 7; it was only a Sears toy guitar with three strings, but that didn't stop young Vaughan from learning to play songs by Texas garage rock band The Nightcaps. In 1963, he would get his hands on his first real guitar, an electric handed down from his older brother, Jimmie. In the mid-60s Jimmie's friend, Doyle Bramhall, was visiting the Vaughan house and heard young Stevie playing “Jeff's Boogie” by the Yardbirds. Doyle was impressed and helped develop Stevie's singing and songwriting abilities. By 1967, Vaughan was playing in his first band, The Chantones. The group played a show at Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, which quickly helped them move past playing school parties.
In 1970, Vaughan fell into a barrel of grease at a fast food restaurant he was working at, which prompted him to quit his job and focus all of his spare time on music. After leaving the fast food business, Vaughan formed the band Blackbird. In 1971, while playing with Blackbird, Vaughan was invited to record a guitar track for the first time by a high school band called A Cast of Thousands. The band was participating in a compilation album entitled “A New Hi”. Stevie performed on two of the tracks on the album and showed off his developing talents. In the middle of that school year, Stevie dropped out and moved with Blackbird to Austin, Texas, where they were regular performers at a nightclub named the Soap Creek Saloon.
After the disbanding of Blackbird, Vaughan went through several different bands. He joined the first, Krackerjack, in 1972, but lastly only a few months; the band wanted to wear theatrical makeup on stage and Stevie did not. His next job came when Marc Benno invited Vaughan to play with his band, The Nightcrawlers. The band was in the process of recording an album for A&M Records. Vaughan went to Hollywood to join the band, and was reunited with childhood mentor Doyle Bramhall, who was playing drums for the band. The album that was recorded in Hollywood was never released, but Vaughan's time with The Nightcrawlers launched a successful songwriting partnership with Bramhall. After leaving The Nightcrawlers, Vaughan had a succesful three year stint with Paul Ray & The Cobras. The Cobras were performing 5 nights a week and won “Band of the Year” in a poll of the Austin area.
After bouncing around with several bands for the past 5 years, Stevie Ray Vaughan finally found more stability when he formed Triple Threat Revue in 1977. The original lineup of the band featured Lou Ann Barton on vocals, W.C. Clark on bass, Mike Kindred on keybords, Fredde Walden on drums and Stevie on guitar. The band was renamed Double Trouble when Jackie Newhouse replace Clark on bass and Chris Layton took over drumming duties from Walden. Shortly after the rename, vocalist Lou Ann Barton left the band to perform with Roomful of Blues.
In 1981, bassist Tommy Shannon, with whom Stevie had played in Krackerjack, replaced Newhouse. That same year Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts saw a videotape of the band performing at a music festival in Texas and was so impressed that he hired to to play a private party for his band in a New York nightclub. The following year, the band played at Switzerland's famous Montreux Jazz Festival. Several people in the crowd booed the band, but fellow performers David Bowie and Jackson Browne were impressed with Vaughan's guitar work.
Vaughan was asked by Bowie to be the lead guitarist on his upcoming album, “Let's Dance.” The album went on to become the best selling album of Bowie's career and Bowie, naturally, wanted the lead guitarist to join him on tour. When Stevie Ray Vaughan was told that he couldn't promote Double Trouble outside of the Bowie tour, he declined.
Jackson Browne had been so impressed with Double Trouble that he offered the band free recording time in his studio, which they quickly accepted. The result led them to be signed by Epic Records and went on to become the band's 1983 debut album, “Texas Flood.” The album sold over a half a million copies and received glowing reviews. It also got Double Trouble a spot on Austin City Limits and got Stevie voted “Best New Talent” and “Best Electric Blues Guitarist” by readers of Guitar Player magazine.
The band released three more albums between then and 1986, two of which would go gold. 1986 proved to be a critical year for Vaughan; on August 27 of that year, his father lost his battle with Parkinson's disease and died. Later that year Stevie collapsed on Germany after to many years of substance abuse. Vaughan managed to perform two more concerts, but Double Troube cancelled the rest of the tour so Vaughan and Tommy Shannon could check into rehab.
With its members sober, Double Trouble resumed touring and even performed at the inauguration of president George H. W. Bush in 1989. The band had just released it's fifth album, “In Step”, for which the won their first Grammy, “Best Contemporary Blues Recording.” While on tour in support of the album, the band was traveling by helicopter to bypass heavy traffic on the streets. On August 31, 1990 Vaughan was in a helicopter that was not certified for instrument flight. The helicopter took off in heavy fog after midnight and crashed into a hill, killing Vaughan. He was buried on August 31, 1990.
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