Stevie Ray Vaughan, B B King, Albert King, Paul Butterfield - The Sky Is Crying
Welcome to American Blues Scene Magazine's video channel. If you like what you see and hear, check us out on Facebook. / americanbluesscene
We are the largest blues news media Facebook fanpage in the world and for good reason, no one does it quite like we do it.
Our website is always updated with exciting blues news, reviews and in-depth interviews. http://www.americanbluesscene.com
Dubbed the “Velvet Bulldozer” – a reference to the combination of his smooth, sensuous voice and imposing, six feet four inches, (some folks have said he was six foot seven which he clearly wasn’t though slightly taller than BB King and Little Milton*) 250-pound figure – the Mississippi-born King was almost 40 when he scored his first R&B hit, “Don’t Throw Your Love On Me So Strong,” in 1961 – which, appropriately enough, was issued by the Cincinnati-based King label. But it was another five years before King hit the charts again. By then, his commercial fortunes had been improved by his alliance with brother and sister Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton’s Memphis-based Stax label, then making a name for itself in the world of soul music and R&B. Though Stewart wasn’t convinced that a blues artist would be suitable for Stax, Axton persuaded him to take a chance with King and then found a song for the Mississippi singer/guitarist, “Laundromat Blues,” which became a Top 30 US R&B smash.
Albert BB Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan
King’s tenure with Stax lasted from 1966 until 1974, during which time he scored 11 charting singles for the company. Though the biggest was 1974’s “That’s What The Blues Is All About” (No.15 US R&B), undoubtedly his most famous song is “Born Under A Bad Sign,” recorded in 1967, which just scraped into the US R&B Top 50 but came to be regarded as his signature track.
What made Albert King special were also his unconventional guitar tunings, which are kind of a mystery even to this day. Some say that he tuned C-B-E-F#-B-E while luthier Dan Erlewine, who made one of King's guitars, cited the C-F-C-F-A-D tuning. Other various open and dropped tunings are mentioned all around, including open E minor and open F. The string gauge he used was also pretty weird, going from 0.009" to 0.050".
Albert King lights his pipe during a blues jam with Stevie Ray Vaughan from In Session (1983)
go on click on it . . . it works I swear!
One of the more revered moments in Austin musical lore is the night in 1975-76 when a skinny young kid known back then as "Little Stevie" got onstage at Antone's, then newly opened on Sixth Street, to jam with blues master Albert King. Consequently, the two blues slingers were well acquainted when they reunited on Canadian TV in late 1983 for In Session. The resulting album is noteworthy if for no other reason than it brings together the two most influential blues guitarists of the past 30 years. King, long the blues colossus who had influenced several generations of blues players, was in tip-top form at that point, while Vaughan, having already forged his now-familiar style that often quoted King note-for-note, was on the cusp on stardom.
After recording In Session, they performed together one last time in 1987 with B.B. King for his “Night of Blistering Blues” in Los Angeles at the Ebony Showcase Theater.
The story and enduring legacy of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King proves that sometimes you can—and should—meet your heroes. Even though King influenced some of the greatest guitarists in history, from Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton to Joe Walsh, it’s clear that he viewed Vaughan as his worthy successor. “If you play too fast or too loud, you cancel yourself out. Once you lose the feeling, you got nothing but a show going on. It’s not deep,” King said. “No doubt about it, Stevie had what it takes.”
Go on click it anyway . . . . . .it will play I swear!
Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan - Stormy Monday
Two favourites and a favourite song first bought at 13 years old (precocious little freak that I was! ) by Chris Farlowe ( as Little Joe Cook featuring a young Albert Lee on guitar)
Check how Albert plays his guitar here and how it’s strung (if you didn’t know!?) . . . . only Jimi could do that in my experience but hey well he could play it either way up to be fair and was truly ambidextrous and not left handed as many assumed . . . . . . . this with Albert is strung the right way but played left handed and therefore upside down !!!!
/ americanbluesscene
We are the largest blues news media Facebook fanpage in the world and for good reason, no one does it quite like we do it.
Our website is always updated with exciting blues news, reviews and in-depth interviews. http://www.americanbluesscene.com
