STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN - TEXAS FLOOD (more notes from around the internet)

 Speaking of guitars, this one is for my son Matthew who has a special edition of this superb Stevie Ray Vaughan album coming from his music club VMP [Vinyl Me, Please - well worth finding out about]

 Chris Layton: Countless people have told me how much they loved Stevie’s guitar tone on Texas Flood. There was literally nothing between the guitar and the amp. It was just his Number One Strat plugged into a Dumble amp called Mother Dumble, which was owned by Jackson Browne. The real tone just came from Stevie, and that whole recording was so pure; the whole experience couldn’t have been more innocent or naïve. If we had known what was going to happen with it all, we might have screwed up. We just played. The magic was there, and it came through on the tape.

He touched people in such a way that it was irrelevant that he played the guitar, that he played a Stratocaster, that he played the blues. It had nothing to do with any of that. Stevie was able to grab on to something that people struggle to express in their own lives and do it for them. That connection was there, even if they couldn’t identify what it was about it that moved them so much.

Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan 

by Alan Paul, Andy Aledort 

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood - Live at the El Mocambo

Dr John and Doyle Bramhall on Stevie Ray Vaughan

 

such a lovely almost gentle portrait . . . . by Pat Savage

Doyle Bramhall : I had great admiration for Stevie Ray Vaughan as a musician and a person because he always lived life to the fullest. Every time you were around him, he was a constant reminder that today is all we have guaranteed. 

Even in the early days, whether he was buying a pair of boots, or trying out amps, he was just completely into it. He was never satisfied with staying in one spot. He wanted to stretch and that is what made him one of a kind. Several times, when it seemed like he couldn’t get any better, he took it to another level. He was always pushing the doors open and never wanted to stay the same.

Dr. John : Stevie started blowing me away one night when we were hanging at his pad. He put on some trippy, difficult Hendrix album and started playing along with it, which impressed me. Then he started playing off it, getting down, improvising and I thought, “Man, this kid is jamming with Jimi Hendrix.” That’s when I saw something real unique in what he was going for, and realized that this guy was something altogether different, someone who was taking the instrument somewhere new, really striving for something big.

Quotes from  Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan

by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort