A little tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn

digitalfirehose (58)in #music • 6 years ago

I am a transient fan of Stevie Ray Vaughn, I come and I go. I guess it depends on the time of year. One of his songs is playing in my head right now, so I thought I'd write about him. That song is actually the first song I can remember ever hearing from Vaughn, and it's called Riviera Paradise. It's an old song to be sure, and you can listen to it here on YouTube and watch him play it, too.

For the studio version, see below.

Unfortunately, Stevie Ray Vaughn is no longer with us. He died in a plane crash long before I ever heard of his music. So sad to see that he died so young.

Vaughn was at one point in time, an alcoholic. He was a heavy drinker and somehow, his talent still got through, his fingers still found their way to a guitar, he still found his way on stage. And then he stopped drinking. His friends told him that he played better than he ever played, when sober.

Riviera Paradise is on an album called In Step, by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, and that was released in 1989. I had no idea who he was back then. Didn't know such fine music even existed then, either. I was one very lost soul then, too. But when I want to chill out, and get completely relaxed, that is the song I want to play.

Once I heard Riviera Paradise, I bought the CD just to have that song. Yeah, some of you may even remember the compact disc. 44khz of pure digital sound, sound so bright and clear, so pure, that you'd never go back to vinyl. Well, not if you're Neil Young. Not if you have dog ears.

I can't remember exactly when I bought that CD. I'm pretty sure it was before 2007, before I met my wife, Alice. I was still living in Costa Mesa at the time. By then, I had figured out how to rip my CDs and use Winamp to play my music. I wan't quite a Linux user then, but I was dabbling.

I'm listening to the album now to set the mood as I write this article. Some of the songs are standard rock tunes, and there's a bit of rockabilly in there with The House is Rockin'. But most of it is straight up rock and roll.

One thing that like about Vaughn's style is his swagger when he sings and when he plays. Crossfire is the next song and leads with some great lead guitar twings and twangs. He knows how to add emphasis to each lyric with an interjection of a heavy riff or a wailing guitar. His guitar zings and pows with the blow by blow playback.

Stevie Ray Vaughn didn't just play guitar, he possessed his guitar like a man possessed by a spirit. He uses his guitar like a writer uses punctuation. As I listen to his singing, I can hear his guitar as he adds emphasis, a comma, interjections, exclamations, and allowing for a pause here and there so as to allow the listener to take a respite.

I've listened to In Step many times, so one night not so long ago, I decided to check out some of his other music. Where did I go? The place with by far, the greatest collection of music ever assembled, YouTube. (If you're looking for out of print music, go there.) I found a few of his music videos and was pleased to see that Vaughn embraced video as an art form of expression.

The most memorable music video I found from Vaughn was for a song called, "Couldn't Stand The Weather". This video stands out because they were "playing" with fans blowing wind and "rain" on them throughout. Well placed scenes of lightning with sounds of thunder raise the power of the song. I can see that the director had fun with this one, and he honors the band with his presentation.

Couldn't Stand The Weather features Vaughn's voice with all his swagger, some great guitar and a bit of satire about the state of political discourse at the time that he made that video. And you know there's double trouble when they don their goggles.

While looking for that very cool music video, I found the live version, here. Totally in key, too. I love it when a band can keep the same studio sound when playing live.

Oh, baby. Can you hear the blues? I'm listening to "Leave My Little Girl Alone"..."before I get evil, man, and do something wrong...." Yeah. He's like that. Vaughn was a man who was as one with his guitar on In Step.

I have to stop now 'cause I don't want to spoil it for you. You can find his album In Step, right here, on YouTube, in its entirety, for your listening pleasure.

Write on.