Whenever people ask me who my influences regarding music were
\nwhen I was growing up, one aunt of mine almost immediately comes to
\nmind. Like myself, she is very much into music (though her tastes
\ndip into opera, and I don’t particularly like opera), and
\nconstantly is testing me to see if there is a specific song I’ve
\nheard of or an album I can find.<\/p>\n
She is also one of the hippest people I know. Recently, as
\npayment for an album search she asked me to do (meaning one day,
\nI’ll review that Jermaine Jackson album here), she picked up a copy
\nof Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble’s
\nIn The Beginning<\/i>. She’s recently gotten heavy into Vaughan’s
\nmusic (while I discovered him around the time of his tragic death
\nin 1990), and was surprised to hear that there was not a copy of
\nthis album in the Pierce Archives (so long, WRCX-FM… you can’t
\ntell I’m a little upset about their format switch, can you?).<\/p>\n
Released in 1992, this show from Austin, Texas in 1980 captures
\nthe young bluesman and his bandmates (bassist Jackie Newhouse and
\ndrummer Chris Layton) in one of the earliest appearances in their
\ncareer. Despite the band’s youthfulness (the liner notes state the
\nband had been a three-piece for only a few months), the hunger is
\nclearly here, and Vaughan’s prowess on the Stratocaster is amazing,
\neven at this early date. If only some of the material was more
\nexciting; Vaughan and crew rely on cover tunes far too much.
\nGranted, there might not have been a lot of original material
\nwritten, but the three “new” songs (at least in 1980 parlance)
\ncontain a lot of life.<\/p>\n
Of course, this isn’t to say that the cover versions are
\nanything to sneeze at. The opening track “In The Open” gives the
\nband a chance to settle into a comfortable groove before really
\ndeciding to blow the doors off the joint. Same story applies to
\n“Tin Pan Alley,” which Vaughan stretches out just enough to let the
\nfeeling sink in without wearing out his welcome. The same, however,
\ncan’t be said for songs like “They Call Me Guitar Hurricane,” which
\nsounds like Vaughan stepping into a pair of shoes he’s not
\ncomfortable wearing.<\/p>\n
What is surprising is that Vaughan chose to open the show with
\ntwo instrumentals, “In The Open” and “Slide Thing”, the latter
\nbeing one of the three originals. Vaughan shows time and time again
\non
\nIn The Beginning<\/i> that his pipes were fully developed; I just
\nwish that he chose to use them earlier in the show. Vaughan’s slide
\nwork on “Slide Thing” is impressive, if not as flashy as his
\nfretboard magic.<\/p>\n
The early version of “Love Struck Baby” is a keeper on this
\nalbum (even though the track is not in my top ten songs from
\nVaughan’s catalog). The inclusion of some familiar ground is a
\nwelcome addition to the album, and makes it a little more
\naccessible to the “dabbling” fan. Too bad that this is the only
\nsuch moment on the album. Again, if there were no more original
\nmusic written at the time, then I’m making an unfair comparison,
\nand I’m completely willing to admit to this.<\/p>\n
\nIn The Beginning<\/i>‘s biggest flaw is that it seems to end just
\nwhen you really start getting into the show; “Live Another Day” is
\nthe coda that comes far too soon. (This could also be a metaphor to
\ndescribe Vaughan’s time in the limelight.) At only nine songs, such
\na collection seems far too short for someone as talented as he
\nwas.<\/p>\n
\nIn The Beginning<\/i> is an interesting historical picture of
\nlife before superstardom for Vaughan. If only there were more
\nmaterial on this album to appreciate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5991],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36022","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stevie-ray-vaughan-double-trouble","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36022"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36022"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}