{"id":41232,"date":"2008-11-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/live-alive\/"},"modified":"2008-11-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-18T00:00:00","slug":"live-alive","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/live-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stevie Ray Vaughn’s short but stellar career was founded on his phenomenal live shows. In just a decade he was lauded as a guitar god, eventually to be often mentioned in the same breath as his heroes Clapton and Hendrix. In an odd statistic that exemplifies his appeal, his live performances captured (and incessantly rerun) on PBS\u2019 Austin City Limits<\/i> were the most popular (most watched and most requested) shows on the PBS network for almost three years, to the point where for two entire years they were the anchor shows for their annual pledge drives. Not bad for the boy from Austin<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to dominate the often stodgy and stiff-shirted world of public broadcasting.<\/p>\n

Capturing his live shows was easy, though; he toured constantly. This first major live release was culled from shows at Montreux, Dallas, and his home town of Austin<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The selection of tracks is a good cross-section of Vaughn’s varied influences and styles. On his recent studio album, Soul To Soul<\/i>, he had\u00a0 expanded his band Double Trouble (Tommy Shannon on bass and Chris Layton on drums) with keyboardist Reese Wynans, which gives the band a bigger sound and more space<\/st1:personname> to throw some soul and r&b flavor into the mix. Wynans\u2019 contribution buffs up songs like \u201cLook At Little Sister\u201d and the usual spare \u201cCold Shot\u201d with a more fleshed out and melodic feel. Stevie\u2019s big brother Jimmy (of the Fabulous Thunderbirds) joins in also, adding his own excellent guitar skills to four tracks here.<\/p>\n

Hard to say if this is the best of Vaughn\u2019s live releases, but it does include an excellent mix of his original work and some well-chosen covers that offer a broad range of his influences. Stevie\u2019s version of Hendrix\u2019s \u201cVoodoo Child (Slight Return)\u201d has become a signature piece in his repertoire, and the version here has become a classic, full of passion and fire. It\u2019s both a loving tribute to Hendrix and a unique interpretation involving melding Jimi’s psychedelic essence with a taste of Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> shuffle blues. Stevie Wonder’s \u201cSuperstition\u201d gets a funked-up treatment, Vaughn and Wynan\u2019s dynamic interplay turning the r&b classic into a rocking blues number while still retaining the Motown feel. \u201cI’m Leaving You (Commit A Crime),\u201d \u201cTexas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> Flood,\u201d and \u201cWillie The Wimp\u201d offer more straightedge classic blues. Throughout, Vaughn’s incredible solos pepper the tracks and lengthy jams. The live venue is where Vaughn displays the prowess that had vaulted him into the halls of guitar godhood. His amazing skill makes it sound like the guitar is an extension of himself, not just a hunk of wood and metal. Like with all the greats — Clapton, Page, Van Halen — it feels organic and fluid. The lengthy jams are dynamic and inspired, and his excellent band offers him lots of space<\/st1:personname> to stretch out. He breathes fire with a down and dirty solo on \u201cCold Shot,\u201d then makes his guitar cry on the hangdog blues of \u201cTexas Flood.\u201d<\/p>\n

While not a true \u201clive\u201d album in that it encompasses several performances, Live Alive <\/i>is an excellent showcase of Stevie Ray Vaughn\u2019s work, recorded near the peak of his career. The song selection is great, offering something for blues diehards as well as the casual fan exploring Vaughn\u2019s phenomenal talent for the first time. The performances are exactly what you expect from Stevie and DT — razor sharp and tight jams from what is possibly the finest modern electric blues band ever to hit a stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":29634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5991],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41232","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stevie-ray-vaughan-double-trouble","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41232","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\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41232"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}