There are a few universal truths among Daily Vault members. We think the Eagles suck, although we have softened a bit on that stance as of late. We are still mad at Prince, for good reason, even though we now allow a review or two of his to appear in a gesture of goodwill. And we all think Stevie Ray Vaughan is damn spectacular; if you need proof, read the review on our SRV page from our four reviewers who have tackled the man\u2019s brief but influential body of work.<\/p>\n
After Vaughan died in a senseless helicopter crash in 1990, his brother Jimmie went back through the vaults and found 10 songs that Stevie and Double Trouble had recorded between 1984 and 1989 during the sessions for the three albums in the time period. The resulting album is 10 utterly fantastic songs with the ebb and flow of a real album and one that touches on all of Vaughan\u2019s styles. Not once does this sound like odds-and-sods or cleanup collection, the way these things can sometimes do. It\u2019s an organic entry into the Vaughan catalog that acts as a perfectly fitting end to his recorded career.<\/p>\n
Vaughan\u2019s lyricism wasn\u2019t simply in his words but in the fluidity and soul of his guitar playing. Nowhere is this more evident than on the long, instrumental cover of Hendrix\u2019s \u201cLittle Wing,\u201d which was good enough to win a Grammy and which honors the spirit of the original while taking it into a very new direction. It\u2019s then followed by the rollicking boogie \u201cWham,\u201d a Lonnie Mack cover that would reappear in a live form on the Texas Flood <\/i>reissue. It\u2019s the sort of pulse-pounding rave-up that Vaughan did so well, and after the serious \u201cLittle Wing\u201d it\u2019s even better.<\/p>\n
Many of the songs are restatements of things Vaughan had already said, which is not a bad thing by any means and perhaps explains why they were left off the albums in their time period. \u201cThe Sky Is Crying\u201d is a solid blues-rock piece very much in the man\u2019s wheelhouse, but it\u2019s the song Jimmie wanted most heard of these ten, while \u201cBoot Hill\u201d and an alternate version of \u201cEmpty Arms\u201d (the only song here that appeared elsewhere previously) are simply very good Vaughan fare.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay I Have A Talk With You\u201d wallows in slower blues with an extremely good solo that reminds the listener why we all loved this guy in the first place; Vaughan\u2019s guitar cries more than any vocals every could, and his heart is invested in these notes as much as in Howlin Wolf\u2019s original. The Willie Dixon cover \u201cClose To You\u201d is standard at best, but \u201cChitlins Con Carne,\u201d written by Kenny Burrell, pays homage to its jazzy roots and allows Vaughan a chance to explore a style he rarely indulged (\u201cStang\u2019s Swang\u201d and the live \u201cMary Had A Little Lamb\u201d come to mind as other rare examples). \u201cSo Excited\u201d is another instrumental and an original song; it\u2019s a fine jam with a great solo, but it doesn\u2019t really go anywhere and just sort of fades out after three minutes.<\/p>\n
As is fitting to end a career, the acoustic \u201cLife By The Drop\u201d closes the set, just Stevie and his guitar on a song written by Doyle Bramhall about his friendship with Vaughan, written from Bramhall\u2019s perspective. It\u2019s nakedly emotional, evocative, and one hell of a way to say goodbye from a guy who said goodbye far too soon.<\/p>\n
The Sky Is Crying <\/i>transcends its origins as a patchwork collection to become a great blues-rock album in its own right. It\u2019s better than Soul To Soul <\/i>and Couldn\u2019t Stand The Weather<\/i> and one that Vaughan fans and devotees need to own, although with all the reissues and bonus tracks and box sets and vault-clearing stuff, it may be redundant by now. No matter. Stevie is always worth the listen, and on that we can all agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5991],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44472","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stevie-ray-vaughan-double-trouble","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44472","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44472"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44472"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}