RIP Stevie Ray

A day early, but oh well. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years. To this day, he's still one of the most influential ever to come down the pike. If you guys haven't gotten the Couldn't Stand The Weather reissue, go for it. The live disc is phenomenal. He is just gunning for it. And his tone is just divine.

SRV isn't gone, he just doesn't walk this earth any more. As this post proves, he is still with us and no doubt will be 50 years from now.

                                                                 Can't You See The Tears Run Down My Face?

                                                                 J Dawg

I have to put my feelings down on this, all of my feelings down, because of what this man and his music has meant to me. I love this man. I love his music. I love what he stands for. By all accounts, this man was a great soul, a kind person who only wanted to express himself musically, to express what words simply cannot. People ask why Stevie is held in such revered standing. Some think he's overrated. Some don't like him because after him came all the copycats (the Vaughanabe's, if you will). But here's the deal: Stevie is held in such high regard because of his talent. His ability to play so beautifully and flawless and yet completely from the heart, is why he is held in such regard. If he just had that, that would be enough. But that's not it, is it folks? Stevie Ray Vaughan was a good man who tried help his fellow man. He ran with his own demons and beat them, and his only thought after that was to help others do the same. The same strong convictions and single-minded determination that enabled him to reach the top of the blues heap also enabled him to beat drugs and alcohol, and to take sobriety to the limit. He willingly met with any fan who came across his path, talked to them, made them feel good, sign an autograph, take a picture, anything, because he was a fan too (much like our resident guitarist/singer/songwriter). And people question why he is considered one of the greats?! A great man with great talent, how dare you say he isn't worthy! Hell, it was Stevie that proved that you didn't need that nasty stuff to be bad-ass number 1. That you could be clean and sober and play with the same edge, the same fire, the same bluesy soul, and make every guitarist that came across his path quake in their shoes.

This man's music came into my life when I was about 9 or 10 (about 94 or 95). My dad came home one day with a cassette (ha!) of Couldn't Stand The Weather and proceeded to put it on the family stereo. And I was a kid who really didn't have any interest in music. Until Scuttle Buttin' came on. Jeez. I didn't know what guitar playing was, I didn't know what blues was, but I loved this stuff. I became consumed by it. I played that tape nonstop. I remember in particular listening to it one day and this huge storm started to build. Very cool stuff, the kind of stuff that you read about in books. Then I found out he was dead, and it was like I had heard about a race that was already finished. I was very upset to find this out. But this only grew my fascination with this man and his music. The rise from nothingness, being in Jimmie Vaughan's shadow. David Bowie. John Hammond. The last in a great line of discoveries including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. The success. The drugs. Tons of them. Can't live without them. Can't live with them. Almost died. Rising like a phoenix. Still the man. Death. Taken from us all. Just as he was beginning to show the world what he was capable of. It's not fair. But Heaven's done called another blues stringer back home. I was hooked. This is the artist that will stay with me forever. No offense Joe, I love you, but you don't forget your first. Some people got hooked on Donnie and Marie first, some got hooked on the Backstreet Boys. I had Stevie Ray Vaughan. How lucky am I? Thanks dad.

As a guitar player, I never learned much of Stevie's licks. I simply learned the scales and tried to put my own twist on them. But I'll be darned if those licks don't creep in there. I've listened to them too many times. They're in my blood. But I don't want to copy him, or Joe, or B.B. King or Eric Clapton for that matter. At least, not in terms of playing exactly like him. But I do want to copy him in the way he poured his heart into music, or how he came from such an honest place. How he always credited his heroes, and tried to get them through the door. Not so much technical, but definitely in his approach and attack of the music. That's how I want to copy Stevie. And do right by him and every other great artist that I love.

That's where I see Joe being influenced by SRV. Not so much technically, but definitely in that he gives it 100 percent when he plays. He's consumed by it. And in the way that he holds his heroes in such high regard. Joe is today's Stevie in this way. Again, he's definitely not a Vaughanabe, but in the way that he plays his heart out and gives credit to the music that influenced him, he definitely is. Thank God for the both of them.

Stevie, you and your music has been with me since before I was a teenager. It has been a star by which I navigate this life by. I'll always be grateful for what you have given me.

RIP  SRV

Going to order it today.... in memory! 

I regret that I never saw him live.  He was on my list when he died.  I remember feeling gutted. 

--Vik

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