When you think of the mainstream Blues revival in the 1980′s, that charge was led by the manic Texas Blues guitar of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Stevie was killed in a helicopter crash in 1990. He was dead at 35 — but just like Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding before him — Stevie Ray Vaughan left behind some of the greatest Blues music in the history of the genre.
On
iTunes, you can get a delicious, 5-song, 40-minute, sampling of Stevie’s music for
only $3.49USD on “Discover Further: Stevie Ray Vaughan
and Double Trouble.”
Here’s Stevie in concert playing Voodoo Chile (Slight Return):
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s hardcore musicianship is a template of excellence for every guitarist and the way he shreds his emotion into his strings for vibration beyond the grave is precisely the sort of immortality every performer wishes, for but rarely achieves.
Such a tragic loss. Makes one wonder how much more he could have given had his life not been cut short.
It really was, and still is, a wrenching loss, Gordon. A lot of Clapton’s people were on the same helicopter — so that crash could’ve been even more tragic in Eric had been with Stevie that night in the air.