Greatest Hits

Sound DNA

• Blues
• Texas Blues

• twangy
• swaggering
• bluesy

About

Over the course of the 1980s, Stevie Ray Vaughn and his faithful backing trio, Double Trouble, became the face of modern blues. They went from being the toast of Austin’s nightclub scene to Grammy award winners, sharing stages with Stevie Wonder, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. Following Clapton, Vaughn was blues’ great white hope: living proof that a middle class blues fan from Dallas could ascend to the ranks of Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix. But for all his reverence for the Sixties stylists, Vaughn’s style always favored the purebred electricity of barroom blues over the ambitious excursions of Clapton and Hendrix. <i>Greatest Hits Vol. 1</i> doesn’t collect every chart hit (for that, seek out <i>The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughn</i>), aiming instead to emphasize Vaughn’s flexibility as an artist. He could play it slow and moody with lots of space (“Tin Pan Alley”) then let it all hang out for “Cold Shot” and “Pride and Joy.” Taking cues from his “godfather” Albert King, Vaughn drew little distinction between soul music and blues, as attested by “Life Without You,” “Crossfire,” and “Couldn’t Stand the Weather,” which owe as much to Otis Redding as Otis Rush. The performances here are tied together by Vaughn’s whiplash guitar and inimitable sense of swing, two ever-present ingredients that kept his music right on the razor’s edge.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits