Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble- Texas Flood 40th

The authentic sawdust-on-the-floor, rough and tumble rhythm and blues that I discovered on a little white promo cassette labeled “Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble Texas Flood” was in stark contrast to other new music in Spring 1983 by U2, Talking Heads, and David Bowie that we were programming on ROCK 103/Memphis . When I heard the joyful shuffle of “Pride and Joy” by this Lone Star trio, I knew immediately that Stevie Ray Vaughan mined a deep vein of  music which ran under everything that had come from Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, down to the Delta and west across Louisiana to East Texas, for a hundred years.

It takes a big cast to tell the origin story of Texas Flood from Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, so join drummer Chris Whipper Layton, Double Trouble bass player Tommy Shannon, bluesmaster Buddy Guy, singer/songwriter the late Doyle Bramhall, biographer Joe Nick Patoski, and my archival interview with the late Stevie Vaughan for the fortieth anniversary of Texas Flood.

The songs featured include “Pride and Joy”,”Cold Shot”, the spectacular Hendrix cover”Voodoo Child”,”Look at Little Sister”,”Life Without You”, and two “Big” Doyle Bramhall songs, “Change It” and “Life By the Drop”. For additional insight I recommend Joe Nick Patoski and Bill Crawford’s definitive biography Stevie Ray Vaughan : Caught in the Crossfire. Then for a more “family style” perspective, be sure to watch director Kirby Warnock’s 2019 documentary film, now retitled Jimmie & Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues, streaming on Amazon Prime. -Redbeard