Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble- Soul to Soul 40th- Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, Buddy Guy, SRV

Second and third albums after particularly promising debuts, such as 1984’s Couldn’t Stand the Weather  and 1985’s Soul to Soul by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, are often fraught with a “no win” handicap. Almost without exception, the performer has had their whole lifetime up to that point to gather their best material on the debut, and then as little as a year or even less to write and record another entire album, while simultaneously touring constantly to promote the first one. And if you are fortunate to gain favorable attention on your first effort, as Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble did on Texas Flood, then half of the critics will demand more of the same on any followup, while another equally-sized and very vocal bunch invariably will pan you for “not evolving enough”. On Couldn’t Stand the Weather in May 1984 and again with Soul to Soul eighteen months later, Stevie Ray Vaughan managed both of those expectations.

There are masterful blues standards by Guitar Slim, Jimi Hendrix (“Voodoo Chile”), Hound Dog Taylor, Hank Ballard, and Elmore James, butt-rockin’ originals including “Empty Arms” on Couldn’t Stand the Weather, and some bonus track chestnuts, as well. By September 1985, tremendous acclaim, blues awards, and popularity continued to increase for Stevie Ray Vaughan while, behind the scenes, things were not well with his soul. That third album Soul to Soul was rife with problems making it: Vaughan did not compose original songs, so there was considerably less income from album sales than most of his peers. Less income meant more concerts were required to make up the shortfall, and more touring meant less time in the recording studio. Plus more concerts also required, at least for Vaughan and Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon, more alcohol and drugs to keep up. With Soul to Soul, the high-flying career risked stalling dangerously into a death spiral. Double Trouble’s Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon are joined by blues legend Buddy Guy and SRV biographer Joe Nick Patoski along with my rare archival 1984 interview with the late Stevie Ray Vaughan here In the Studio for  Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble’s Soul to Soul fortieth anniversary. -Redbeard