Posts

,

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble- In Step 35th Anniversary

1989 album "In Step" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, just the mere facts are impressive. "In Step" was the Texas trio's fourth studio album, but their first after Vaughan's collapse and near death from substance abuse." In Step"  won a Grammy Award, one of six Vaughan amassed, while racking up the best sales of Vaughan's lauded career because of "The House is Rockin'","Crossfire", "Tightrope","Let Me Love You Baby", and the stunner "Riviera Paradise". Yet the significance of In Step   as a musical statement of intent cannot be told by mere sales or awards. It can only be assessed by the friends who knew Stevie Vaughan best (Eric Clapton), the musicians who inspired him first (Buddy Guy, the late Doyle Bramhall), the players who supported him before and after recovery(Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon), the musicians who in turn Vaughan inspired (Joe Bonamassa ), and the biographer who tried to capture his lightning in a bottle (author Joe Nick Patoski). They are all In Step here In the Studio.

More Echoes In the Studio- pt 4

In memoriam : More" Echoes In the Studio", pt 4 with my rare interviews with fallen classic rockers Lou Reed, Bon Scott, Rick Wright, Malcolm Young, George Harrison, David Bowie

Steve Miller- The Joker

Steve Miller Band's first #1 song and five million seller, "The Joker". Steve Miller is my guest In the Studio.

Joe Bonamassa- Sloe Gin

Joe Bonamassa "Sloe Gin" interview In the Studio.
,

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble- Texas Flood

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's first,"Texas Flood". Included here in these classic rock interviews is my second interview with Stevie in late Spring 1984; legendary bluesman Buddy Guy; Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, singer/songwriter Doyls Bramhall, and biographer Joe Nick Patoski; and the songs "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".
,

David Bowie- Let’s Dance

"Let's Dance"  was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1983, and if David could have moonwalked like Michael Jackson, Bowie probably would have won. it was no surprise that multi-media maven David Bowie, who seemed tailor-made then for the dawn of the MTV era in America when "Let's Dance"  was released, would later be among the first to embrace computer-generated gaming and virtual reality, which David discussed at length here, reprised on the album's fortieth anniversary.

Jeff Healey 1966-2008

...(cont) every headline before and since the cancer-related premature death of blues-rock phenomenon Jeff Healey March 2, 2008 has included the qualifier "blind guitarist" , as if Healey's mind-blowing facility and unique technique on the instrument,his more-than-competent rich vocals,his uncanny choice of material,and Jeff's wicked ultra-dry sense of humor were less defining of the man than his inability to read the drive-through menu at Taco Bell...(more)
,

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble- Best pt 2

As Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton told me of first experiencing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s extraordinary guitar talent from outside an Austin nightclub, I had to smile. Like Chris, I had not actually seen the young blues guitarist the first time I heard him play live , but the memory is burned into my mind. It was February 4 , 1984 as I was anchoring the live network broadcast interviews of the myriad of performers at the annual Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jam backstage at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium. Over ten years the Volunteer Jam had grown into an annual pilgrimage by the biggest names then in American rock music, featuring in one night the Charlie Daniels Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers Band, Molly Hatchet , the Outlaws, plus Billy Joel, Emmylou Harris, and Ted Nugent!

Arcangels-Living in a Dream-Austin

One of the nicest musical surprises of 1992 had to be the Arcangels album, which paired dual singer/songwriter/guitarist frontmen Charlie Sexton and Doyle Bramhall II with  Hall of Fame inductees Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon, Stevie Ray Vaughan's…