MUSIC NEWS
Stevie Ray Vaughan lives on with Legacy
07/26/2010

from Houston Chronicle Entertainment on chron.com

As band mates and best friends, Tommy Shannon and Stevie Ray Vaughan went on the road, roomed together and kicked drugs together, all while reinventing Texas blues as two-thirds of the group Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.

Nearly 20 years after Vaughan's death in a helicopter crash on Aug. 27, 1990, he is being celebrated with today's release of the band's remastered and expanded second album, Couldn't Stand the Weather: Legacy Edition (Epic/Legacy).

Shannon, the band's bassist, recalled the genius of the legendary blues guitarist.

"The music took us, as much as us taking the music forward," he said from his Austin home. "It came natural."

Double Trouble, which included drummer Chris Layton, was an incredibly tight trio.

"We were really passionate about the music," Shannon said. "We were kind of like family."

The band played an aggressive, rocked-out vision of the blues. Shannon, now 63, called it a "no excuses" style of making music.

The two-CD Legacy Edition includes a photo booklet, liner notes and an unreleased live concert from August 1984, recorded at the Spectrum in Montreal.

In life, Vaughan was a quiet, humble man. In death, the blues prodigy (Vaughan created buzz as a teenager with Paul Ray & the Cobras) became one of the most imitated of rock gods.

He'd be honored by all the attention, Shannon said. But he'd also have a message for young guitarists: "He'd probably tell the guitar players to develop their own style."

(read full story on chron.com)





Back
LSM Gets Social