Stevie Ray Vaughn

[philoshop]

I'll try to to keep up with this. It's just damned good music. I'll try to post something at least once a week or so. I saw him live a couple of dozen times, met and drank with him three times. He was a humble and amazing man and had a handshake like a gorilla. ;-]

 

 

Edited May 18, 2018 by philoshop

[ny hunter]

Would love to have a drink or 2 with Stevie....

[grampy]

Will look forward to more posts like this.

Stevie Ray was an absolute powerhouse guitarist! Still love his music!  Only lived to 35. Imagine what he could have done since 1990?  Good to hear he had a firm handshake!  Most musicians I've met, had the wimpy handshake. Always wondered why?

[Dinsdale]

I won some tickets from a Toronto radio station from a guy who hosted a blues show on Sunday nights for a unknown guitarist who was a real up and comer at the time according to him(He was also a blues guy from TO but don't remember his name). Told my parents I was going to Rochester as they would have never let me go to Canada with my friend, his Granada broke down on the QEW on the way home and his father had to come get us.LOL my parents never found out.

Hell of a show also at the El Macombo; but not this video. For those who don't know that place is a club in Toronto that is legendary for the artists that had played and recorded live. When a bit older in university went to a pile of shows there. Ontario had a lower age to drink too, which was a big thing back then.

Anyway a few weeks later he played a show at UB for Spring Break, and I walked over from my High School; and the only time I ever blew off class mid day. Couldn't convince anyone else he was worth seeing! Free concert, got some beer and was underage.....good times.

I have some pics, but need to scan them; keep this thread bumped and I'll remember next time I go into town; I should do a bunch of old hunt pics too.

 

EDIT: Anybody from Buffalo know that show from Toronto? could have been Q107 or 103.5 maybe?

Edited May 19, 2018 by Dinsdale

[The_Real_TCIII]

I saw Eric Clapton at Great Woods in Mass and Stevie was there, it was just a few days before he died

[philoshop]

I was at the last show the night that SRV died  in the helicopter crash in Alpine Valley Wisconsin. He opened for Eric Clapton. Buddy guy was there , Robert Cray was there (detuned due to vocal issues), SRV"s brother Jimmy was there from The Fabulous Thunderbirds. It was an amazing show.

I was sitting in traffic leaving the festival when his helicopter went down. Didn't even learn about it until several hours later back in Buffalo. I had seen him 5 or 6 times that summer around NYS, and my Architecture boss, through his sister, hooked me up with the tickets. I think God might have said something like, "you're too close son." He was amazing.

[philoshop]

8 hours ago, grampy said:

Will look forward to more posts like this.

Stevie Ray was an absolute powerhouse guitarist! Still love his music!  Only lived to 35. Imagine what he could have done since 1990?  Good to hear he had a firm handshake!  Most musicians I've met, had the wimpy handshake. Always wondered why?

I was used to swinging a 22 oz framing hammer and he made me wince a little bit. ;-] One of the nicest people I've ever met though.

[philoshop]

9 hours ago, ny hunter said:

Would love to have a drink or 2 with Stevie....

Shots of Crown Royal at the time. He didn't screw around in any way. All in, all the time. The first time I saw him was at the Red Creek in Rochester. Probably 1983. There weren't 30 people in the place because it was snowing outside. He came to the bar after the set and sat next to me and I asked the bartender for a Crown straight. And bought him one as well. 

He was clean and sober for about a year before he died. His last album was "Family Style" with his brother Jimmy. They were both clean and sober at the time. It's good music.

[genesee_mohican]

Stevie was one of the great performers and so talented. Such a shame, he was taken away much too soon. Here's one of my favorite full concerts to watch:  Note: best listened to in evening  w your choice of drinks:

 

 

[steve863]

33 minutes ago, genesee_mohican said:

Stevie was one of the great performers and so talented. Such a shame, he was taken away much too soon. Here's one of my favorite full concerts to watch:  Note: best listened to in evening  w your choice of drinks:

 

 

 

Between shooting guns and listening to this type of music you guys must be close to deafness!  Couldn't imagine the decibel level listening to that live.

[philoshop]

2 hours ago, steve863 said:

 

Between shooting guns and listening to this type of music you guys must be close to deafness!  Couldn't imagine the decibel level listening to that live.

He was loud on stage, but very soft-spoken in person. You have to cook those old tube amps to get the best outta them. He did that. The hearing loss I have is from liberals and feminists whining and crying about my "toxic masculinity".

ETA: Which are you?

Edited May 19, 2018 by philoshop

[Water Rat]

I saw him at The Chance in Poughkeepsie in 1983 with Double Trouble. I remember him playing Scuttle Buttin.............still one of my favorites that he did. I look forward to more of this philoshop.

[philoshop]

He was a monster on stage. Very much larger-than-life, loud, and unapologetic. In reality he was barely 5 1/2 feet tall and very soft-spoken. I wish I had known him better.

Just look at the smile on Tommy Shannon's face. When your Bass player is happy and smiling, you're doing something right.

[grampy]

From someone who has dabbled at the fretboard for almost fifty years, I am still mouth open agape, wide eyed, and spellbound, by the masters, like SRV. Good stuff here.

[philoshop]

21 minutes ago, Water Rat said:

I saw him at The Chance in Poughkeepsie in 1983 with Double Trouble. I remember him playing Scuttle Buttin.............still one of my favorites that he did. I look forward to more of this philoshop.

That was probably the same tour that brought him to the Red Creek in Rochester. He was crankin' it out.

[Water Rat]

Texas Flood Tour ?

[philoshop]

13 minutes ago, Water Rat said:

Texas Flood Tour ?

Don't remember. But that's probably about the right timing.

Catch the line in Hendrix's Voodoo Chile, "I may not see you in this world, but I'll see you in the next world..." I have no desire to die any time soon, but the thought of hangin' with Jimmie and Stevie  makes things less frightening.

[steve863]

1 hour ago, philoshop said:

He was loud on stage, but very soft-spoken in person. You have to cook those old tube amps to get the best outta them. He did that. The hearing loss I have is from liberals and feminists whining and crying about my "toxic masculinity".

ETA: Which are you?

Your hero boy here is the one who looks a bit effeminite if you ask me, but whatever floats your boat.

[philoshop]

What you think doesn't matter to me.

[philoshop]

14 hours ago, grampy said:

Will look forward to more posts like this.

Stevie Ray was an absolute powerhouse guitarist! Still love his music!  Only lived to 35. Imagine what he could have done since 1990?  Good to hear he had a firm handshake!  Most musicians I've met, had the wimpy handshake. Always wondered why?

Most guitarists today use 7 and 8 gauge strings for their bottom  E  on the fretboard. Stevie Ray used 11, 12 and 13 gauge strings in that position. If you can bend that up to top of the fretboard like he did you know where the music comes from.

[philoshop]

2 hours ago, steve863 said:

Your hero boy here is the one who looks a bit effeminite if you ask me, but whatever floats your boat.

Flamboyant, yes. That was required in the 1980's. He'd crush your skull with either hand. Get over it Patty.

[tommyc50]

wow thank you so much .I use to watch him back in the day on public tv a show called Austin city limits he was amazing , that was when ALL you had for nature,cooking, and music shows was public tv. OH yeah and watching monte python and reefer madness blitzed and having the munchies.Sorry for getting off the subject but you brought back memories[see they were wrong pot don't kill brain cells lol]. Yeah before he died stevie got sober and like you said a very humble man .I know hes in heaven jamming up a storm

[philoshop]

SRV did an unplugged show on Austin City Limits. A friend of mine was working the soundboard that night, and was blown away. I'll look for it. Here's a substitute:

 

[grampy]

7 hours ago, philoshop said:

Most guitarists today use 7 and 8 gauge strings for their bottom  E  on the fretboard. Stevie Ray used 11, 12 and 13 gauge strings in that position. If you can bend that up to top of the fretboard like he did you know where the music comes from.

The music AND the gorilla handshake! I can't imagine bending 13s up two octaves, holding, and adding vibrato, like he did!!! Only the virtuoso's can pull off stuff like that. That takes serious hand and finger strength, along with razor control, even with much lighter gauge strings. 

[philoshop]

What impressed me most was, like I've said, he was only 5 1/2 feet tall, my height. But he had a monster persona that made him seem a foot taller on stage.

I met Albert King one year in a Buffalo club during a break. He was tall and had hands like an NBA star. A 16 oz beer glass looked tiny in his hand. We chatted for 15 minutes before he went back on stage to finish his show. The next year he came directly over to me with his hundred foot long guitar cord and sat and played for almost half an hour at my table while sipping the  BV I bought him. My date was really impressed. Lonnie Mack is another one I have a couple of stories about. The old school blues guys were sincere.