Stevie Ray Vaughan Tribute – Review

Stevie Ray Vaughan Tribute

(Epic)
by Ryk McIntyre

I don’t know shit about the Blues, but I know what I like. And this video has it goin’ on, all except for the fact that it can’t bring Stevie Ray Vaughan back from the dead. Instead, it brings together several of the music’s royalty together for a tribute that does what a tribute is supposed to: Honor an artist we have lost, celebrate his life, and the music he served with it.

While most know Stevie from his faint brush with the rock ‘n’ roll mainstream, playing guitar on David Bowie’s Let’s Dance (and thereby saving it from totally sucking). He was the new golden boy of a music style that, while it won’t go away, needs new blood to thrive. Up until one helicopter ride gone all wrong, Stevie was a huge heart’s worth of rich blood, fierce guitar, and loud brash shouts.

Coming to pay and play are Bonnie Raitt, Stevie’s brother and Fabulous Thunder Bird Jimmie Vaughan, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Art Neville, Dr. John, Double Trouble, and The Tilt-A-Whirl Band. The respect shows and flows. My favorite solo performance is Buddy Guy’s understated singing and economical playing on “Long Way From Home,” where he shows how much one note can give up if you work it hard enough. The three super-jams at the end must be heard. “Six Strings Down” is a fine example of how six guitarists can play together with nothing hurried, nothing lost – a mosaic that does justice to the term jam.

Full of interesting bits and remembrances, the video avoids all the maudlin pitfalls that could’ve turned it just mopey, even from Jimmie Vaughan, who truly celebrates the brother he had and the musician he was. Odd, but I can’t help wondering how Eric Clapton and Robert Cray felt. After all, but for chance and circumstance, they too would’ve been on that same helicopter. Sometimes you just never know how close you could be… and if you can’t live each day like it might be your last, at least you can play guitar like it is.