Album #142: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Texas Flood

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Texas Flood (1983)

In the early part of the 1980s, it was fair to say that blues music as a popular style was in a bit of trouble. Many of the genre's luminaries from the 30s to the 60s were either dead, in the mists of obscurity or no longer playing blues music. There were a few artists still playing blues music in the mainstream consciousness (ZZ Top, for one), but as a whole, the genre seemed to have lost relevance, its importance to the development of rock music largely forgotten.

However, just when it seemed all was lost, there were a couple of albums that suddenly reinvigorated the blues scene and brought it to life again. While most of the credit for kickstarting the return of the blues has to go to ZZ Hill's Southern blues release Down Home Blues, the 1983 emergence of Texas bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan must also attract some thanks. The younger brother of another legendary American bluesman, Jimmie Vaughan, SRV had floated around a number of bands before forming his backing group, Double Trouble, in the late 70s. It took five years and several lineup changes before SRV and Double Trouble (consisting of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton) grabbed everybody's attention with their debut album, Texas Flood.

Though Vaughan and Double Trouble had smashed their way into view with a legendary set at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival, and although Vaughan had guested rather brilliantly on David Bowie's Let's Dance album, it was Texas Flood that announced Vaughan as a bluesman to watch.

The Album

Texas Flood is an album of two halves. The first half is supremely performed Texas blues, with elements of 50s rock and roll and rockabilly thrown in, and the three musicians in unbelievable form; the second half is largely forgettable and struggles to maintain the interest of the listener.

Let's look at the first half first, shall we? It opens with the solid blues/50s rock fusion of Lovestruck Baby, which is where we hear Chris Layton's Texas shuffle drumbeat for the first of several times, and Vaughan's guitar playing is reminiscent of some of those old time 50s guitarists, men like Bill Haley, Buddy Holly and Scotty Moore. It's the next track, Pride And Joy, that really kicks things off though. Another shuffly drumbeat, and we enter 12-bar blues territory for the first time; Vaughan also gives the first taste of his pure blues style, with several neat solos in the intro and during the song. There's also a nice nod to the Sonny Boy Williamson classic Eyesight To The Blind in the first verse. Texas Flood serves as the first of two pure signature songs; every vocal phrase seems punctuated by Vaughan's crying axe, the solos are mindblowingly good and the crawling tempo just adds more depth to what is essentially another simple 12-bar blues. It's all about Vaughan though who produces a masterclass in blues guitar. 

Tell Me is the first half's only 'low' point; it's a solid rendition of a Howlin' Wolf original but lacks the original's grit, though Vaughan's solo is a highlight, mixing all that fretboard wizardry with some really gutsy chords, as he does on the next track, Testify. A cover of an Isley Brothers song from the 60s, the original is famous as one of Jimi Hendrix's earliest recordings, and Vaughan does a sublime job of paying tribute to Hendrix's original work while adding in touches of his own. The final track of that first superb half is the standout track on the album, and possibly Vaughan's finest work ever - the instrumental Rude Mood. Played at a stunning 264 beats per minute, it features some of the most technically gifted guitar playing you'll ever hear, along with some magnificent rockabilly shuffle drumming and insanely good basswork. Vaughan positively shreds his way through the track, and at times some of his passages leave you both breathless and speechless; I was even left amazed at just how good some of the playing was.

The remainder of the album though left me extremely cold. A version of the children's nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb seems horribly out of place on a rockin' Texas blues album, and it's not even a particularly good attempt to boot. Dirty Pool is okay; a veeeeeerry slow, steadily burning blues tune, where the pain of the lyrics suits Vaughan's throaty, gruff vocal to a T. I'm Cryin' is, I'm sorry to say, an absolute rort. I can handle blues music being derivative of others (so much of it is) and I can handle a songwriter using the same muse a number of times (this song, as is Pride and Joy and Lenny, are all about Vaughan's then wife). What I refuse to accept is when you use exactly the same song with exactly the same arrangement and exactly the same sorts of guitar solo phrases and just change the lyrics ON THE SAME DAMN ALBUM. Because I'm Cryin' is just Pride And Joy with different, more woe-is-me lyrics. That's not a mild exaggeration; that is the literal truth. THEY ARE LITERALLY THE SAME SONG. Sorry, but that's just taking the piss.

Oh and closing track Lenny is pretty boring and has nothing to recommend it, really.

The Verdict

Texas Flood is a good album by an extraordinarily gifted set of musicians, the guitarist being even more extraordinarily gifted than the others. Vaughan's reputation is fully deserved just based on this album alone. But it's not a great album when an entire section of it is either dreadful, lazy or just plain boring. You can safely listen from tracks 1-6 then ditch the rest, quite frankly.

Though those first six tracks will leave you gasping at the sheer talent of Vaughan, a man sadly taken from us too soon, though not before blazing a trail for others to follow. Whether directly or otherwise, he helped rekindle interest in the blues; it wasn't long before men of the calibre of Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker and Gary Moore were back playing the blues.

For that alone, SRV deserves his place in the pantheon of blues heroes.

My rating: 7.0/10

Standout Tracks

Rude Mood

Texas Flood

Testify