A TRIBUTE TO STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
(Epic)
The flow. “[Stevie] could go to that place when he was playing on stage. He’d
walk on stage, pick up the guitar and within a couple of songs, he could go to
that place — where he was receiving his inspiration. And then it would sort of
take care of itself. That’s not easy to do.” No. Not easy. Jimmie Vaughan
knows, and his description of his little brother’s talent — during one
of the brief interview segments on the new Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute video —
gets echoed one song later by the King of the Blues, B.B. King: “He flowed when
he played. He could get something going and it was like a song — it would just
go on and on and ideas continuously flowed. I don’t have that. And there’s a
lot of people I hear that don’t have it. Stevie had it.” Eric Clapton nails it
in one sentence: “He seemed to be an open channel and [music] just flowed
through him.” Yes, and how that flow is missed — particularly on the CD
portion of this double-barreled tribute. Clapton taps into it on “Ain’t Gone
‘n’ Give Up on Your Love,” and the river rises during Jimmie Vaughan’s take on
“Texas Flood,” but it isn’t until the all-star jams at the end of the disc that
the flow takes on a strong current. Featuring Jimmie Vaughan, Clapton, King,
Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, Dr. John, and Art Neville, these loose,
extended jams — “Six Strings Down,” “Tick Tock,” and “SRV Shuffle” — owe
their livelihood not only to an amazing guitarchestra, but also to the fact
that SRV’s indelible stamp isn’t upon them. Not so of “Pride and Joy” or “Love
Struck Baby,” which, as covered by Raitt and Cray respectively, sound rather
thin simply because you could never hear those songs and not think of SRV’s
tapping the main on them. By contrast, Dr. John’s pianistics on “Cold Shot” and
Guy’s slow ‘n’ sultry recasting of “Long Way From Home” fare infinitely better
because their arrangements don’t mirror the original’s. Most tributes celebrate
the composer, not the musician, and not even the world-class musicians here
(all present that fateful night in Alpine Valley) can match SRV’s musical
virtuosity. It’s ironic, then, that the spoken intros to each performer’s
individual selection may be what makes this tribute succeed. In simply saying a
few heartfelt words about SRV, performers like Raitt pay a verbal tribute that
somehow bridges the gap to the musical portion of this tribute. Not
surprisingly then, the video half of A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan,
which captures this gathering live on the Austin City Limits soundstage,
is that much better because it’s augmented with interviews of these musicians
(and clips of SRV) in which you see how highly all of them regarded
their departed colleague. It makes a nice complement to last year’s Live
From Austin, Texas video offering, which anthologized SRV’s two ACL appearances. As a matter of fact, when I reviewed that video and SRV’s
Greatest Hits CD eight months ago in this same space, I wrote “SRV’s
legacy remains largely unsullied. We’ll check back next year when they release
the box set.” Once again, those words stand. — Raoul Hernandez
“Bonus Tracks” reviews all local and Texas-based releases commercially
available: Send to “Bonus Tracks,” The Austin Chronicle, P.O. Box 49066,
Austin, TX 78765
This article appears in August 30 • 1996 and August 30 • 1996 (Cover).