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How to Play E Mixolydian Doublestops: Thirds

Book Review: "Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan" by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort

Like everybody else, Eric Clapton, Steve Miller and Dickie Betts remember exactly what they were doing when they first heard Stevie Ray Vaughan play guitar.

"I was driving and (David Bowie's) 'Let's Dance' came on the radio," Clapton says. "I stopped my car and said, 'I have to to know who this guitar player is today. Not tomorrow, but today.'"

When Miller saw the video for "Let's Dance," which doesn't include Vaughan, the bandleader "was jumping out of my seat screaming, 'Who the hell is playing guitar?'"

And Betts said simply, "Hallelujah," when he first heard "Pride and Joy" because Vaughan had "single-handedly brought guitar- and blues-oriented music back to the marketplace."

Despite the immediacy of Vaughan's talent, he paid serious dues throughout his career, even opening for Huey Lewis and the News, which photographer Jimmy Stratton has "often compared ... to Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees,” before earning his spot on the Mount Everest of guitarists.

The axemen and shutterbug are speaking in "Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan.” Penned by Allman Brothers biographer Alan Paul and Guitar World contributor and former Great Southern guitarist Andy Aledort, the oral biography includes insights from Vaughan via his many sit-downs with Aledort before his death in a helicopter crash in 1990 at 35. These are strung alongside remembrances from the aforementioned musicians; Double Trouble's Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton and Reese Wynans; Jimmie Vaughan and other family members; former, pre-stardom bandmates; and friends and loved ones.

Other bold-face voices in the book include those of Gregg Allman, Carlos Alomar, Billy F. Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Dr. John, Albert King, B.B. King, Joe Perry, Nile Rodgers and Rick Vito.

The result is a sympathetic, yet honest, portrayal of the guitarist, whom everyone from Albert King to Doyle Bramhall II to Bonnie Raitt believes was among the best - if not the best - who ever lived. It travels from Vaughan’s birth in Texas; to his many years slogging it out in Austin blues clubs and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Jerry Garcia, who wanted to sign the young slinger to Grateful Dead Records; to getting his big break - then breaking - with Bowie; to his meteoric rise after cutting Texas Flood live in Jackson Browne's studio on donated time; to his struggles with drugs and alcohol; to his recovery and death after a monumental jam session with Clapton, Robert Cray, brother Jimmie and Buddy Guy (who calls Vaughan "one of the best ever. Period.") at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin.

Over the book's 368 pages, Paul and Aledort, through the voices of their interview subjects, portray Vaughan as a guy everybody loved, who, even at his worst, only wanted the best for those around him. And while the story is adroitly put together and completely engaging, there is little here that fans who followed Vaughan don't already know. When your life lasts only 35 years and your mainstream career spans just seven years and four studio albums - not counting the posthumous Family Style (with Jimmie) and The Sky is Crying - there just isn't much that stays hidden.

"He was such a vibrant spirit that even from afar you could feel that this was a light shining brighter that most," Bramhall II says at one point.

But some people knew Stevie Ray better - and felt his loss harder - than mere fans and collaborators.

"The world misses his music, but I miss my brother," Jimmie Vaughan says in the book's final quotation.

Andy Aledort Improvisation Lesson - I-IV Chord Vamps

In this episode of In Deep, Andy Aledort teaches you how to improvise on a I-IV chord vamp. For tabs, check out: http://www.guitarworld.com/columns-bl...

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