News

If you’ve ever hung out at Ray Hennig’s Heart of Texas Music on South Lamar, you may have heard this story before: In 1974, Chris Geppert, who later won five Grammys as Christopher Cross, showed up and traded in a beat-up Stratocaster. The next day, Stevie Ray Vaughan stopped by and took a shine to it.

“Damn, Stevie, that’s the biggest piece of s*** I’ve ever traded for,” Hennig recalls telling Vaughan. The guitarist told him it had the feel he was searching for and took it home on loan. In time, that “piece of s***” became one of music’s most iconic guitars: Vaughan’s legendary “Number One.” Hennig recounted the tale a couple weeks ago when he explained why he was having a moving sale.

“They’re putting condos in,” the elderly go-to guitar tech explained. “It’s no big deal for us. After 50 years, customers will look me up.”

Read more at The Austin Chronicle.

Like the blues itself, the life of Buddy Guy has been all about joy and pain, beauty and sadness. And in his recently published autobiography, When I Left Home, the 75-year-old blues legend tells his tales of hardship and triumph with the same raw, truth-telling vibe you’ll pick up from one of his searing guitar solos.

The penultimate chapter of When I Left Home, “Alpine Valley”, features Guy’s remembrances of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who he credits with bringing back interest in the blues in the ’80s. Guy took Vaughan’s tragic death hard, and recalls how–right after his doomed Alpine Valley performance–Vaughan suggested they make a record together.

“Rememberin’ Stevie, I thought that if it did happen, it was gonna happen in blues heaven. I pictured the band–Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Fred Belew, Little Walter, Stevie Ray Vaughan. That’s a band worth dying for.”

Read more at the Vancouver Free Press.

For 24 hours only, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985 is being offered at PopMarket.com for the exclusive price of $17.99!

This limited edition package features:

• 2 CDs + 2 DVDs
• CD’s include 19 Tracks—11 previously unreleased!
• ’82 show is the earliest available live album with the classic Double Trouble line-up
• ’85 show includes searing performance with Johnny Copeland
• ’85 DVD features 2 unreleased performances – “Cold Shot” and “Look At Little Sister” with Johnny Copeland
• DVD contains a 30 minute documentary detailing the Montreux story with new interviews with Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, Jackson Browne and John Mayer
• Booklet includes numerous unpublished photos and liner notes by Chris, Tommy, David Bowie and photographer Darryl Pitt
• DVDs include 5.1 mixes of both shows

This offer will run until April 6th at 12 p.m. EDT while supplies last. Not a PopMarket member? Join for free now and get the hottest deals on the coolest music!

Tommy Shannon’s B-Day Bash; with Reese Wynans, Chris Layton, David Grissom, David Holt, Denny Freeman, Malford Milligan, Joe Ely

Also with Alan Haynes, WIll Sexton, Gabe Rhodes, Riley Osborn, Tommy Taylor, Roscoe Beck, Derek O’Brien, George Rains, Van Wilks, Bill Carter, Bruce Bowland, John Staehely, Mark Andes

Wed, April 18, 2012
Doors: 7:30 pm / Show: 8:00 pm
Antone’s
Austin, TX
$15.00 – $18.00

Read more at Antones.net and buy tickets at Ticketfly.com.

LEGACY RECORDINGS TAPS POTENTIAL OF SPOTIFY PLATFORM WITH GROUNDBREAKING “THE LEGACY OF” APP LAUNCHING WITH FOCUS ON BOB DYLAN, MILES DAVIS, STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN AND HALL & OATES

Resource-Packed App Provides Fans Full Access to Catalogs of World’s Most Celebrated Musicians

Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, is proud to announce the launch of “The Legacy Of,” a ground-breaking new music app developed for, and available live now on Spotify, the revolutionary next generation digital music service.

An artist-centric app, “The Legacy Of” reveals the depth and breadth of catalog and influence of some of history’s most transformative musicians through curated playlists, handpicked album selections, biographies, photos and more.

The first set of featured artists on “The Legacy Of” app are Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Daryl Hall & John Oates. New artists will be announced and added regularly.

“There is so much music and information available on Spotify and one of the biggest challenges is making people aware of the depth of content available at their fingertips. Spotify’s app technology allowed us to create ‘The Legacy Of,’ an engaging and useful experience for fans who want to delve as deeply as possible into the music they love,” said Adam Block, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Legacy Recordings.

“The Legacy Of” provides a way to explore an artist’s catalog through curated content and playlist areas: Top Albums, Top Tracks, Covers, Influencers, Followers and others. Editorial content includes bios, photos, discographies and more.

About Spotify

Spotify is an award-winning digital music service that gives you on-demand access to millions of tracks. Our dream is to make all the world’s music available instantly to everyone, wherever and whenever they want it. Spotify makes it easier than ever to discover, manage and share music with your friends, while making sure that artists get a fair deal.

Spotify is available in 13 countries: USA, UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Spain, with more than 10 million active users, and over 3 million paying subscribers.

www.spotify.com

About Legacy Recordings

The multiple Grammy-winning Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog division, produces and maintains the world’s foremost catalog of historic reissues, an unparalleled compendium of thousands of digitally remastered archival titles representing virtually every musical genre including popular, rock, jazz, blues, R&B, folk, country, gospel, Broadway musicals, movie soundtracks, ethnic, world music, classical, comedy and more.

Founded in 1990 by CBS Records (rebranded Sony Music in 1991), Legacy’s original mission was to preserve and reissue recordings from the extensive catalogs of Columbia Records (including ARC, Brunswick, OKeh and Vocalion), Epic Records (including Philadelphia International Records) and associated CBS labels. Following the creation of Sony BMG Music Entertainment in 2005, Legacy assumed responsibility for the preservation and ongoing availability of recordings from the archives of the BMG family of labels including RCA Records, Arista, J Records, Jive, Profile, Silvertone, Sony BMG Nashville and Windham Hill, as well as imprints including American, Bang!, CTI, Mainstream, Monument, Ode, and others.

Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Number One” Stratocaster is among the items on display through October 14th at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. The guitar is an exclusive for the museum. You can find more information about the “Texas Music Roadtrip” exhibit at TheStoryOfTexas.com and read more at KVUE.com.

Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton is heading back on the road next year as part of the Experience Hendrix 2012 Tribute Tour. This year’s tour also will include performances by Buddy Guy, Dweezil Zappa, Billy Cox, Robby Kreiger, Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, David Hidalgo & Cesar Rosas, Keb’ Mo, Eric Johnson, Brad Whitford, Living Colour, The Slide Brothers and other special guests. Read more at JimiHendrix.com.

Experience Hendrix Tour confirmed dates (additional dates to be added)

6 – Tue – Baltimore, MD – Strathmore Theater
7 – Wed – Greensboro, NC – War Memorial Auditorium
8 – Thu – Knoxville, TN – Civic Auditorium
9 – Fri – Nashville, TN – Tennessee Performing ArtsCenter
10 – Sat – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theater
11 – Sun – Charleston, SC – North Charleston Performing ArtsCenter
14 – Wed – Hollywood, FL – Seminole Hard Rock
15 – Thu – Clearwarter, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall
16 – Fri – Saint Augustine, FL – Saint Augustine Amphitheatre
17 – Sat – Orange Beach, AL – Warf Amphitheatre
22 – Thu – Houston, TX Arena Theater
23 – Fri – Thackerville, OK – Winstar Casino
24 – Sat – Austin, TX – ACL Live @ Moody Theater

U.K. newspaper The Guardian has featured Stevie Ray Vaughan’s performance of “Little Wing.” Here is an excerpt:

Jimi Hendrix wrote it in 1967, Derek and the Dominos produced a rip-roaring cover in 1970, but it was Stevie Ray Vaughan who nailed it. Quite simply, if there has been a better guitar performance than this version of Little Wing I have yet to hear it. …Vaughan lifts it into the stratosphere with a beautifully constructed and virtuoso seven-minute tour de force. This is delicious stuff – from the opening dampened chords to the final prolonged hammer-on. Who needs singing when guitar playing is this good?

Read more at Guardian.co.uk.

Stevie Ray Vaughan is included in Rolling Stone’s new list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time. Here is an excerpt:

“Texas’ Stevie Ray Vaughan demanded your attention. He had absorbed the styles of just about every great blues guitarist – plus Jimi Hendrix and a lot of jazz and rockabilly – and his monster tone, casual virtuosity and impeccable sense of swing could make a blues shuffle like ‘Pride and Joy’ hit as hard as metal. Vaughan was recognized as a peer by the likes of B.B. King and Eric Clapton, and despite his 1990 death in a helicopter crash, he’s still inspiring multiple generations of guitarists.”

Thursday night at the Texas Theater, Jimmie Vaughan received a warm welcome from loyal fans at a homecoming concert where he received a proclamation from Dallas city councilwoman Delia Jasso, declaring November 10 Jimmie Vaughan Day.

The show included conversations onstage with Vaughan and other notable members of the Oak Cliff community who went to school with the guitarist. For the latter half of the evening, Vaughan and the Tilt-A-Whirl Band played tunes from his last two solo records like “The Pleasure’s All Mine,” “Just A Little Bit,” and “I’m In The Mood For You,” as well as a some of his younger brother’s tracks such as fan favorite “Texas Flood.”

Read more at PegasusNews.com.