Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble’s Debut Opens Blues-Rock ‘Flood’ Gates – Radio.com

Radio.com’s Not Fade Away has taken a look at Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble‘s classic debut album, Texas Flood, which hit its 30th anniversary this month. Here is an excerpt:

Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton recently told Radio.com that, back then, recording in the studio tended to be a more refined musical effort than playing live. “Our philosophy was, we were the same band no matter where we were or what we did,” he said.

Their song selection for their debut, which included the SRV-penned classic “Pride And Joy,” along with covers of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Tell Me,” Larry Davis’ “Texas Flood” and the Isley Brothers’ “Testify,” was equally simple: “We played the songs that we had in our repertoire that we liked the best, and we recorded them all a few times, and that was, essentially, the record.” Ditto for their studio technique: “We just put some mics up and just played the songs.”

As simple as that was, the album had a huge effect, showing a new generation of guitarists that the blues wasn’t just something that old folks listened to. Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang and John Mayer, among many others, were profoundly influenced by Vaughan’s playing. Slide guitarist Robert Randolph told Radio.com that Vaughan has been his single biggest influence.

Read the complete article at Radio.com.