Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow, yeah.
Everywhere the child went,
The little lamb was sure to go, yeah.
He followed her to school one day,
And broke the teacher’s rule.
What a time did they have,
That day at school.
Tisket, tasket,
A green and yellow basket.
Sent a letter to my baby,
On my way I passed it.
About Stevie Ray Vaughan
The ’80s blues revival was ignited by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s astonishing guitar playing. Vaughan drew equally from bluesmen like Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins and rock & roll players like Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack, as well as jazz guitarists like Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery, resulting in an eclectic and fiery style unlike any other guitarist. In the late 1960s, no other artist had bridged the gap between blues and rock like Vaughan. In the 1980s and 1990s, Stevie Ray was the leading light of American blues, consistently selling out concerts and releasing gold records. In 1990, at age 35, he tragically lost his life just as he was about to become a superstar in blues and American rock & roll.
Started Music Journey
Vaughan was inspired to play guitar by his older brother Jimmie at the age of seven, when he was born and raised in Dallas. At age 12, he was playing in garage bands, and within a few years, he joined semi-professional bands that occasionally played local nightclubs. After dropping out of high school at 17, he devoted himself to music. He formed his first blues band, Blackbird, a year later, while playing in a nine-piece horn band. Once Blackbird moved to Austin, Vaughan joined Paul Ray and the Cobras in 1975, where he played in various bands over the next few years. It was the Cobras who won Austin’s Band of the Year award in 1976. By 1977, Stevie had earned his stripes as a sideman and formed Triple Threat Revue. Additionally, Triple Threat featured bassist W.C. Clark and singer Lou Ann Barton. As a result of Barton’s departure, the band became Double Trouble, named after a song by Otis Rush. Jack Newhouse played bass, Chris Layton played drums, and Vaughan sang lead. The power trio was formed in 1981 when Tommy Shannon joined on bass.
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble became one of the most popular bands in Texas in the early 1980s. A performance by the band at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1982 caught the attention of David Bowie and Jackson Browne. Stevie Vaughan played lead guitar on six of the eight songs on Bowie’s best-selling album, Let’s Dance, which was released after Double Trouble’s performance. In Los Angeles, Jackson Browne offered the group free recording time at his Downtown Studio after an after-hours jam. Over Thanksgiving weekend at Downtown Studios, Vaughan and Double Trouble recorded their debut album in just two days thanks to legendary producer John Hammond.
As a result of Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Vaughan’s debut album, Texas Flood, was released in the summer of 1983. It was reported that Stevie’s management pulled him from Bowie’s world tour in 1983 to support Vaughan’s own record, but Texas Flood went on to become a blockbuster blues album; receiving positive reviews from both blues and rock publications, reaching number 38 on the charts, and crossing over to album rock radio stations. In May of 1984, Vaughan and Double Trouble released their second album, Couldn’t Stand the Weather. By the end of 1985, the album had gone gold, reaching number 31 on the charts. Reese Wynans joined Double Trouble in 1985, before they recorded Soul to Soul, their third album. In September 1985, the record reached number 34 on the charts, also proving to be quite successful.
