Review: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, “The Complete Epic Recordings Collection”

It may seem unbelievable, but it’s been nearly 25 years since Stevie Ray Vaughan perished at the age of 35, victim of a helicopter crash. Yet it’s a testament to the guitar slinger’s blazing talent that his musicianship even today remains a high watermark for those playing his instrument. A six-time Grammy winner and inductee into the Blues Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame, the Texas native created music that is as vibrant and stirring today as when it was first committed to tape. The Legacy Recordings/Epic Records release of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s The Complete Epic Recordings Collection (8884 309142 2) makes the guitarist’s core catalogue available in one package for the first time. The 12-CD set contains nine albums on 10 CDs (including the 2-disc Live at Montreux) all recorded between 1980 and 1989, the year before his untimely death. These albums are sequenced, for the most part, in order of performance, not of release. Two Archives CDs of odds and ends (outtakes, alternates, jams and more) culled from various compilations and reissues round out the set.

As Vaughan and Double Trouble only left behind four studio albums (Texas Flood, Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Soul to Soul and In Step), much of this compendium is dedicated to live material. But seeing as how Vaughan’s talent shone most brightly in a live setting, this is far from a handicap. When David Bowie saw Vaughan at Montreux in 1982, he promptly enlisted him to play on his smash “Let’s Dance.” The first track on the first disc in this box – Freddie King and Sonny Thompson’s “In the Open” from 1992’s posthumous In the Beginning, recorded for radio in 1980 with a line-up including Jackie Newhouse on bass and Chris Layton on drums – has an apropos title. Once Stevie (he hadn’t yet acquired the Ray) Vaughan played his axe in the open, there was no going back. Even in this embryonic set from his home state of Texas, Vaughan had all of the ingredients that would lead to his eventual success: inventive and deeply felt phrasing, technical skill, a distinctive tone, and the ability to bring joie de vivre to the blues. Throughout his career, Vaughan also used effects pedals conservatively, giving him a pure, raw sound.

At the Texas show preserved on In the Beginning, original songs sat comfortably alongside those by the masters like King, Willie Dixon, Otis Rush and Howlin’ Wolf, with Vaughan’s style recognizably in blues tradition but with enough edge and immediacy to captivate a modern audience. With a seemingly endless supply of lacerating licks, Vaughan showed off his innate swing on the boogie-woogie strut of “They Call Me Guitar Hurricane” and conjured up high-octane Chuck Berry riffs of “Love Struck Baby.” He could also bring things down and still rivet as on “Tin Pan Alley (a.k.a. Roughest Place in Town).” Besides his instrumental skills, Vaughan could also belt the blues convincingly. Having the “whole package,” it’s no wonder that legendary A&R man and producer John Hammond, Sr. (veteran of artists from Benny Goodman to Bruce Springsteen!) championed the young artist at Epic.

There’s more after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of October 27

 

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV (Atlantic/Swan Song)

Jimmy Page has assembled an entire alternate version of Led Zeppelin IV as the bonus content for this new reissue, including the “Sunset Sound” mix of “Stairway to Heaven” and an alternate U.K. mix of “When the Levee Breaks.”

1-CD Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

2-CD Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Super Deluxe Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

1-LP Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

2-LP Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Digital Download: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy (Atlantic/Swan Song)

The new Houses of the Holy boasts seven bonus cuts including rough and working mixes of such tracks as “No Quarter” and “The Song Remains the Same.”

1-CD Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

2-CD Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Super Deluxe Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

1-LP Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

2-LP Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Digital Download: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Chuck Berry, Rock and Roll Music: Any Old Way You Choose It (Bear Family) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Bear Family’s massive 16-CD survey of the complete career of the rock and roll pioneer includes every single and LP track recorded in the studio by Chuck Berry plus special bonus material!

Judy Garland, The Garland Variations: Songs She Recorded More Than Once (JSP)  (Amazon U.S. TBD /Amazon U.K.)

This exciting set rounds up, on five CDs and 115 tracks, songs the immortal Judy Garland recorded in the studio on multiple occasions between 1937 and 1962!

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, The Complete Epic Recordings Collection (Epic/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

Epic and Legacy have a true “Texas flood” with twelve discs from guitar hero Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble!  Look for Joe’s review tomorrow!

The Who, Hits 50! (Geffen/UMe)

The Who celebrate 50 years of heavy rocking with this new collection, available in multiple formats!

Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

1-CD Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Blu-ray Pure Audio: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD

KISS, Love Gun: Expanded Edition (Casablanca/Mercury/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

KISS expands its 1977 classic with an 11-track bonus CD of mostly new-to-CD music!

Paul McCartney, New: Deluxe Edition (Hear Music)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Macca expands his 2013 hit album in a DVD-sized hardcover book format including a bonus disc of audio material and a lengthy DVD compendium of live performances and more!

Silver Convention – Madhouse (1976) / Anita Pointer – Love For What It Is (1987) / 5000 Volts – 5000 Volts (1976) / Rinder & Lewis – Seven Deadly Sins (1978) (Big Break/Hot Shot)

Big Break Records has a quartet of releases in stores today!  As always, a full rundown is coming up from Joe!

Silver Convention: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Anita Pointer: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
5000 Volts: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Rinder & Lewis: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Leonard Bernstein, Edition: Concertos and Orchestral Works  (Masterworks) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Masterworks has an 80-CD (!) box set drawn from the label’s vast catalogue of CBS/Columbia recordings by the legendary maestro, Leonard Bernstein.  The label promises “every concerto, symphonic poem, overture, ballet, dance, march etc. that Bernstein recorded in New York between 1950 and 1976 (plus some in London, Paris and Israel) by nearly every composer in the standard repertoire” in this follow-up to 2010’s The Symphony Edition.

Yusuf, Tell ‘Em I’m Gone (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The artist formerly known as Cat Stevens returns with his latest studio album.  On this soulful and bluesy collection, the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee blends originals with eclectic favorites including “You Are My Sunshine” and “Dying to Live.”

Barry Manilow, My Dream Duets (Verve) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

When Verve Records asked the newly-signed veteran entertainer to record a duets album, Manilow responded with a hearty “Yes!” – but only if he could record with his dearly departed favorite artists.  And so we have this collection on which Manilow has composed new duet arrangements for classic vocalists including Whitney Houston (“I Believe in You and Me”), Cass Elliot (“Dream a Little Dream of Me”), Andy Williams (“Moon River”) and Sammy Davis, Jr. (“The Candy Man”) plus some off-the-beaten-path choices like Jimmy Durante (“The Song’s Gotta Come from the Heart”) and Marilyn Monroe (“I Wanna Be Loved by You”)!

Dionne Warwick, Feels So Good (Caroline) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The pop legend returns with her latest studio album.  Produced by her son Damon Elliott, it’s heavy on “modernized,” new duet covers of Bacharach/David classics (“A House is Not a Home” with Ne-Yo, “You’ll Never Get to Heaven” with Ruben Studdard, “This Girl’s in Love with You” with Phil Driscoll) plus a couple of recycled tracks (“Message to Michael” with Cyndi Lauper and “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” with Gladys Knight) and some new songs including the title track featuring Cee-Lo Green.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock and Roll Time (Vanguard) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!  The veteran rock-and-roller is still pounding his piano on this new 11-track album featuring such friends as Keith Richards, Robbie Robertson, Ron Wood, Neil Young, Shelby Lynne, Nils Lofgren, and Daniel Lanois.

Texas Flood: Legacy Collects Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble Albums

The late guitar hero Stevie Ray Vaughan is getting an epic release from Epic Records and Legacy Recordings. On October 28, Legacy will unveil Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: The Complete Epic Recordings Collection, a 12-CD box set compiling, for the first time, the entirety of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s official studio and live album canon at Epic. The box set will include the first commercial release of A Legend in the Making, a promotional recording of the band’s landmark 1983 performance at Toronto’s El Mocambo club, and will also feature two discs of SRV’s odds and ends.

The late Vaughan, who tragically perished in a helicopter crash on August 27, 1990, built his reputation on the Texas club scene in the 1970s as one of the most exciting and innovative guitarists around.   Younger brother of another blues great, Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray played in The Nightcrawlers with Leon Russell’s onetime Asylum Choir partner Marc Benno and famed Austin singer/songwriter Doyle Bramhall, and joined Denny Freeman in The Cobras. But it was the Triple Threat Revue that morphed into Double Trouble, the unit with which Vaughan would set off a blues revival in, of all decades, the 1980s.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble – Stevie Ray (guitar, vocals), Tommy Shannon (bass) and Chris “Whipper” Layton (drums) – caught the ear of David Bowie at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival, and the ever-astute artist enlisted the blazing guitarist for his Let’s Dance album. Naturally, word spread. Jackson Browne was impressed enough to offer the band use of his Los Angeles recording studio, leading to the recordings which found their way to a man who knew a little about the blues: venerable record man John Hammond, Sr. The elder Hammond played a major role in the careers of artists from Benny Goodman and Count Basie to Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan, and he brought the Texas trio to Epic Records. The recordings were remixed and remastered, and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble were off and running.

Executive produced by Hammond, the Texas Flood LP was produced by the band with engineer Richard Mullen. With both originals (hit single “Pride and Joy,” “Love Struck Baby”) and covers (The Isley Brothers’ “Testify,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Tell Me”), Texas Flood caught on with record buyers. “Pride and Joy” reached No. 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and the album made it all the way to No. 38 on the Billboard 200. Grammy nominations soon arrived, too, for the album’s title track and “Rude Mood.” Yet Texas Flood – beginning Vaughan’s series of gold, platinum and multiplatinum releases over the years – is actually the fourth album on this new box set, preceded by three live recordings.

Within the box, you’ll find:

• Disc 1: In The Beginning (KLBJ-FM radio broadcast produced by Wayne Bell, recorded April 1, 1980; Austin, Texas)
• Disc 2: Live At Montreux 1982 (July 17, 1982; Montreux International Jazz Festival)
• Disc 3: Live At Montreux 1985 (July 15, 1985; Montreux International Jazz Festival)
• Disc 4: Texas Flood (1983)
• Disc 5: A Legend in the Making—Live at the El Mocambo (recorded Toronto, Canada, July 20, 1983)
• Disc 6: Couldn’t Stand the Weather (1984)
• Disc 7: Live at Carnegie Hall (October 4, 1984)
• Disc 8: Soul to Soul (1985)
• Disc 9: Live Alive (1986) (Recorded July 16, 1985, Montreux International Jazz Festival; July 17-18, 1986, Austin, Texas; July 19, 1986, Dallas, Texas)
• Disc 10: In Step (1989)
• Disc 11: Archives, Disc One
• Disc 12: Archives, Disc Two

Collectors will note that Texas Flood and Couldn’t Stand the Weather have both been expanded for Legacy Edition releases; only the original album sequences are presented in this box set.  However, the bonus tracks from Disc One of the CSTW Legacy Edition can be found on Archives.  Family Style by the Vaughan Brothers isn’t here, but the contents of the posthumous outtakes collection The Sky is Crying have also found a home on Archives.

After the jump, we have more details – including pre-order links and the complete track listing with discography!

Release Round-Up: Week of January 29

Fleetwood Mac, Rumours: Expanded/Deluxe Editions (Warner Bros.)

Ahead of the band’s forthcoming tour, a new 4CD/1DVD/LP deluxe box set edition of their most popular album, featuring the original album on CD and vinyl, two discs of studio outtakes (including the one from the 2004 reissue) and an unreleased documentary. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) A three-disc edition collects the album and the two new bonus CDs, so if you own the last expansion and can live sans DVD, you can pick the rest up for a reasonable fee. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Miles Davis Quintet, Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Volume 2 (Columbia/Legacy)

This 3CD/1DVD set features Miles’ “lost” quintet lineup (featuring Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland, who never laid down studio tracks on their own) in four European shows from France, Stockholm and Berlin. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Texas Flood: 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition (Columbia/Legacy)

SRV’s searing debut LP, newly expanded with an unreleased live set from the period. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Destiny’s Child, Love Songs (Music World/Columbia/Legacy)

A new compilation of lesser-known, romantic album cuts, bolstered by – gasp! – the first new Destiny’s Child track since the mid-’00s! Place your bets as to whether Beyoncé will include the tune in her Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday… (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Deep Purple, Paris 1975 (Eagle Rock)

First in a series of upcoming live Deep Purple reissues, this set chronicles the band’s last Mark III-era show, before Ritchie Blackmore left to perform with his new band Rainbow. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Marianne Faithfull, Broken English: Deluxe Edition (Island/Universal U.K.)

Faithfull’s incendiary, signature 1979 album has been expanded in the U.K. with some great audiovisuals, including rare and unreleased mixes. (Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.)

Five Star, Five Star: Deluxe Edition / Shine: Expanded Edition (Cherry Pop)

Available in the U.K. today are two comparatively obscure albums by the British pop/R&B group, expanded with many remixes. (Five Star: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S., Shine: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.)

Various Artists, Playlist: The Very Best Of (Legacy)

Among the titles in this batch: neat mixes of hits and deep-ish cuts from Andy Williams, The Highwaymen and Harry Nilsson; Sun-era sets for Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins and a disc of Box Tops singles, all in glorious mono.

Pride and Joy of Austin, Texas: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s Debut Expanded for Legacy Edition

Double Trouble is getting double-sized from Legacy Recordings and Epic Records.

1983’s Texas Flood, the debut album of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, is turning 30 in 2013, and Legacy is celebrating with a two-disc 30th anniversary edition of the classic LP.  Due on January 29, the 2-CD set will include one bonus track appended to the original album, and an entire second disc of unreleased live material.

The late Vaughan, who tragically perished in a 1990 helicopter crash, made his reputation on the Texas club scene in the 1970s as one of the most exciting and innovative guitarists around.    Younger brother of another blues great, Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray played in The Nightcrawlers with Leon Russell’s onetime musical partner Marc Benno and famed Austin singer/songwriter Doyle Bramhall, and joined Denny Freeman in The Cobras.  But it was the Triple Threat Revue that morphed into Double Trouble, the unit with which Vaughan would set off a blues revival in, of all decades, the 1980s.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble – Stevie Ray (guitar, vocals), Tommy Shannon (bass) and Chris “Whipper” Layton (drums) – caught the ear of David Bowie at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival, and the ever-astute artist enlisted the blazing guitarist for his hit Let’s Dance album.  Jackson Browne was similarly impressed and offered the band use of his Los Angeles recording studio, leading to the recordings which found their way to a man who knew a little about the blues: John Hammond, Sr.  The elder Hammond played a major role in the careers of artists from Benny Goodman and Count Basie to Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan, and he brought the Texas trio to Epic Records.  The recordings were remixed and remastered, and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble were off and running.

Executive produced by Hammond, Epic’sTexas Flood album was produced by the band with engineer Richard Mullen.  With both originals (hit single “Pride and Joy,” “Love Struck Baby”) and covers (The Isley Brothers’ “Testify,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Tell Me”), Texas Flood caught on with record buyers.  “Pride and Joy” reached No. 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and the album made it all the way to No. 38 on the Billboard 200.  Grammy nominations soon arrived, too, for the album’s title track and “Rude Mood.”

What will you find on the upcoming release?  Hit the jump!

Taylor, King, Vaughan, Joel, More Due from MoFi in 2011

Start saving your pennies now. In an eye-opening move, audiophile specialty label Mobile Fidelity has announced a massive slate of releases across the CD, SACD and LP formats scheduled for 2011.  Longtime collectors of audiophile masterings may get a thrill at seeing the “Original Master Recording” banner above the works of classic artists ranging from Tony Bennett and Ray Charles to Carole King and James Taylor.

While this writer has some quibbles (why no CDs or SACDs for Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Costello’s releases?) and some questions (will the reissue of Billy Joel’s Turnstiles include the unaltered “New York State of Mind,” for one thing?) the lineup offers something for everyone. Among the most exciting releases are SACDs for Carole King, James Taylor and Joel, all of whom had titles released when Sony was releasing titles regularly in the format. The MoFi campaigns for artists such as The Band, The Pretenders and Ray Charles also continue, and the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan is the recipient of no fewer than five reissues. Joel, the recipient of a major reissue campaign from Legacy in 2011, interestingly sees his audiophile catalogue make a jump from Audio Fidelity to Mobile Fidelity with Piano Man and Turnstiles, joining The Pretenders and The Band among the artists in this batch with audiophile discs from both specialist labels.

All titles are mastered from the original tapes, and the SACD versions present the original stereo mixes only. Hit the jump for the full list of titles with track listings, and thanks to our friends at MusicTAP for the heads-up on this exciting roll-out. All titles can be pre-ordered here.

Release Round-Up: Week of November 9

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes: Deluxe Edition (Geffen/UMe)

With a bonus disc of B-sides and unreleased outtakes and an optional Blu-Ray audio version, audiophiles hopefully won’t have a reason to say “don’t do me like that” with this set. (Official site)

Bon Jovi, Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection (Island)

If 1994’s Cross Road isn’t enough of a Bon Jovi comp for you, this career-spanning set (available in single and double-disc formats) combines all the usual hits with two new tracks (or four, depending on what set you buy). (Official site)

Elvis Presley, Viva ELVIS: The Album (RCA/Legacy)

The King gets his own equivalent to The Beatles’ Love, complete with a soundtrack of remixed, re-imagined classics. (More material you’re not going to find on the box set.) (Official site)

The Rolling Stones, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (Box Set) (Eagle)

The Stones’ classic Exile-era concert film (just recently released on DVD) is paired with this year’s The Stones in Exile and a bunch of bonus material in a limited, numbered box. (Amazon)

Bing Crosby, The Crosby Christmas Sessions (Collector’s Choice) / The Television Specials Volume 2: The Christmas Specials (Infinity)

Hooray for Christmas catalogue titles! Collector’s Choice honors Bing’s holiday spirit with a trove of mostly-unreleased Yuletide tracks, while Infinity Entertainment gets his holiday television specials on DVD. (Official site)

Playlist Tracks Aplenty

Way back in August, The Second Disc reported on a flood of titles in Legacy’s budget Playlist series. Today, a whole bunch of them are released, and if you haven’t yet made your weekly trip to the record store and were wondering what might be in store, you’ll have your answer after the jump.

Read on to see the newest compilations for Barry Manilow, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Isley Brothers, gospel titles from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton and much more!

SRV Track List Unveiled

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s second LP, Couldn’t Stand the Weather, was recently confirmed to be reissued as a Legacy Edition title from Sony. Now, it has a track list.

The two-disc set will feature the original LP and 11 outtakes on Disc 1. (Three of them are unreleased, the others are from a previous reissue and/or the posthumously assembled LP The Sky is Crying.) Disc 2 captures the complete late set from the band’s performance at Montreal’s Spectrum in August 1984.

Pre-order this set through Amazon and hit the jump to check out the track lists.

Weekend Release Round-Up: SRV, Jayhawks, Sum 41 and More

This was a busy week for catalogue fans, what with the Elvis revelation from the other day and reactions to the new Exile on Main St. sets. Here, to close out the week, are a few announcements that fell through the cracks.

• The long-planned Legacy Edition of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s 1985 sophomore LP Couldn’t Stand the Weather now has a release date: July 27. The set will feature bonus tracks from the original recording sessions and a previously-unreleased live show on Disc 2. (No word on the tracks themselves, or if there are any repeats from the 1999 remaster. Also, Amazon’s got a June 22 listing for a deluxe reissue of the SRV/Albert King live collaboration In Session, originally released on the Stax label. Looks like it comes with a DVD of the performance.)
• Legacy’s also announced some reissues for alt-country band The Jayhawks, hot off last year’s hits-and-rarities compilation Music from the North Country. Hollywood Town Hall, their 1992 LP (and first on Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label), will see a reissue expanded by five tracks, while 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass, one of their most successful records, will be expanded in a Legacy Edition that includes 24 bonus cuts, largely comprised of the fabled “Mystery Demos” the band recorded at the time. Both titles are due August 24.
• Punk-pop band Sum 41 will see their debut LP, All Killer No Filler, get a 10th anniversary reissue from Island Records and UMe on August 3. Amazon has a pre-order link, but that’s the extent of it for now.
• Finally, Hip-o Select has announced a limited reissue of two Verve LPs from soul organist Jimmy Smith. Respect (1967) and Livin’ It Up (1968) are getting their premiere release on CD with a bonus track, non-LP single “Mickey Mouse.” That track list can be found after the jump.