The Cherry Sisters

Before alternative music or plays, there was Marion's very own Cherry Sisters who terrorized the opera houses of the local state in the late 1890s.  A couple interesting artifacts are found here.
http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/Early/cherry.html

The Cherry Sisters may have also figured in free speech to which they sued and lost to newspapers that didn't like their performances.   case in point: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iaohms/cherry_articles.html

They were ahead of their time, long before Yoko Ono was even born and Nicki No Talent Minaj not even a twinkle in the eye of her grandparents. 

A one of a kind that was the Cherry Sisters.

further reading:
http://travsd.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/stars-of-vaudeville-85-the-cherry-sisters/

Scott Halpin-Subsitute Who Drummer

Who are you? The guy who played with the Who, that's
who

By Mike Leonard, Hoosier Times columnist
Sunday, February 19, 2006 6:52 AM CST
 
BLOOMINGTON - Google the name Scott Halpin, and you can
understand some of the reasons why the Bloomington
resident remains cautious and a bit indifferent about
recounting his extraordinary little contribution to
rock 'n' roll history.

"They always get something wrong," he said of the many
accounts of the night when, at age 19, he replaced
drummer Keith Moon in legendary band, The Who. "I've
read where I played anywhere from five minutes to an
hour. I came out of the front row to join the band on
stage. That kind of thing," Halpin said last week.

"One story said I was a graduate of Monterey High
School, and I'd sort of slipped away into obscurity,
and the last anyone knew, I was a businessman."

Actually, Halpin has lived in Bloomington for roughly
a decade, makes his living as an artist and
illustrator, and occasionally gets out to play bass,
now his preferred instrument, and sometimes, drums.

He was just a kid from Muscatine, Iowa, who'd moved to
California when he hooked up with a friend to see The
Who at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on Nov. 20,
1973. He was a major Who fan at the time.

"I was living in Monterey, and I figure from the time
it took to drive into San Francisco and the time I
spent standing in line, I spent 13 hours. I really did
want to get down front," he recalled.

 
The show

Halpin had never heard of the opening band, Lynyrd
Skynyrd, and doesn't remember much about their set
other than a vague recollection of the endless riffing
on "Free Bird."

"It was back in the days of general admission, and you
really had to suck it up and just hold your spot (in
the audience)," Halpin recalled. "Once The Who came
on, the crush of people was so intense, I could only
handle about three songs. After that, we kind of
escaped over to the side of the stage, where there
were these big ramps, and we had a good view of the
band."

The Who's notoriously wild drummer, Moon, passed out
more than midway through the performance, was taken
off-stage and after a brief intermission, returned to
his drum kit. Accounts of the source of Moon's
infirmity vary, but Halpin guesses that the
speculation centering on the quasi-psychedelic drug,
PCP, probably is accurate.

 
 
"You could sense it was going to happen again," Halpin
said. Sure enough, Moon collapsed again, and Halpin's
friend, Mike Danese, dragged him to the side of the
stage and pleaded with security guards to tell the
band's management that Halpin could step in.

"The security guard was probably thinking he's a
complete nut, but all of a sudden, (promoter) Bill
Graham pops up, and he sees it as a security thing.
He's sort of nose-to-nose with Mike, and Mike says,
'He can do this. He's a drummer. He knows the
material.' And Bill Graham looks at me and says, 'Can
you do it?' and I said yeah."

On stage

At that point, The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend,
almost rhetorically asks the Cow Palace crowd if
there's a drummer in the house. Unbeknownst to him,
Halpin is already in place, sitting on Moon's stool
and getting instructions on how the drum kit is set up
by a technician.

"Then, (singer) Roger Daltry announces my name and we
go into it. Pete told me he'd give me cues, and they
had me start with (the blues standard) 'Smokestack
Lightning,' which I don't ever remember being part of
their thing," Halpin said.

He admitted he really doesn't even remember what else
he played because he was so focused on keeping time
and picking up signals from Townshend. A Web site on
Who history indicates that Halpin would have played on
the songs, "Smokestack Lightning," "Spoonful" and
"Naked Eye." An account in the San Francisco Chronicle
from 1996 says a bootleg tape shows that Halpin played
on the first two previously listed songs and the grand
finale, "My Generation."

Who members Townshend, Daltry and John Entwistle
thanked the skinny kid from the audience for stepping
to the plate but didn't hang around long after the
show.

"They were very angry with Keith and sort of fighting
among themselves," Halpin said. "It was the opening
date on their 'Quadrophenia' tour, and they were
saying, 'Why couldn't he wait until after the show (if
he wanted to get high)?"

Daltry, who'd begun drinking Jack Daniels from the
bottle at that point, told the substitute they'd pay
him $1,000 for his efforts, and a roadie gave him a
tour jacket on the spot. "Then everyone split," Halpin
said. "My friend and I both had long drives ahead of
us, so we loaded up on all the free food that was put
out for the band, and we both headed for home."

In the meantime, someone stole the tour jacket that
Halpin had just received as a gift.

Halpin received favorable mention in the next day's
Chronicle review. He received a nice letter from the
band but no money - not that it mattered.

The legacy

The Who returned to San Francisco a couple of years
later, and Halpin did get to go backstage and meet
Moon, who was gracious but in his typical whirlwind
mode.

"He was doing this hilarious monologue and taking off
his stage clothes and putting on his street clothes in
front of everyone," Halpin said with a laugh. "He said
'Nice to meet you' to me, and then he was off."

The story of Halpin's brief stint playing with The Who
often comes up when people collect stories of rock 'n'
roll lore or Who retrospectives. Rolling Stone
magazine would later name Halpin the "Pick-up Player
of the Year." A few years ago, the cable network VH-1
flew him to New York City for an interview that is
included in a program called "The Forty Freakiest
Concert Moments in Rock History." Last week, Halpin
sat down in the WFIU-FM studios in Bloomington to tape
a segment for NPR's "Morning Edition."

"It's just one of those stories that won't go away,
but you know, it's not a story that even a lot of
people I know have heard," he said. "I mean, how do
you tell this story? Are you bragging if you do? It's
kind of weird, how it all went down. And to be honest,
it all gets kind of foggy because it all happened so
fast. I didn't have time to take it all in. All I was
thinking about was not screwing up." 

Scott Halpin Died in 2008 at age 54. 

ASIA

Funny thing about supergroups, they tend to be over-hyped and in some ways Asia reminds me of Bad Company, supergroup from other bands that made a few albums together, then members fall out and a different lineup would ensured or sometimes the original members return.

Asia came from various prog rock bands, John Wetton played in King Crimson, UK and Uriah Heep, Steve Howe from Yes, Geoff Downs from The Buggles and Yes and Carl Palmer from ELP and I guess you would call their first album Prog Pop although that deep sound came from the late Mike Stone adding plenty of overdubs here and there to create something more than just four guys.  Their first album remains their best although Heat Of The Moment and Only Time Will Tell have been ran into the ground on the classic rock radio.  How dare me to rate this an A album but it's a album I can listen start to finish with wonderful tracks like Wildest Dreams, Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling again.  This record got plenty of play on my stereo.  You may be excused from here on out to read the rest of the story.

Alpha was a let down. Don't Cry and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes were overplayed on radio as well but crowd pleasers like Open Your Eyes and The Heat Goes On plus the ultra beautiful Never In A Million Years make the record not so much a bust, but side 2 really really drags.  And then confusion came calling, Wetton left, Greg Lake replaced him, but on Astra Wetton returns and Steve Howe leaves replaced by Mandy Meyer whoever he was.  The record tanked, but to me it was a better effort than Alpha  although there's much more darker songs on this outing but standouts include Go, Voice Of America, Love Now Till Eternity and the angry Too Late.  Some songs didn't make much sense Countdown To Zero (with a corny ending) and After The War showcase a war paranoia.  But nothing was heard much from Asia after that and Geffen pieced together a collection of greatest hits and outtakes for Then And Now to which they had a minor hit with Days Like These and even had David Cassidy cowrite a song.

Wetton leaves again and Geoff Downes finds an able replacement that is willing to stay onboard in John Payne which begins Asia Part 2, the Downes/Payne years and Aqua is bizarre and boring most of the time. Although Steve Howe and Carl Palmer are listed, outside of Who Will Stop The Rain, there's not much I can recommend on this although there's a couple songs that Greg Lake did write.  The Payne era I haven't paid much attention to although Aria had a few more moments but still sounded like a hair metal band.  Basically after that it was the Payne/Downes show up till Wetton, Howe and Palmer reunited with Downes, and left Payne in the dust (although Payne was allowed to use Asia featuring John Payne).  Phoenix the first new Asia original since Astra was more stripped down, by then Mike Stone was dead so they produced it themselves. It might be their most progressive rock album ever although I really haven't played it much. Omega came out in 2009 produced by Mike Paxman (Status Quo) and it returned them more to the earlier hit sound of the 80s although no new hits were taken off it, radio ignored it since they're considered a dinosaur act.  In 2012 they recorded XXX which is a return to sound of the first album and reviews of this were pretty good but again radio wanted nothing to do with it.  Really a shame, since Omega and XXX are good in their own way.

Asia also benefits from having more greatest hits and anthologies than actual albums and basically this is where buyer beware comes to play.  Anthologia  The 20th Anniversary collection has ALL of the Geffen albums into a nifty two CD set, which means you get the first three albums plus B sides Ride Easy and Daylight which would have made their respective albums that much better.  Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia I would have recommended but Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling Again are edited version and a bad butcher job at that but has Ride Easy and Daylight and is preferable over Then And Now or the 20th Century Masters Collection.  And then there's the 2 cd Gold collection and the Definitive Edition to boot.  Inside Out US, issued Anthology which deals with Payne era.  There are countless Live Asia albums that only the hardcore fan will pay attention but I'll give two of them that I do have, Asia Live In Moscow and Live In Nottingham, which features Pat Thrall playing guitar, The Moscow side is interesting of John Wetton doing a couple of King Crimson numbers, and Downes playing Video Killed the Radio Star.  The Nottingham Live show has Prayin 4 A Miracle which is rarely played.

They're not a critic's favorite, prog rock fans think less of them but they have managed to carve out a career on the strength of Heat Of The Moment or Only Time Will Tell.  But I grew up listening to them and managed to seek their albums from time to time.  And their first album is one of the 80s albums that defined that era like it or not.  John Payne may be a dedicated musician to the cause but the original Asia had better players and Wetton is a better singer.  And he had the hits too.

Asia (Geffen 1982) A-
Alpha (Geffen 1983) C+
Astra (Geffen 1985) B+
Then And Now (Geffen 1989) B
Live In Moscow (Rhino 1990) C+
Live In Nottingham (Renaissance 1990) B- 
Aqua (Great Pyramid/Rhino 1992) C-
Aura (Mayhem 1994) C
Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia (Geffen 2000) B+
Anthologia (Geffen 2002) A- (Later repackaged as Gold)
Phoenix (Frontiers 2007) C+
Omega (Frontiers 2009) B
XXX (Frontiers 2012) B+
     

New Music Review:Shemekia Copeland 33 1/3

This year I have reviewed a lot of new blues albums since I have been getting them on the cheap.  Which means since nobody buys them, Half Priced Books throws them in the Clarence bins.on certain days.

Sad about today's blues, is that you don't hear it on the radio, it's a dying art that only the hardcore still care about and there's plenty of them out there.  Dani Wilde, Omar And The Howlers, Samantha Fish have been part of the rotation here in Crabb land, Royal Southern Brotherhood as well, Ole Brown too.  I have never reviewed as many Ruf artists has I have this year and most have that SRV sound just enough to pass as blues folk.  As well as the old fart rock and rollers of today, Little Caesar, Aerosmith, Van Morrison, basically going on the hope that the old faithful fans will continue to buy their albums although it's getting mighty late and shelves are getting full to capacity here.  As much as  I would like to continue to seek out new music and forgotten dollar specials, time is getting too short to continue this madness.  A banishment from Best Buy and Half Priced Books in order?  Hard habits are hard to break.

I find myself getting more agreeable with women in music since I have listen to more of female performers this year more than I have the last decade or two.  The latest Heart is fantastic to the point that I had to seek out Red Velvet Car for reference. Sam Fish I continue to rave about although she rarely leaves Kansas City to play elsewhere.  Today's latest discovery find was Shemekia Copeland's 33 1/3 (Telarc Blues/Concord).  Copeland is no stranger here, she has played blues festivals around the area and did play Brucemore in their Bluesmore Summertime Series.  Daughter to late great Johnnie Copeland, Shemekia is cut from the same cloth that gave us Etta James or closer to her style Koko Taylor although on the new album she's gotten more Bonnie Raitt than usual.  Again with Oliver Wood producing like he did on her earlier 2009 effort, he guides her through 11 nitty gritty blues and soul numbers and bringing out the ultra sassy in her with stuff like I Sing The Blues or Mississippi Mud.  The title of the album makes it clear she is a fan of vinyl records as well being it her actual age, she was born in 1979 which makes her 33 and when I found the cd a third of a way through her 33rd year. Irony eh?

Legendary bluesman Buddy Guy adds mad lead guitar to Ain't Gonna Be Your Tattoo and covers a wide variety of songwriters, J J Cale on A Woman, Sam Cooke on Ain't That Good News and a interesting cover of Bob Dylan's I'll Be Your Baby Tonight to which Shemekia adds a bit of a romantic sweetie.  But then will turn around and kick your ass on One More Time too, a blueswoman with a heart but do her wrong watch out.  It makes good blues music but once upon a time they used to call that Rhythm & Blues. 

33 1/3 is an album that cries out for the old AOR stations of yesterday, KFMH or the old KKRQ or for that matter the old old KRNA when they did play blues but that was before your time anyway.  You won't hear it on the radio unless either NPR or KCCK when they plays blues on the weekend.  But maybe this might have been a promo copy for KCCK that I found, who knows?  For later day blues Copeland excels as both a blues or soul singer and the record does rock hard even for the blues.  I'm sure Koko Taylor is nodding with approval just like her dad Johnny is from the great beyond.  Good soul blues, the way that I used to remember it years ago too.

Grade B+

Green Day

The grunge movement that ended with Kurt Cobain blowing his brains out, leaving rock radio trying to find some other band to carry on the so call anti establishment movement (if there was anything to rebel against) in 1994 started a punk revival of sorts.  Not that punk went away, it was always around in some capacity that during that year two bands of note came out of the California wasteland, one was The Offspring whose left field smash called Smash  became a modern rock staple to this day you can't escape the pop hits of Come Out And Play (Keep Them Separated) or Self Esteem and eventually would become more fun pop than real punk.

The other band that broke it big was Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day, coming off Lookout Records, which was home to Operation Ivy to which Tim Armstrong (no relation) would form the Clash/ska influenced Rancid.  Green Day was more rock influenced than actual punk, in fact their roots can be traced to The Who when The Who were actually punks then became grand rock and rollers with their concept albums Tommy  and Quadaphenoia to which Green Day would make their own grand statements with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.  Nevertheless, their first album 1039/Smoothed Out Sloppy Hours was them trying to learn at they go.  I don't play it very much myself.

They came into their own with Kerplunk! to which the Tre Cool became the drummer and GD found the spark that would ignite their albums from here on out.  The sound is very thin but the performance is dead on rock and roll and songs such as Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? Android and 2,000 Light Years Away would become the starting point for later chart toppers like Welcome To Paradise or Longview, Words I Might Have Ate, acoustic Ramones.   Had Cobain lived on Dookie wouldn't be the landslide seller it became but perhaps the world was tired of grunge and wanted a more lighter and punker sound.

And so the love affair with Green Day started with Dookie which combines three chord punk and roll but with a more smoother production.  Critics weren't amused, punk fans accused them of being sellouts when they went major label and BJ's fake Brit accent annoyed the purist but to me it was the music that mattered and Tre Cool being the Keith Moon of punk generation smashing cymbals left and right on Burnout and the moody Having A Blast.  Armstrong singing the angst of teens living in mom and dad's basement on Basket Case echoed many a frustrated teen or not enjoying playing with themselves on Longview, their own Pictures Of Lily I gather.  Dookie the album was a blast but it was a short enjoyable blast barely a half hour at the very least.  And it got the be the album of 1994 in my book.

Even better to these ears was Insomniac which bombed but Green Day kept it short and sweet, turning the guitars and angst up to ten.  Sure they ripped off the Who here and rewrote She's Got Everything by the Kinks into Walking Contradiction but the music pulled it through big time with Geek Stink Breath,  the unsafe at any speed Bab's Uvula Who and the slow burn of Brain Stew which deteriorates into the thrash Jaded or the chaos of Panic Song, Insomniac  is their perfect statement.  Three chords and basically rock and roll to which they would not revisit till their latest Uno!

The problem with punk rock is that is one dimensional and after a while playing the same chords and singing the same song over gets even tiring for punks and they were getting to be in their mid twenties at that time so they added some horns and a violin on Nimrod, which to me is their weakest album in this era.  First of all too many songs (18 of them) and Billie Joe beginning to sound very crusty and grouchy even for being 25.  In fact he wrote a song about being a Grouch.  Hitchin A Ride featuring the violin work of Petra Haden, King For A Day had the horn section honking away and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) a acoustic rant that ended up being the theme song from the prom crowd or perhaps the graduation song for the class of 1997.   With that Green Day took a sabbath and came back in 2000 with the more adult thinking Warning but that ended up being their poorest selling album even though it was a marked improvement over Nimrod.  Fearing the end of a great punk rock band Reprise rushed out International Superhits which basically is the perfect snapshot of rock radio of the 1990s and perhaps the best overall view of the best or what some may call the worst of that era.  Shenanigans soon followed and has the b sides to respective songs.  Worth a listen if you're a fan, pass if your not.

Then Green Day decided that they were going to write concept albums and they did, striking gold and a big comeback with American Idiot which may or may not had to do with Bush Jr.  They tried not one but two version of A Quick One (meaning adding short songs to one another to form a suite of sorts) and it works great on Jesus Of Suburbia, but not so much on Homecoming but Green Day got two major big hits on Wake Me Up When September Ends and Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.  American Idiot was so great that they had to have a Broadway version of this album to which I politely declined to get.  21st Century Breakdown was yet another concept album but by this time the pompousness finally got Billie Joe and company and that turned out to be their least interesting album to me, even though 21 Guns was another big hit.  I think at that point that I gave up on them and not even picking up their live albums that came out, although I'm sure Awesome As Fuck had some great moments they don't differ all that much from the studio albums except with more F bombs.

To which at this point Green Day finally decided tor return to their punk roots with Uno!, a three album trilogy that two more would follow (Dos in November, Tre! in Jan 2013) and despite Cumulus KRNA sticking Oh Love down our throats three days per day, the rest of the album is a welcome return to the three chords glory of Kerplunk/Dookie/Insomniac but then again having three albums back to back to back might be risking permanent damage to their reputation, especially after Billie Joe's meltdown in Las Vegas over seeing a wide screen telling the band they had one more minute to play on the infamous I Heart Radio show and Armstrong's F bomb tirade and one finger salute which is rock and roll rebellion but not into sales.  But at as he approaches 40 years, the new punks really don't take heed to the old fart punks, just as Pete Townsend found that out in 1977 and Johnny Rotten did 20 years later.  Rock and roll and punk is a young man's game as Billie Joe is finding out the hard way, but he's still going to go down fighting regardless.

Looking back at the 90s and all that mattered to me, Green Day ended up being my choice of the band of the decade, simply of the fact I thought they rocked harder than the grunge bands and whatever passed for album rock and then the second decade came back from the dead by throwing The Who's attitude into the mix.  So far Uno! sales have not done very well and perhaps may have cast a rethink on the forthcoming Dos! and Tre! albums from consumers but unlike them I'll be waiting in line.

Because I think they still matter to me.

Albums:

1039 Smoothed Out Sloppy Seconds (Lookout/Reprise 1990) B-
Kerplunk!  (Lookout/Reprise 1991) A-
Dookie (Reprise 1994) A
Insomniac (Reprise 1995) A+
Nimrod (Reprise 1997) B-
Warning (Reprise 2000) A-
International Superhits (Reprise 2001) A
Shenanigans (Reprise 2002) B+
American Idiot (Reprise 2004) B+
21st Century Breakdown (Reprise 2009) C+
!Uno! (Reprise 2012) A-
!Dos! (Reprise 2012) B+
!Tre!  (Reprise 2012) B+
Revolution Radio (Reprise 2016) B

Starcastle

They came from Illinois and made four albums for Epic but their lead singer used to be in REO Speedwagon.  Terry Luttrell was the barrelhouse screamer on that self titled album and then left soon after.  In the meantime hooking with some like minded individuals that had a deep love of Yes and progressive rock at that time, a bit of a Kansas to go with as well.

The first album was recorded in the great rock and roll mecca that is known as Pekin Illinois and the self titled album remains the only in print on the Epic label. The three others were reissued via Renaissance. Critics didn't get them and wrote them off as Yes clones and Luttrell does sound like a more mild mannered Jon Anderson as the first album gave them a FM hit with Lady Of The Lake.

The next two albums Starcastle worked with Roy Thomas Baker on the fine sounding Fountains Of Light with another FM hit with Fountains which adds elements of Queen and Styx to the mix.  This is probably their most prog rock soundish.  Citadel shortens the songs a bit there's more of a pop sound, although it still sounds prog rock but I like this record the best, especially on Can't Think Twice, Evening Wind and Could This Be Love.  While Epic was winning to cut them some slack and let them chase that prog rock dream, the next and final effort Real To Reel had them working with Jeffrey Lesser who is best known for producing Head East and Real To Reel sounds more like an Head East album rather than Starcastle.  Some of the songs feel like demos or half attempts for the radio and while it's a interesting listen it's not a prog rock album.  The last two songs The Stars Are Out Tonight and When The Sun Shines At Midnight (which makes them sound like Lake, the German band) are the closest thing to the sound of the previous albums.  However the band doesn't mention that album on their website.  And of course the album cover of Real To Reel is horrendous.

Still, Starcastle may have not enjoyed the big sales of Kansas or as remembered as well as Yes, they made great albums in the prog rock tradition.   One of the bands that I didn't get into till later in my years.  Worth looking for if you can find their albums.

Albums

Starcastle (Epic 1976) 
Fountains Of Light (Epic 1977)
Citadel (Epic 1978)
Real To Real (Epic 1979)

The Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Tribute

Twenty two years ago, I was sitting at Dancer's the infamous night club and tittie bar and chatting up with Melissa who at that time was considered a good friend and I had hopes of taking her out for supper but to make a long story short it didn't work out for me but she had a long sad look on her face and she came up to me and said "Have you heard the news?  Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in Alpine Valley".  And it turn out to be a very sad day for me, in fact this hit home much harder than Elvis Presley in 1977.

To me, Stevie Ray was the last of the true guitar heroes.  He was the shining light in the muck that was called hair spray metal or subpar pop.  Nobody could do Hendrix as well and sometimes better than SRV.  His version of Voodoo Chile was a constant play on my stereo.  And when he fell into a life and death struggle with drugs till he got over that and was enjoying a new and exciting second chance till that fateful Aug 1990 helicopter crash that took him away from us.

I have my own tribute to SRV, I still have the back cover of his longbox CD The Sky Is Crying with him on it on my cluttered stereo, looking out into the world and it has been a mainstay on my shelf since getting it from Relics in 1991.  Live Alive was one of the earliest albums I got on CD, (my good friend Dennis Lancaster made it his first ever cd buy) and even he was high he can still play guitar like no other.  But in the early years he was one of Austin Texas' best kept secrets till he managed to play Montreaux in 1982 and played a wild set but got booed off the stage by the stuck up pricks in the audience.  However David Bowie was there and offered him to play guitar on what would be the Let's Dance album and Jackson Browne offered studio time for SRV to do his own album which would be Texas Flood.

Certainly Stevie Ray had owed a lot to Albert King and Jimi Hendrix but he also highly influenced by Lonnie Mack who he managed to co produced Mack's Strike Like Lightning and may have put in a good word at Epic for Road Houses And Dance Halls.  Vaughan may have also played on James Brown Living In America although the Gravity album that Volcano reissued mentions nothing of this.  Vaughan was influenced by his brother Jimmie to which they would record the one and only Family Style in 1990 to which my favorite song was Long Way From Home to which the guitar riff is the price of admission to hear.

While Texas Flood got things straight and to the point, Couldn't Stand The Weather is more varied and even adds element of jazz and slow blues to the mix, Soul To Soul a bit more nodding to rhythm and the blues and adding Reese Wyanis to keyboards.  Live Alive, what can you say, despite some muddy sound SRV gave us the FM classic Willie The Wimp.  Everything leads to In Step, which in 1989 introduced the world to the new SRV sound which was a much more polished sound (thanks to Jim Gaines) and hits by the score with The House Is Rockin, Cross Fire and Tight Rope but also paying homage to Howlin Wolf (Let Me Love You Baby) and barrelhouse rock and blues (Scratch n Sniff).  Then hooking with Jimmie with Family Style, a album which was good in some places and questionable in others (I never gotten into much into the voice over that almost bogs down Brothers) but still was a sign of things to come.  And then Alpine came and then....

There's no shortage of repackages out there, The Greatest Hits packages are good and have the hits or highlights. The Sky Is Crying gives us some outtakes and paying more homage to Lonnie, Jimi and Jimmie and Albert but gives the bittersweet Life By The Drop as SRV's final statement which stings.  There's also some post SRV live albums, the Montreaux Concert is the best of them and includes two shows, the infamous and famous 1982 show and the triumphed 1985 return to which SRV is treated to a hero's welcome.  Live at Carnegie Hall is a 1984 performance which features brother Jimmie and Dr John on keyboards.  In The Beginning is a 1980 showcase and shows SRV and Double Trouble in its humble beginnings.  Blues At Sunrise is straight ahead slow blues.

Like Hendrix, SRV didn't record many studio albums, he only recorded four proper ones.  And he's never made a bad album, nothing short of a B plus. For my generation, SRV was the last true real guitar hero for me.  Even though he may have taken a cue from Lonnie Mack or Jimi Hendrix, he found a way to make it his own style.  He could switch from playing lead guitar to rhythm without missing a beat.  And still be humble enough to talk to you after a show in the process.  There'll never be another Stevie Ray Vaughan.

At least that's what I Think.

Albums:

In The Beginning (1980 reissued by Epic in 1992) B+
Live At Montreaux 1982 & 1985  (Epic) A-
Texas Flood (Epic 1983) A
Couldn't Stand The Weather (Epic 1984) A-
Soul To Soul (Epic 1985) B+
Live Alive (Epic 1986) A-
In Step (Epic 1989) A-
The Vaughan Brothers-Family Style (CBS Associated 1990) B+
The Sky Is Crying (Epic 1991) A- 
Live At Carnegie Hall (Epic 1984, reissued 1995) A-