While the album was released about two years after Vaughan's death in 1990, the actual performance took place on April 1, 1980 at Steamboat 1874 in Austin, Texas, and was broadcast live on KLBJ-FM radio. A 25-year-old Vaughan, still more than three years away from the release of his first studio album, performs with his "Double Trouble" bandmates: Chris Layton, drummer, and Jackie Newhouse, bassist. (Newhouse was replaced by bassist Tommy Shannon in January 1981, who would remain part of Double Trouble until Stevie's death.)
Plenty of electric blues players can bluster and roar through a performance, but a slow tune, even over a set of straight 12-bar changes, is the style’s ultimate challenge. Tapping into the music’s deepest pools of expression, where delicately squeezed, shaken, and slid notes become stand-ins for a range of human emotions, it takes an outstanding guitarist to sculpt a soulful slow blues. T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Ronnie Earl, and Stevie Ray Vaughan all have made staggering contributions, but the best recorded slow blues of the past 25 years may be Vaughan’s 1984 rendition of “Tin Pan Alley” on his second album, Couldn’t Stand the Weather.
“Tin Pan Alley” was a staple of Vaughan’s concerts long before he put it on tape. The song was written by R&B tunesmith and performer Bob Geddins, who came from Texas but ultimately settled in the San Francisco Bay Area to become the dean of Oakland’s blues scene.
While the album was released about two years after Vaughan's death in 1990, the actual performance took place on April 1, 1980 at Steamboat 1874 in Austin, Texas, and was broadcast live on KLBJ-FM radio. A 25-year-old Vaughan, still more than three years away from the release of his first studio album, performs with his "Double Trouble" bandmates: Chris Layton, drummer, and Jackie Newhouse, bassist. (Newhouse was replaced by bassist Tommy Shannon in January 1981, who would remain part of Double Trouble until Stevie's death.)
Plenty of electric blues players can bluster and roar through a performance, but a slow tune, even over a set of straight 12-bar changes, is the style’s ultimate challenge. Tapping into the music’s deepest pools of expression, where delicately squeezed, shaken, and slid notes become stand-ins for a range of human emotions, it takes an outstanding guitarist to sculpt a soulful slow blues. T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Ronnie Earl, and Stevie Ray Vaughan all have made staggering contributions, but the best recorded slow blues of the past 25 years may be Vaughan’s 1984 rendition of “Tin Pan Alley” on his second album, Couldn’t Stand the Weather.
“Tin Pan Alley” was a staple of Vaughan’s concerts long before he put it on tape. The song was written by R&B tunesmith and performer Bob Geddins, who came from Texas but ultimately settled in the San Francisco Bay Area to become the dean of Oakland’s blues scene.
[Stevie Ray Vaughan Tin Pan Alley (with Johnny Copeland) at Montreaux 1985](https://invidio.us/watch?v=AGPx-ekqZEo)
While the album was released about two years after Vaughan's death in 1990, the actual performance took place on April 1, 1980 at Steamboat 1874 in Austin, Texas, and was broadcast live on KLBJ-FM radio. A 25-year-old Vaughan, still more than three years away from the release of his first studio album, performs with his "Double Trouble" bandmates: Chris Layton, drummer, and Jackie Newhouse, bassist. (Newhouse was replaced by bassist Tommy Shannon in January 1981, who would remain part of Double Trouble until Stevie's death.)
Plenty of electric blues players can bluster and roar through a performance, but a slow tune, even over a set of straight 12-bar changes, is the style’s ultimate challenge. Tapping into the music’s deepest pools of expression, where delicately squeezed, shaken, and slid notes become stand-ins for a range of human emotions, it takes an outstanding guitarist to sculpt a soulful slow blues. T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Ronnie Earl, and Stevie Ray Vaughan all have made staggering contributions, but the best recorded slow blues of the past 25 years may be Vaughan’s 1984 rendition of “Tin Pan Alley” on his second album, Couldn’t Stand the Weather.
“Tin Pan Alley” was a staple of Vaughan’s concerts long before he put it on tape. The song was written by R&B tunesmith and performer Bob Geddins, who came from Texas but ultimately settled in the San Francisco Bay Area to become the dean of Oakland’s blues scene.
Stevie Ray Vaughan Tin Pan Alley (with Johnny Copeland) at Montreaux 1985