From Boston to Austin: Stevie Ray: 20 years since the passing of an Austin music icon

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Stevie Ray: 20 years since the passing of an Austin music icon

If the music died on the day that Buddy and co.'s airplane went down in Iowa, well then another piece of it died on August 27, 1990. Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed when his helicopter crashed just after taking off in Wisconsin. He and several other blues/rock guitar luminaries had just finished playing to a sold-out crowd of 30,000 people. The show ended with Stevie Ray jamming along with the usual suspects: Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and brother Jimmie Vaughan. It couldn't have been much more than an hour later that the accident happened. And a little piece music -- I'd say it was a nice-sized slice of soulful electric blues -- was gone.

I'm not sure that any well-known musician, maybe (but only maybe) with the exception of Willie Nelson, is as strongly associated with Austin or as iconic here as Stevie Ray Vaughan. Granted he's still living, but I'm not familiar with any statues of Willie downtown. Stevie Ray's memorial on the river is a frequent destination for tourists. I'm glad they put it in the heart of Auditorium Shores park. It seems appropriate that he's out there where lots of great live music, much of it free, happens there -- Rachel and I have been there for the likes of Spoon, M. Ward, Grupo Fantasma, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Cold War Kids.

SRV statue on Auditorium Shores (see old post)

Jimmie Vaughan may not be too famous around the country, but in Austin, he still regularly packs them in at places like Antone's. The closest he ever really came to the big time was his stint as the lead axe-man for The Fabulous Thunderbirds when they had a short string of minor hits in the late 80s (think "Tough Enough"). Jimmie certainly never gained the name recognition of his little brother. To Stevie Ray, however, Jimmie was a hero. Jimmie was Stevie Ray's inspiration to play the guitar and his first big stylistic influence. I don't know how Jimmie had picked up the blues bug, but he passed it on to lil' bro, and that bug took a liking to its new host. The bug made him hungry, and after devouring a healthy slice of Albert King with sides of Otis Rush and Jimi Hendrix, he set out for Austin in search of more fertile feeding grounds.

Jimmie Vaughan at Antone's Nightclub in Austin
(credit: www.antones-homeoftheblues.com/premierHigh.html)

There were struggles at first, I'm sure. There almost always are. But unlike lots of people far removed from the Mississippi Delta or the south side of Chicago who decide they're "blues musicians," Stevie Ray Vaughan seemed to really HAVE the blues. Don't discount how important that is if you're gonna try to PLAY the blues. Eric Clapton might dazzle rock-fan ears with his displays of fretboard wankery. Still, most of the time I hear Clapton playing, it just doesn't seem like he's pouring that emotion into his music in the way that defines the blues greats from Charley Patton and Son House to B.B. King and Buddy Guy. With the blues player -- for better or worse -- it's like you almost have to be cursed to play the music properly. Legends have even been formed around cursed blues players, like Tommy Johnson or Robert Johnson selling their souls to the devil at the "Crossroads." I don't know that Stevie Ray Vaughan was dealing with some voodoo-type stuff, but he had that something, and it came through in his music.

A little exposure was all Stevie Ray Vaughan needed to gain nationwide recognition. The playing and singing did the rest of the work. Still, before he got that exposure, SRV was an Austin guy. He and Jimmie both received some important early-career mentoring here from Clifford Antone, the late namesake of the aforementioned nightclub. And they gigged and gigged and started that uphill climb. Eventually, Stevie Ray Vaughan made it. Then -- the biggest rock-and-roll cliche of them all -- he died way too young. He was only 35! Maybe Stevie Ray didn't last quite long enough to become a huge star. Over time, I suspect he'll become somewhat forgotten compared to those who left a trail of influence like Hendrix or a big body of work like Clapton. But he's always gonna be remembered here. If a community doesn't love you, you're not gonna get a statue.