Stevie Ray Vaughan was unknown when he premiered at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival. Born and bred in Dallas, he’d played the Texas bar circuit as sideman in Blackbird, the Nightcrawlers, Cobras, and Triple Threat Revue before becoming a local phenom as frontman of Double Trouble.

Formed with bassist Jackie Newhouse and drummer Chris Layton in 1979, the definitive Double Trouble lineup was established when bassist Tommy Shannon joined in ’81. Producer Jerry Wexler, who’d coined the term “Rhythm & Blues” in 1949, had a nose for talent (Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin), and sniffed greatness when he caught the trio in Austin; he recommended SRV to Montreux promoter Claude Nobs, saying he’d be ideal for their blues night. Concurrently, SRV manager Chesley Millikin sent a Double Trouble live video to Mick Jagger, who lamented there were no competent bluesmen on the contemporary scene.

Vaughan’s notoriety spread among insiders when cognoscenti praised him following a Stones-arranged performance at NYC’s Danceteria. Though he received mixed reactions at Montreux (boos from traditionalist attendees are irrefutable on the July 17 recording) SRV made two serendipitous connections – David Bowie and Jackson Browne.

Enamored with classic R&B, Bowie hired Vaughan in December ’82 to lend his Texas-blues expertise to Let’s Dance as he made a metamorphosis from glam and post-disco incarnations to modern pop icon. SRV’s playing on the title track and “Criminal World” (touted as his finest solo on the album) provided grit that contributed to its novelty and success. It remains Bowie’s best seller. Browne heard Vaughan in the Montreux Casino lounge, and, after jamming into the morning, offered him free time at his Down Town Studio, in L.A.

“Texas Flood” is definitive SRV – a simmering slow-blues lament that is as live as it gets. Recorded in a single take as the clock ran out on the final day, it became his personal anthem and theme song. The opening recalls Fenton Robinson’s chordal intro, but given the SRV treatment with reinterpreted riffs in measures 1-2 leading to incandescent double-timed lines over the turnaround in 3-4. Note the unique G-Ab-G mordent embellishing figure that is an SRV identifier. In his solo lines of 5-8, a strong Albert King influence is felt in the strangled string bends, snapped string attack, singing vibrato, and terse rhythmic phrasing.

The music that became Texas Flood was recorded over three days during the studio’s Thanksgiving holiday, November 22-24. Day one was mostly spent setting up, with minimal recording. Sessions commenced the following day; Browne’s engineer, Greg Ladanyi, was disinterested and left engineering duties to Stevie’s cohort, co-producer/engineer Richard Mullen. SRV played through two ’64 Fender Vibroverb 1×15 combos and Browne’s 150-watt Dumbleland Special. Mullen used two Shure SM57 mics – one for a Vibroverb’s speaker, another for the Dumble 4×12 cabinet with EVs. His only effect was an Ibanez Tube Screamer. Stevie used three Stratocasters strung with heavy strings (.013-.058) and tuned down a half step. For most tracks, he favored “Number One” with its sunburst ’59 body and ’62 rosewood-board slab neck (bearing Dunlop 6150 jumbo frets) and a left-handed vibrato. He bought the guitar in the mid ’70s at Ray Hennig’s Heart of Texas Music and considered it inferior. Augmenting it was “Lenny,” a maple-board ’65 stripped to natural wood that he’d purchased at a pawn shop for $350 in 1980, and “Yellow,” a refinished rosewood-board ’59 given to him by Charley’s Guitar Shop (Dallas) owner Charley Wirz in ’81. Lenny was heard on its namesake tune and seen during Stevie’s Live at El Mocambo performance. Yellow, which was virtually a semi-hollow after having been routed to accommodate four humbuckers, was used for “Tell Me” and “Collins Shuffle” (at Montreux). Wirz installed a Strat neck pickup that accentuated its quasi-acoustic qualities.

Each track was essentially a live performance; musicians faced each other in a circle and only two overdubs (for string breakage) were required. The impassioned, no-frills demo documenting the work of a genuine blues master impressed John Hammond, who’d discovered Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. He took the recording to Greg Geller at Epic, who shrewdly chose to release it, and arrange a record contract. The 10 tracks, with minor additions at Austin’s Riverside Sound, were tweaked, remixed, and remastered at Media Sound and CBS in NYC.

“Love Struck Baby” was an ideal album opener. Stevie’s catchy altered-blues composition was dedicated to future wife, Lenora, and harkens to his Triple Threat days. The upbeat number is distinguished by a straight-four rock-and-roll feel, repurposed I-IV-V changes in A, and numerous Chuck Berry and T-Bone Walker jump-blues and rockabilly mannerisms, prominent double-stop riffs, boogie comping, bent triads, and inserted jazz passing chords including chromatically ascending 6/9 chords in the solo. SRV’s first single, it was backed with “Rude Mood.”

“Pride and Joy” was the second single. A 12-bar Texas-blues shuffle with a trademark comping riff, it reconciled stride-piano-inspired boogie-woogie bass lines with guitar-centric open-chord figures, country-blues strumming textures and groove-conscious soloing. Allusions to Johnny Acey’s ’62 song, “I Go Into Orbit” (including title lyric) are unmistakable, as are his turnaround figures that evoke Freddie King’s “Hideaway.” Both exemplify the living blues tradition of building on and moving past historic precedent. In SRV’s hands, Acey’s harmonica-driven traditional blues number organically became a heavier blues-rock guitar vehicle.

“Rude Mood,” Vaughan’s supercharged instrumental boogie, applies many elements heard in other E-blues pieces, but delivers them at maximum tempo with relentless force and agility. This excerpt is exemplary; check the hints of rockabilly in the boogie-woogie bass lines (accompanied by his signature muted-string hits), particularly in measures 3-6. Also notable is the long string of eighth notes and its major-pentatonic melody in 9-12; these convey a swinging country-guitar attitude. The repeated-note fanfare in 7-8 is an attention-getting device of many guitar instrumentals, heard in B.B. King’s “Just Like a Woman” and Chuck Berry’s “Guitar Boogie.”

“Texas Flood” may well have been the tune that prompted Bowie to recruit SRV. Its blues power rivals Albert King’s grittiest moments for sheer ferocity and conviction – top priorities in the blues world. The slow 12/8 blues in G was a cover of Larry Davis’ 1955 version with guitarist Fenton Robinson. SRV quoted Robinson’s guitar intro before transforming the standard into his own statement, replete with excruciatingly soulful King licks. According to Clifford Antone, “Texas Flood” came to Stevie via Angela Strehli, queen of the Austin blues scene and then-manager of Antone’s. He was initially intrigued by Robinson’s parts, learned the song with Strehli (at Antone’s), jammed on it with King, and wound up owning it. It has become synonymous with his slow-blues style and has enjoyed many reprises in his catalog.

“Tell Me” found Stevie reinterpreting Willie Dixon’s Howlin’ Wolf classic. Opting for a different sound on the track, he chose Yellow for the medium-tempo shuffle in C that bears reverential allusions to Hubert Sumlin, particularly in the chromatic turnaround lick and Ab9-G9 cadence (from the original). Notable are Stevie’s rhythm elaborations, backward-raked strums, staccato feel, and slightly overdriven tone. Its swinging solo brings Chicago-inspired triplet phrasing, serpentine blues-scale melodies, exaggerated vibrato, and tremolo-picked bent chords.

“Testify” is a resurrected soul number from the Isley Brothers, on which a pre-Experience Jimi Hendrix played guitar parts. It epitomized mid-’60s R&B with references to gospel “testifying” and acknowledgement of Ray Charles, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jackie Wilson, and the Beatles in the lyrics, though SRV rendered it as an instrumental vamping groove in E. His version contains unmistakable nods to Jimi’s funky lead/rhythm riff style, with emphasis on the prevalent E7#9, and his energetic blues-based soloing, but also stands as one of Stevie’s finest extended improvisations.

“Rude Mood” was Vaughan’s virtuoso showcase. Named for Joe Gracey’s Rude Records label, it had been in his set for years and was originally recorded in ’79. Eternally relevant, the fast (264-plus bpm) shuffle with aggressive multi-textured guitar work served as a dynamic closer to his famed 1984 Carnegie Hall concert. The ear-catching instrumental in E juxtaposed contrapuntal riffing and percussive string scrapes, like a hyperactive “Pride and Joy,” with white-knuckle lead licks. Tantamount to blues shredding, it presaged “Scuttle Buttin’” on the next album. The emblematic chording and single-note runs suggest its origin as a supercharged take on Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Hopkins’ Sky Hop”and indeed Stevie openly admitted as much in a clinic clip. The piece was Grammy-nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in ’84 and used as background in the trailer for Midnight Run.

“Lenny” epitomized the gentler, introspective (but no less soulful) side of Vaughan’s musical persona. More a meditation than typical slow-dance instrumental, it revolves around his unique usage of jazz sonorities and single-note responses exemplified in measures 1-4, where he plays colorful enriched voicings of E major and A major, reinterpreting the I-IV of the blues as a vamp in a jazz vein. In 9-15, he subjects major-6 chords to unpredictable modulating key centers. The progression – B-D-G-Bb, all in parallel 6th chords, moves through the same unusual thirds-related sequence as John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” though SRV was hardly a bebop maven. Coincidence or not?

“Mary Had a Little Lamb” was Vaughan’s undisguised homage to Buddy Guy and the influential ’68 album A Man and the Blues. The R&B-inflected/altered-blues number in E played off a similar mid-tempo groove, alternating low-register riffs and chord figures (emulating horn parts), and reaffirmed Guy’s playful nursery-rhyme story line. For many (including Hendrix and Clapton), Guy was the prototype Strat hero and preeminent second-generation Chicago-blues exponent, who exerted a powerful effect on blues-rock musicians. SRV remained true to the original version, preserving its call-and-response riffs and re-casting many of Guy’s soloing ideas.

“Dirty Pool” was composed by SRV and Doyle Bramhall, a Nightcrawlers bandmate who’d known Vaughan since he was 12. The slinking, slow blues in Dm found Stevie cultivating his glassy Strat tone and judiciously balancing tremolo-picked chord figures (a theme in the piece) and florid single-note runs. He maintained mixed textures throughout, blending sonorities with improvised melodic embellishments around the vocals, and exploited tremoloed triads and partials in his solo.

“I’m Cryin’” personified the unrequited-love angle of the blues and insinuated a slower version of “Pride and Joy” in SRV’s stockpile. Also rooted in E, it flaunted similar open-chord riffs, comping patterns, improvisations, and turnaround figures. Hardly a retread, it had been a staple in Vaughan’s set for years and an earlier version had even been recorded with Triple Threat. The track sported the only overdubbed vocal performance, recorded at Media Sound.

“Lenny” closed Texas Flood on a decisive-but-mellow tone. The haunting instrumental blended blues, jazz, soul and ethereal mood-music tangents. Performed on Lenny, it was dedicated to then-wife, Lenora, who’d scraped together funds for this birthday present and to whom it was composed in gratitude.

Distinguished by his crystalline clean Strat tone, it evoked a panoply of influences – Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield, Pops Staples, Steve Cropper, and even soul-jazz glimmers of role model Kenny Burrell. Stevie varied chord and single-note textures in the exposition; mixing pentatonic melody and R&B double stops with colorful extended chords and uncommon shifting-major-6 sonorities. Moreover, his vocalesque whammy-bar vibrato imparted an atmospheric quasi-Hawaiian effect at key points in the cycling progression. His single-note guitar improvisations split the difference between jazz sophistication and traditional pentatonic blues melody over the hypnotic vamping E-A changes.

Released on June 13, 1983 – four months after Let’s Dance – Texas Flood introduced a bold new player whose authentic influences were inescapable but not cloying. In the era of new-wave synthesizer domination, drum computers, and pyrotechnical shredding, it ignited a blues renaissance still palpable today. Strat-blues tones were never more pure, and blues-rock was never as suavely or persuasively delivered. The album garnered critical acclaim in blues and rock circles, reached #38 on Billboard, crossed over to rock radio, and eventually surpassed Double Platinum status. “Pride and Joy” peaked at #20 on Mainstream Rock charts and the album was Grammy-nominated for Best Traditional Blues Performance, “Rude Mood” for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The 10-track program tells the tale authoritatively but is expanded on the 2013 Legacy Edition by one outtake – “Tin Pan Alley” – and nine live cuts from the period recorded at Ripley’s Music Hall, in Philadelphia, on October 20, 1983.

Wolf Marshall is the founder and original Editor-In-Chief of GuitarOne magazine. A respected author and columnist, he has been influential in contemporary music education since the early 1980s. His latest book is Jazz Guitar Course: Mastering the Jazz Language. Others include 101 Must-Know Rock Licks, B.B. King: the Definitive Collection, and Best of Jazz Guitar. A list credits can be found at wolfmarshall.com.

This article originally appeared in VG’s October 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.