Texas Flood
The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
An instant New York Times bestseller!
The definitive biography of guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, with an epilogue by Jimmie Vaughan, and foreword and afterword by Double Trouble’s Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon.
Just a few years after he almost died from a severe addiction to cocaine and alcohol, a clean and sober Stevie Ray Vaughan was riding high. His last album was his most critically lauded and commercially successful. He had fulfilled a lifelong dream by collaborating with his first and greatest musical hero, his brother Jimmie. His tumultuous marriage was over and he was in a new and healthy romantic relationship. Vaughan seemed poised for a new, limitless chapter of his life and career.
Instead, it all came to a shocking and sudden end on August 27, 1990, when he was killed in a helicopter crash following a dynamic performance with Eric Clapton. Just 35 years old, he left behind a powerful musical legacy and an endless stream of What Ifs. In the ensuing 29 years, Vaughan’s legend and acclaim have only grown and he is now an undisputed international musical icon. Despite the cinematic scope of Vaughan’s life and death, there has never been a truly proper accounting of his story. Until now.
Texas Flood provides the unadulterated truth about Stevie Ray Vaughan from those who knew him best: his brother Jimmie, his Double Trouble bandmates Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton and Reese Wynans, and many other close friends, family members, girlfriends, fellow musicians, managers and crew members.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this definitive oral history, Paul (One Way Out: The Inside Story of the Allman Brothers Band) and musician and teacher Aledort trace the life and music of guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954 1990). Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Vaughan's friends, family, and fellow musicians, the authors detail the guitarist's rise from a working-class background in Dallas; his formative experiences in countless bands in Dallas and Austin; his national breakthrough success in 1983 with his first LP Texas Flood and subsequent years of touring, which led to an increase in his drug and alcohol abuse; and his final years of sobriety before his death in a helicopter crash in 1990. The authors excellently capture how Vaughan, in the words of bassist Tommy Shannon, "always played as if there was no tomorrow." The interviews with fellow musicians and engineers provide insightful takes on Vaughan's work, especially Texas Flood, which was recorded live after Jackson Browne loaned the band his studio and before Vaughan even had a record contract. ("There was no finagling on anything," says engineer and producer Richard Mullen. "It was about as live and true to a performance as it could possibly be.") Fans will be thrilled with this intelligent, informative, and enlightening biography of the guitar great. Correction: Steve Ray Vaughan's last name was misspelled in a previous version of this review.
Customer Reviews
Beautiful and Crushing
A beautifully well put together book, with the perfect history of SRV told by those who knew him and his story best. His genius and value to the music world, and his absolute love of music and the guitar, come ringing through on every page. His story is so well told that it’s absolutely crushing when it comes to its conclusion, hard to keep the tears back when you get there. A must read for any guitar player, and a great read for anyone. Thanks for this Alan and Andy, well done. Thanks SRV for making the story and touching many of us.