STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN: 10/03/54-08/27/90
date - November 2008
medium - ink
size - 11” x 17”
surface - Académie Heavyweight Sketch Paper

Keep on playing, SRV

- taken from the Wikipedia entry on Stephen “Stevie” Ray Vaughan [link]

Stephen “Stevie” Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American blues-rock guitarist, whose broad appeal made him an influential electric blues guitarist. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan #7 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, and Classic Rock Magazine ranked him #3 in their list of the 100 Wildest Guitar Heroes in 2007.

Vaughan was born on October 3, 1954, in Dallas, Texas, and was raised in the city’s Oak Cliff neighborhood. Neither of his parents had any strong musical talent but were avid music fans. They would take Vaughan and his older brother Jimmie to concerts to see Fats Domino, Johnny Williamson III, Jimmy Reed, and Bob Wills.

Even though Vaughan initially wanted to play the drums as his primary instrument, Michael Quinn gave him a guitar when he was seven years old. Vaughan’s brother, Jimmie Vaughan, gave him his first guitar lessons. He played entirely by ear and never learned how to read sheet music. By the time he was thirteen years old he was playing in clubs where he met many of his blues idols. A few years later he dropped out of Justin F. Kimball High School in Oak Cliff and moved to Austin to pursue music. Vaughan’s talent caught the attention of guitarist Johnny Winter and blues-club owner Clifford Antone.

In the early 1980s, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger saw Vaughan and Double Trouble playing at a club, and invited them to play at a private party in New York. This led to their acquaintance with producer Jerry Wexler, who managed to get them their first big break performing at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival. As a result they were able to meet Jackson Browne, who gave the band free time in his Los Angeles studio, and David Bowie, who had Vaughan play lead guitar on his next album, ‘Let’s Dance’.

Soon a record contract with Epic followed, as well as their first album release in 1983, the successful ‘Texas Flood’, which charted at number 38 and gained positive reviews. After a successful tour, their second album, ‘Couldn’t Stand the Weather’, charted at number 31 in 1984 and went gold in 1985. Their third album, ‘Soul to Soul’, charted at number 34 in 1985.

Drug addiction and alcoholism took a toll on Vaughan by mid-1986. Cocaine and Crown Royal whiskey were his drugs of choice. Vaughan would dissolve cocaine in his whiskey for a morning pick-me-up. Doctors later discovered that this morning ritual was causing severe ulcerations of the stomach lining. Nevertheless, he carried on and put out ‘Live Alive’ in 1986 and did a concert tour in America in 1987. After becoming acutely ill in Germany while on tour, Vaughan managed to struggle through three more shows, but was soon admitted into a hospital in London. Dr. Victor Bloom, who had helped Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend with their addictions, told Vaughan that if he had not come to the hospital he would have died in a month. After a struggle to get sober in London, he then flew to Atlanta, Georgia, to a rehabilitation center. He eventually recovered fully from his addictions in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Vaughan and Double Trouble recorded ‘In Step’ in February 1989, their fourth studio album, which was praised by some as the band’s best work since ‘Texas Flood’. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. In his beloved Austin, the “Live Music Capital of the World,” Vaughan was presented with a proclamation from the mayor declaring November 26, 1989 “Stevie Ray Vaughan Day.”

On August 25 and August 26, 1990, Vaughan and Double Trouble finished the summer portion of the ‘In Step Tour’ with shows at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, just outside of East Troy, Wisconsin. The show also featured The Robert Cray Band and Eric Clapton, who played the closing set, then brought all the musicians back onstage for an encore jam.

The musicians had expected a long bus ride back to Chicago. However, Vaughan was informed by a member of Clapton’s crew that three seats were open on one of the helicopters returning to Chicago with Clapton’s crew, enough for Vaughan, his brother Jimmie, and Jimmie’s wife Connie. It turned out there was only one seat left; Vaughan requested it from his brother, who obliged. At 12:44 a.m. pilot Jeffrey Browne guided the helicopter off the ground. Shortly after takeoff the helicopter crashed into a ski slope and all five on board were killed. Although the crash occurred only 0.6 miles from the takeoff point, it went unnoticed by those at the concert site.

The search for the wreckage began at 5:00 a.m., finally being located two hours later with the help of its locator beacon. The cause of the crash was believed to have been pilot error. Chris Layton and Jimmie Vaughan did not find out about the crash until they returned to their motel in Chicago. The following morning Jimmie Vaughan was called to identify the body of his brother. The coroner’s report stated that the cause of death was exsanguination (fatal blood loss) due to severing of the aorta, a result of injuries sustained during the high impact crash.

Stevie Ray Vaughan is interred in the Laurel Land Memorial Park, Dallas, Texas.

GRAMMY AWARDS
1983 Best Traditional Blues Album for Texas Flood (Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble)
1985 Best Traditional Blues Album for Blues Explosion (various artists)
1989 Best Traditional Blues Album for In Step (Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble)
1990 Best Contemporary Blues Album for In Step (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble)
1991 Best Contemporary Blues Album for Family Style (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan)
Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "D/FW" (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan)
1991 (Nomination) Best Traditional Blues Album for The Sky is Crying (Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble)
1993 Best Contemporary Blues Album for The Sky Is Crying (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble)
Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Little Wing" (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble)

STUDIO ALBUMS
1978 First Unreleased album 1978 -recorded in Nashville
1983 Texas Flood
1984 Couldn't Stand the Weather
1985 Soul to Soul
1989 In Step
1990 Family Style (with brother Jimmie Vaughan as The Vaughan Brothers)
1991 The Sky Is Crying (posthumous compilation)

LIVE ALBUMS
1980 In the Beginning
1982 and 1985 Live at Montreux 1982 and 1985
1983 In Session (with Albert King)
1983 Live at the El Mocambo (video release)
1983 and 1989 Live from Austin, Texas (video release)
1984 Live at Carnegie Hall
1984 Triple Trouble US tour (Archivio, 1991)
1985 Live in Tokyo (video import release)
1985 and 1986 Live Alive
1987 The Forgotten Show Daytona Beach (Flashback World Productions, Flash 01.93.0196)

COMPILATIONS
1995 Greatest Hits
1999 The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Volume 2
2000 Blues at Sunrise
2000 SRV (box set, with early recordings, rarities, hits, and live material)
2002 The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
2003 G-Ray
2003 Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues – Stevie Ray Vaughan
2006 The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Volume 1
2007 Solos, Sessions and Encores

CONTRIBUTIONS
1998 Lou Ann Barton with Rock Ola (Lou Ann Barton album) Sugar Coated Love
1983 Let's Dance (David Bowie)
1984 Soulful Dress (Marcia Ball)
1986 Heartbeat (Don Johnson)
1987 Famous Blue Raincoat (Jennifer Warnes)
1990 Strike Like Lightning (Lonnie Mack)

UPDATE: This is a much larger version, taken from the file that was created from a rescan to be used in the dA shop.