Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - MFSL Collection (5x SACD, 1983-1991) [PS3 ISO + Hi-Res FLAC]

Double Trouble is an American blues rock band from Austin, Texas, formed by guitarist/singer Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1978. The group was active throughout the 1980s and contributed to reviving the blues, inspiring many later blues and rock musicians. By the mid-1980s, they had become an international act, touring extensively around the world until August 1990, when Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash after departing East Troy, Wisconsin.

It's hard to overestimate the impact Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut, Texas Flood, had upon its release in 1983. At that point, blues was no longer hip, the way it was in the '60s. Texas Flood changed all that, climbing into the Top 40 and spending over half a year on the charts, which was practically unheard of for a blues recording. Vaughan became a genuine star and, in doing so, sparked a revitalization of the blues. This was a monumental impact, but his critics claimed that, no matter how prodigious Vaughan's instrumental talents were, he didn't forge a distinctive voice; instead, he wore his influences on his sleeve, whether it was Albert King's pinched yet muscular soloing or Larry Davis' emotive singing. There's a certain element of truth in that, but that was sort of the point of Texas Flood. Vaughan didn't hide his influences; he celebrated them, pumping fresh blood into a familiar genre. When Vaughan and Double Trouble cut the album over the course of three days in 1982, he had already played his set lists countless times; he knew how to turn this material inside out or goose it up for maximum impact. The album is paced like a club show, kicking off with Vaughan's two best self-penned songs, "Love Struck Baby" and "Pride and Joy," then settling into a pair of covers, the slow-burning title track and an exciting reading of Howlin' Wolf's "Tell Me," before building to the climax of "Dirty Pool" and "I'm Crying." Vaughan caps the entire thing with "Lenny," a lyrical, jazzy tribute to his wife. It becomes clear that Vaughan's true achievement was finding something personal and emotional by fusing different elements of his idols. Sometimes the borrowing was overt, and other times subtle, but it all blended together into a style that recalled the past while seizing the excitement and essence of the present.

Tracklist:

01. Love Struck Baby
02. Pride And Joy
03. Texas Flood
04. Tell Me
05. Testify
06. Rude Mood
07. Mary Had A Little Lamb
08. Dirty Pool
09. I'm Cryin'
10. Lenny

Mastered by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.


Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 1,5 GB

Stevie Ray Vaughan's second album, Couldn't Stand the Weather, pretty much did everything a second album should do: it confirmed that the acclaimed debut was no fluke, while matching, if not bettering, the sales of its predecessor, thereby cementing Vaughan's status as a giant of modern blues. So why does it feel like a letdown? Perhaps because it simply offers more of the same, all the while relying heavily on covers. Of the eight songs, half are covers, while two of his four originals are instrumentals – not necessarily a bad thing, but it gives the impression that Vaughan threw the album together in a rush, even if he didn't. Nevertheless, Couldn't Stand the Weather feels a bit like a holding pattern, since there's no elaboration on Double Trouble's core sound and no great strides forward, whether it's in Vaughan's songwriting or musicianship. Still, as holding patterns go, it's a pretty enjoyable one, since Vaughan and Double Trouble play spiritedly throughout the record. With its swaggering, stuttering riff, the title track ranks as one of Vaughan's classics, and thanks to a nuanced vocal, he makes W.C. Clark's "Cold Shot" his own. The instrumentals – the breakneck Lonnie Mack-styled "Scuttle Buttin'" and "Stang's Swang," another effective demonstration of Vaughan's jazz inclinations – work well, even if the original shuffle "Honey Bee" fails to make much of an impression and the cover of "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" is too reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix's original. So, there aren't many weaknesses on the record, aside from the suspicion that Vaughan didn't really push himself as hard as he could have, and the feeling that if he had, he would have come up with something a bit stronger.

Tracklist:

01. Scuttle Buttin'
02. Couldn't Stand The Weather
03. The Things (That) I Used To Do
04. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
05. Cold Shot
06. Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town)
07. Honey Bee
08. Stang's Swang

Mastered by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.


Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 1,53 GB

By adding two members to Double Trouble – keyboardist Reese Wynans and saxophonist Joe Sublett – Stevie Ray Vaughan indicated he wanted to add soul and R&B inflections to his basic blues sound, and Soul to Soul does exactly that. It's still a modern blues album, yet it has a wider sonic palette, finding Vaughan fusing a variety of blues, rock, and R&B styles. Most of this is done through covers – notably Hank Ballard's "Look at Little Sister," the exquisitely jazzy "Gone Home," and Doyle Bramhall's impassioned soul-blues "Change It" – but Vaughan's songwriting occasionally follows suit, as well. Even if only the tortured blues wailer "Ain't Gone 'n' Give Up on Love" entered his acknowledged canon, he throws in some delightful soul-funk touches on "Say What!," the instrumental wah-wah workout that kicks off the album, and the Curtis Mayfield-inspired closer, "Life Without You," captures Vaughan at his best as a composer and performer. It's such a seductive number – such a full realization of his soul-blues ambitions – that the rest of the album pales in comparison. In fact, for all of its positive attributes, Soul to Soul winds up being less than the sum of its parts, and it's hard to pinpoint an exact reason why. Perhaps it was because Vaughan was on the verge of a horrible battle with substance abuse at the time of recording or perhaps it just has that unevenness inherent in transitional albums. Still, he has good taste in covers, his originals are sturdy, and there's not a bad performance here, so Soul to Soul winds up enjoyable in spite of its flaws, and it clearly points the way to his 1989 masterpiece, In Step.

Tracklist:

01. Say What!
02. Lookin' Out The Window
03. Look At Little Sister
04. Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love
05. Gone Home
06. Change It
07. You'll Be Mine
08. Empty Arms
09. Come On (Part III)
10. Life Without You

Mastered by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.


Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 1,61 GB

Stevie Ray Vaughan had always been a phenomenal guitarist, but prior to In Step, his songwriting was hit or miss. Even when he wrote a classic modern blues song, it was firmly within the genre's conventions; only on Soul to Soul's exquisite soul-blues "Life Without You" did he attempt to stretch the boundaries of the form. As it turns out, that was the keynote for In Step, an album where Vaughan found his own songwriting voice, blending blues, soul, and rock in unique ways, and writing with startling emotional honesty. Yes, there are a few covers, all well chosen, but the heart of the album rests in the songs he co-wrote with Doyle Bramhall, the man who penned the Soul to Soul highlight "Change It." Bramhall proved to be an ideal collaborator for Vaughan; tunes like the terse "Tightrope" and the dense "Wall of Denial" feel so intensely personal, it's hard to believe that they weren't the product of just one man. Yet the lighter numbers – the dynamite boogie "The House Is Rockin'" and the breakneck blues of "Scratch-n-Sniff" – are just as effective as songs. Of course, he didn't need words to make effective music: "Travis Walk" is a blistering instrumental, complete with intricate fingerpicking reminiscent of the great country guitarist Merle Travis, while the shimmering "Riviera Paradise" is every bit as lyrical and lovely as his previous charmer, "Lenny." The magnificent thing about In Step is how it's fully realized, presenting every facet of Vaughan's musical personality, yet it still soars with a sense of discovery. It's a bittersweet triumph, given Vaughan's tragic death a little over a year after its release, yet it's a triumph all the same.

Tracklist:

01. If The House Is Rockin'
02. Crossfire
03. Tightrope
04. Let Me Love You Baby
05. Leave My Girl Alone
06. Travis Walk
07. Wall of Denial
08. Scratch-N-Sniff
09. Love Me Darlin'
10. Riviera Paradise

Mastered by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.


Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 1,65 GB

The posthumously assembled ten-track outtakes collection The Sky Is Crying actually proves to be one of Stevie Ray Vaughan's most consistent albums, rivaling In Step as the best outside of the Greatest Hits collection. These songs were recorded in sessions spanning from 1984's Couldn't Stand the Weather to 1989's In Step and were left off of the LPs for whatever reason (or, in the case of Soul to Soul's "Empty Arms," a different version was used). What makes the record work is its eclectic diversity – Vaughan plays slide guitar on "Boot Hill" and acoustic on "Life by the Drop"; he smokes on the slow blues of "May I Have a Talk With You" and the title track just as much as on the up-tempo Lonnie Mack cover, "Wham"; and he shows the jazzy side of his playing on Hendrix's "Little Wing" and Kenny Burrell's "Chitlins Con Carne." But it's not just musical diversity that makes the record work, it's also Vaughan's emotional range. From the morbidly dark "Boot Hill" to the lilting "Little Wing" to the exuberant tributes to his influences – Lonnie Mack on "Wham" and Albert King on "The Sky Is Crying" – Vaughan makes the material resonate, and in light of his death, "The Sky Is Crying" and the touching survivor-story ballad "Life by the Drop" are two of the most moving moments in Vaughan's oeuvre.

Tracklist:

01. Boot Hill
02. The Sky Is Crying
03. Empty Arms
04. Little Wing
05. Wham!
06. May I Have A Talk With You?
07. Close To You
08. Chitlins Con Carne
09. So Excited
10. Life By The Drop

Mastered by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.


Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 1,55 GB
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