Artist: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
# of plays on my iTunes: 310
Released: 2001
Live at Montreux is one of my favorite CD’s by one of my favorite artists, and I return to it often. It has so many elements which make it an outstanding album, including great music (and lots of it), excellent recording quality, and a rich history.
The album is a two-disc set which features Stevie’s historically significant 1982 concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival along with the much more accessible 1985 concert, which, as the liner notes say, puts the first in context. The scheduling for the 1982 concert sucked. The band was an unknown, highly electric act, but they were scheduled to play on a primarily acoustic night. The crowd expected something different, and they actually booed Stevie and the band, which made the disc difficult for me to listen to at first. But eventually I got past that and was able to focus on the intensity of the performances. Stevie's focus was amazingly good considering how badly the audience was reacting, especially on the long slow blues numbers “Texas Flood” and “Dirty Pool.” At least two members of the audience that night, David Bowie and Jackson Browne, realized Vaughan was more than the average blues-rock guitarist. Later Bowie invited him to play on his album Let’s Dance and Browne offered him free use of his studio, where he later recorded his debut album Texas Flood.
The 1985 concert was after the addition of keyboardist Reese Wynans to the power trio of Vaughan, Chris Layton, and Tommy Shannon. Stevie was much more confident, having established himself and proved what a great artist he really was. The audience at the 1985 performance was of course incomparably better because they knew exactly who Stevie Ray was too. Some of the tracks from this concert were featured on the 1986 album Live Alive, but they sound much better on this release because remastering has brought out the fullness of the sound and clarified the higher tones which were somewhat hollow on the previous release. It is worthwhile to compare the 1982 and 1985 versions of “Pride and Joy,” which appears on both discs. The 1982 version is good, but very tense, whereas the 1985 version has a looser, swinging feel. Stevie certainly had all the skill in ’82, but by the later performance he had broadened his style from the hard-edged Texas Blues he is famous for to include more soul and rock influences. This is especially evident on the ten-minute version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child,” were Vaughan shows off everything he has, and "Life Without You," with one of my all-time favorite guitar solos. My favorite number of all is the last, “Couldn’t Stand the Weather.” It starts with a powerful rhythm, punctuated by the clapping of the audience, ecstatic with being granted a second encore, and moves through the two verses and guitar solo, ending with a highly energized Reese Wynans solo during which Stevie keeps playing at full volume.
While I enjoy listening to the 1985 performance more, the history of the 1982 performance is fantastic. It was brilliant to put the two in one case because, in addition to granting us more minutes of music, they really do put each other in context.
Track listing:
Disc One
1. Hide Away--3:19
2. Rude Mood--4:55
3. Pride and Joy--4:01
4. Texas Flood--10:27
5. Love Struck Baby--2:53
6. Dirty Pool--8:17
7. Give Me Back My Wig--3:30
8. Collins Shuffle--4:51
Disc Two
1. Scuttle Buttin'--3:15
2. Say What!--4:45
3. Ain't Gone 'n' Give Up On Love--6:25
4. Pride and Joy--5:10
5. Mary Had a Little Lamb--4:27
6. Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place in Town) with Johnny Copeland--13:18
7. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)--10:51
8. Texas Flood--7:37
9. Life Without You--9:03
10. Gone Home--3:53
11. Couldn't Stand the Weather--7:29
Amazon MP3 Clips
I plan to do an album review about once a month, starting with my favorites (so Stevie may turn up quite a bit to start out with).
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