Stevie Ray Vaughan: The Night the Blues Fell Silent

On August twenty seventh in nineteen ninety, the blues world lost one of its brightest lights when Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash near East Troy, Wisconsin. He had just delivered a blistering performance at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, sharing the stage that night with guitar legends Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, his own brother, and Robert Cray, in what became an unforgettable all star jam session capping off a run of summer concerts. Witnesses who were there that evening still describe it as pure electricity, as if the guitarists were pushing each other to greater and greater heights, trading licks and grinning like kids who couldn't believe their own luck at being on the same stage together. After the show wrapped in the early morning hours, Vaughan boarded one of four helicopters chartered to ferry the musicians and crew back to Chicago. Thick fog blanketed the hillside that night, and shortly after takeoff, the helicopter he was riding in crashed into a ski slope, killing him instantly along with the pilot and three members of Eric Clapton's touring entourage. He was only thirty five years old. Vaughan's death sent shockwaves through the music industry, because he had spent the better part of a decade dragging blues guitar back into the mainstream spotlight almost single handedly. With his band Double Trouble, he had released albums like Texas Flood and Couldn't Stand the Weather, records that fused the raw, stinging tone of Albert King and the fluid improvisation of Jimi Hendrix with a fierce, unmistakably Texan swagger all his own. He had also recently gotten his life back on track after a well documented battle with addiction, and had just released the album In Step, which many critics and fans consider the finest work of his career, a triumphant statement from a man who seemed to be entering a whole new creative peak. What makes the story even more poignant is how close he came to not being on that particular flight at all. Accounts from that night suggest there was some shuffling among the musicians and crew about who would ride in which helicopter, given the limited seating and the fog rolling in. Vaughan reportedly took a spot that opened up so he could get back to Chicago sooner, a small, ordinary decision that turned tragic within minutes. In the decades since, Stevie Ray Vaughan has only grown in stature as one of the most influential guitarists in American music. Musicians from John Mayer to Kenny Wayne Shepherd to Gary Clark Junior have cited him as a foundational influence, and his fiery, expressive playing style continues to be studied and imitated by aspiring blues guitarists around the world. A bronze statue of him now stands on the shore of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, the city where he cut his teeth playing dive bars and honky tonks before the world discovered him, and fans still leave guitar picks, flowers, and handwritten notes at its base every year around the anniversary of his passing. So today, when you think about August twenty seventh in music history, take a moment to picture that fog rolling over the Wisconsin hills, and remember a Texas kid with a battered Stratocaster who reminded an entire generation why the blues still mattered. Some great Deals https://amzn.to/49SJ3Qs For more check out http://www.quietplease.ai