Jostmeyer 1

Hattie Jostmeyer

Mrs.Bufford

English 3A

5/5/17

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Even though Stevie lived a short life his music career only lasted about seven years, he is widely

considered one of the most influential guitarist in the history of music, and one of the most

important figures in 1980s blues. Stevie Ray Vaughan still has a significance to this day by his

childhood, his fame and how he is remembered to this day are the reasons why Stevie Ray

Vaughan is on this paper.

Vaughan was born into a working-class family in Dallas, Texas, on October 3, 1954.

Along with older brother Jimmie Vaughan , he developed an affinity for blues guitar, with Albert

King and Lonnie Mack being important early influences. Following Jimmie to Austin, Texas, in

1972, Vaughan played in a number of local groups before forming Double Trouble in the late

1970s, and established a solid reputation as a live performer. After playing in several Dallas

bands, Vaughan dropped out of school and moved to Austin in 1972, where a large blues scene

was developing. Vaughan continued to play in various bands until forming his own group,

Double Trouble, named for an Otis Rush song, in 1978 Stevie was becoming more and more

know for,so he started to becoming famous.

Stevie Ray was able to start playing with the big boys and big towns. Like Hendrix,

posthumously Vaughan has become a figure of reverence to an even greater extent than when he

was alive. Into the twenty-first century, in both his musicianship and image, Vaughan is regarded
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by many as the epitome of the modern blues guitarist. Vaughan bridged the gap between blues and

rock like no other artist had since the late 60s. Vaughan's reputation spread to R&B producer Jerry

Wexler, who viewed a performance in 1982. Wexler, considerably impressed, used his pull to get

Vaughan booked at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, a feat almost unheard of for an

unsigned artist. One member of the Montreux audience was British rocker David Bowie, who

asked Vaughan to play on his Let's Dance album and join his 1983 world tour. Vaughan added

some stunning Albert Kingtinged licks to the album but pulled out of the tour due to money

disputes and other quarrels. He returned to Austin and resumed playing the club circuit.

Hammond produced the band's first album, Texas Flood, released by Epic Records in 1983.

Although peaking only at number thirty-eight on the Billboard album charts, the record went

gold with more than 500,000 copies sold. Vaughan's 1984 follow-up, Couldn't Stand the Weather,

sold over one million copies and spent thirty-eight weeks on the Billboard top 200 album chart.

Organist Reese Wynans joined Double Trouble for the 1985 release Soul to Soul.

His life was tragically cut short on August 27, 1990, in a helicopter crash at Alpine Valley

Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin. Afterward, a helicopter carrying Vaughan and three

members of Clapton's entourage to Chicago crashed into a fog shrouded hillside near the theater.

All aboard were killed. The accident was blamed on pilot error. Vaughan sold millions of records

and won Grammy awards before his career was cut short by a helicopter crash that killed the

performer and others in 1990.Although his professional career was soaring, Vaughan was sinking

deep into alcoholism and drug addiction. Autobiographical in nature, songs like Crossfire and

Wall of Denial offered vivid evocations of his personal battles, and the album was a

commercial and critical success, earning Vaughan a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary
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Blues Album. By the dawn of the 1990s he had become perhaps the preeminent guitarist of his

generation, rivaled in esteem and popularity only by Eddie Van Halen.

In conclusion, Stevie Ray Vaughan is a noteworthy person by being known by many

people throughout the world and the music world, Stevie Ray is still talked about to this day.

Stevie Ray Vaughan still has a significance to this day by his childhood, his fame and how he is

remembered to this day is the reason why stevie ray vaughan is on this paper.

Works Cited

www.easybib.com

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?

tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType

=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=3&docId=GALE

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d=GVRL&contentSet=GALE

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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?

tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=Basic

SearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE

%7CCX3162200511&docType=Biography&sort=RELEVANCE&contentSegment=&prodId=GVR

L&contentSet=GALE

%7CCX3162200511&searchId=R1&userGroupName=j043905008&inPS=true.
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http://www.srvofficial.com/biography/