Word: vaughan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Yesterday Joe Bonamassa In 1990, when blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan died prematurely in a helicopter crash at the age of 35, some say that a little bit of the blues died with him. In his wake, many have tried to cultivate his raw electric sound, and innumerable blues guitarists have since cited Vaughan as a primary musical influence, Joe Bonamassa simply adds to the litany of names. What Bonamassa, with his album A New Day Yesterday, also adds is confusion. Modern blues has always been difficult to define, and this, his first solo outing, defies strict categorization even more...
...feels more like a grunge band trying its hand at the blues (but failing miserably), and the hook to “Miss You, Hate You” bears a plagiarism suit-inducing similarity to Matchbox 20’s “Push.” If Vaughan was able to make people care about the blues when rock ruled the roost, perhaps Bonamassa will learn from his idol and stay away from the mainstream. —James A. Crawford
...since elevated to a blues staple) to the slow languorous burn that is Vaughan’s cover of “Texas Flood,” it’s evident that the man could just flat out play. In the early days before his discovery, Vaughan fused so much raw, open energy into his performance that even once removed through a recording, the presentation is nothing short of mesmerizing...
What a difference three years makes. When Vaughan returned to Montreux in 1985 (the second of the two-disc set), audience reception was markedly different the first. Two top-40 albums later, Vaughan was a known commodity—when he graced the stage in 1985, the Swiss hailed him as conquering hero. Fueled by an audience eruption, Double Trouble positively tears into “Scuttle Buttin,” soaring with impossible runs over Layton’s fast and loose percussion. While maturity had refined his playing, Vaughan clearly hadn’t lost his competitive fire...
...Vaughan was crying through his guitar, but in 1985, he positively wails, his second throaty lament more focused and piercing than the already brilliant first. He’s also stretched out in style, layering his blues aesthetic with arena rock in “Life Without You” and conjuring a more subtle Jimi Hendrix in “Voodoo Child.” In Montreux, Vaughan refined his improvisational technique while simultaneously letting his sound run ragged and wide. As a monument to a visceral artist and a study in artistic maturity, this set, regardless of musical...