Word: vaughans
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...double album, the sum of Vaughan’s first Montreux performance and his triumphant return in 1985, represents the first comprehensive collection of those celebrated live performances. Needless to say, the compilation is simply glorious. Vaughan was as adept at funneling rip-roaring blues through his guitar as he was pulling out smouldering riffs from its strings, and the first Montreux outing provides a brilliant sampler of his stunning—if then still raw—talent...
After his inauspicious introduction, Vaughan rips into the Freddie King standard “Hide Away,” a somewhat safe shuffle opening that rolls over into the guitarist’s own “Rude Mood,” a thundering stampede of a follow-up. Such is Vaughan’s energy on “Rude Mood” that his rhythm section seems almost on the verge of breaking in their effort to match his flying fingers—his dexterity is perhaps only matched by spontaneous melodic invention...
...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...