The Stevie Ray Vaughan Experience
Mudcat
September 1, 2001

It is Aug. 31, 2001. This past week marked the 11th anniversary of Stevie's passing. Last night, down in Austin, Jimmie recorded a new segment of Austin City Limits but tonight, up here in the NYC area, PBS is airing their Austin City Limits SRV compilation tribute show.

It has been a long, long time since I watched Stevie's energy resonate from the stage. And tonight as I watched the ACL show, I realized that after 11 years I am still very much saddened by his death. The odd thing is, although his musical talents and influence are so sorely missed on today's music scene, the reason I am saddened is because Stevie overcame his self-imposed death sentence; he was an underdog David to the Goliath that is drug and alcohol addiction. We are a society who encourages and roots for the underdog...and when he wins we cheer...loudly. The whole world was cheering loudly for Stevie in 1990...in fact the roar was deafening.

I last saw Stevie with Jeff Beck in November of 1989, 3rd row dead center at Madison Square Garden. It was as magical an evening as one could ever experience...to see these two masters of the guitar absolutely blow the roof off the Garden was astounding. And the night only got better, because upon leaving the Garden, we traveled uptown to the Beacon Theatre for the Virginia Slim's Blues Festival. Coincidentally, one of the headliners was the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Well, having just burned down the Garden, guess who showed up to play with big bro Jimmie and pals? Twice in one night and the Brothers Vaughan together...it was almost too good to be true.

Alas, shortly thereafter, Jimmie left the T's and Stevie was gone. And suddenly it was the silence that was...and still is...deafening. Like Hendrix before him there is no telling where Stevie would be now but one thing is sure; it will be a long, long time before anyone comes along that has such a singularly rejuvenating impact on the instrument and the music simply by virtue of their sheer exuberance in what they do. For Stevie, it was simply his Pride and Joy.

Mudcat

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