Stevie Ray Vaughan - ...and on guitar (1990)

Stephen Ray Vaughan was born on 3 October 1954 in Dallas, Texas, and began playing guitar at age seven, initially inspired by his elder brother, Jimmie Vaughan. Learning by ear, he diligently committed himself, following along to songs by the Nightcaps, and he listened to blues artists such as Albert King, Otis Rush, and Muddy Waters, and rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack. In 1963, he acquired his first electric guitar as a hand-me-down from Jimmie, and soon after he joined his first band, the Chantones, in 1965. Following a falling out with the other members he left the band and joined the Brooklyn Underground, playing professionally at local bars and clubs. In May 1969, after leaving the Brooklyn Underground, he joined a band called the Southern Distributor playing pop rock covers, but he tried to add blues songs to the group's repertoire, even though he was told that he wouldn't earn a living playing blues music, and so he and the band parted ways. In February 1970, Vaughan joined a band called Liberation, which was a nine-piece group with a horn section, and at a gig at the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas he was asked onstage by ZZ Top to jam with the band. In September 1970 Vaughan made his first studio recordings with the band Cast Of Thousands, which included future actor Stephen Tobolowsky, recording two songs for the compilation album 'A New Hi', which featured various teenage bands from Dallas. In late January 1971 he left Liberation and formed his own band Blackbird, moving from Dallas to Austin, Texas, as he felt they had more liberal and tolerant audiences. After a couple of years Vaughan left Blackbird and joined Krackerjack, staying with them for less than three months, and then joined Marc Benno's band, the Nightcrawlers, reuniting with Benno after meeting him at a jam session some years before. 

The next month, the Nightcrawlers recorded an album at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood for A&M Records, and although the record was rejected by A&M, it did include Vaughan's first songwriting efforts, 'Dirty Pool' and 'Crawlin''. In 1975 Vaughan joined a six-piece band called Paul Ray And The Cobras, which included guitarist Val Swierczewski and saxophonist Joe Sublett, and for the next two-and-a-half years he earned a living performing weekly at the Soap Creek Saloon and at Antone's, which was widely known as Austin's 'home of the blues'. In late 1976 the band recorded a single, with Vaughan playing guitar on both tracks, which was released in February 1977, and the band carried on touring for most of the rest of that year. Near the end of September he left the band and formed Triple Threat Revue, recording some tracks in an Austin studio in January 1978, but in mid-May the bassist left to form his own group and Vaughan renamed the band Double Trouble, recruiting new bass-palyer Jackie Newhouse, and by October that band had a residency at one of Austin's most popular nightspots, the Rome Inn. Following some line-up changes, the group settled on bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, and in 1982 they performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, where David Bowie saw Vaughan play and contacted him for a studio gig, resulting in him playing his blues guitar on six of the eight songs on Bowie's 1983 album 'Let's Dance', including the iconic solo at the end of the title track. 

With the success of 'Let's Dance', Bowie requested Vaughan as the featured instrumentalist for the upcoming Serious Moonlight Tour, and in late April he began rehearsals for the tour in Las Colinas, Texas, but when contract renegotiations for his performance fee failed, he abandoned the tour days before its opening date, and he was replaced by Earl Slick. Double Trouble had recorded some tracks at Jackson Browne's studio after Browne had jammed with them in Montreux and offered free use of his studio, and after acquiring the recordings Double Trouble began assembling the material for a full-length album, to be called 'Texas Flood'. After knocking the album into shape, it was released on 13 June 1983, and peaked at number 38 on the US charts, ultimately selling half a million copies. In January 1984, Double Trouble began recording their second studio album 'Couldn't Stand The Weather', with John Hammond as executive producer and engineer Richard Mullen, and during recording sessions Vaughan began experimenting with other combinations of musicians, including Fran Christina, Stan Harrison, and Jimmie Vaughan. 'Couldn't Stand The Weather' was released on 15 May 1984, and two weeks later it had rapidly outpaced the sales of 'Texas Flood', peaking at number 31 on the US album chart. 

The success of the band's two albums, added to his recognition at playing with Bowie on 'Let's Dance', meant that he was often asked to guest on other artist's work, adding his guitar to records by Lonnie Mack, James Brown, and Jennifer Warnes among others. The recording with James Brown was for the soundtrack to the 1985 film 'Rocky IV', but it wasn't without it's troubles, as apparently Vaughan was so upset by how low his guitar parts had been mixed that he left in a helicopter never to return. The songs were edited for release as a single, and about four minutes had to be cut, which included most of Vaughan's solos, so for this post I've used the longer version which later appeared on Brown's 'Gravity' album, on which you can hear Vaughan's playing in full. During the majority of his life, Vaughan struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, but he successfully completed rehabilitation and began touring again with Double Trouble in November 1986. His fourth and final studio album 'In Step' reached number 33 in the United States in 1989, and was one of his most critically and commercially successful releases, including his only number-one hit 'Crossfire'. It cemented his reputation as one of the world's most highly in demand blues performers, and he headlined Madison Square Garden in 1989, and the Beale Street Music Festival in 1990. On 27 August 1990, Vaughan and four others were killed in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wisconsin, following a performance with Double Trouble at Alpine Valley Music Theatre. An investigation concluded that the cause was pilot error and Vaughan's family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Omniflight Helicopters that was settled out of court. It was a terrible waste of a supremely gifted musician who was at the peak of his powers, and I hope that this collection of early recordings and guest appearances is a fitting tribute to his talent. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Red, White And Blue (from the 'A New Hi' compilation album 1970)
02 I Heard A Voice Last Night (from the 'A New Hi' compilation album 1970)
03 Dirty Pool (from the unreleased album by The Nightcrawlers 1973)
04 Crawlin' ((from the unreleased album by The Nightcrawlers 1973)
05 Other Days (single by The Cobras 1977)
06 Texas Clover (b-side of 'Other Days)
07 Love Struck Baby (Triple Threat Revue demo 1978)
08 I Wonder Why (Triple Threat Revue demo 1978)
09 Let's Dance (from 'Let's Dance' by David Bowie 1983)

Disc Two
01 Don't Stop By The Creek, Son  (from 'Texas Twister' by Johnny Copeland 1983)
02 Oreo Cookie Blues (from 'Strike Like Lightning' by Lonnie Mack 1985)
03 Living In America (by James Brown from the film 'Rocky IV' 1985)
04 First We Take Manhattan (from 'Famous Blue Raincoat' by Jennifer Warnes 1986)
05 You So Heavy (from 'Emerald City' by Teena Marie 1986)
06 Love Roulette  (from 'Heartbeat' by Don Johnson 1986)
07 Bumble Bee Blues (from 'Distant Drums' by Brian Slawson 1988)
08 Pipeline (from 'King Of The Surf Guitar' by Dick Dale 1989)
09 Cat's In The Well (from 'Under The Red Sky' by Bob Dylan 1990)
10 Just How You Play The Game (from 'The Peacemaker' by Jerry Lynn Williams - 

                                                                                               recorded 1990, released 1996)

 

Teena Marie - Black Rain (2002)

In 1976 singer Tina Marie (born Mary Christine Brockert) gained an introduction to Motown Records staff producer Hal Davis, which led to an audition for a film about orphans that was being developed by Motown, and although the project was shelved, label boss Berry Gordy was impressed enough by her singing to sign her as a solo act. She recorded unreleased material with a number of different producers over the next few years, before being spotted by label-mate Rick James, who was immediately impressed with her sound, and worked with her on her debut album 'Wild And Peaceful', which was issued under her new name of Teena Marie in 1979. Her second album followed in 1980, and 'Lady T' was produced by Richard Rudolph (the widower of R&B singer Minnie Riperton), as she'd asked Berry Gordy to contact Rudolph as Rick James was unavailable. She released her third album the same year, and 'Irons In The Fire' was written and produced mostly by Teena Marie herself, an achievement considered rare at the time for a female artist. She continued her success with Motown in 1981, with the release of 'It Must Be Magic', but in 1982 she got into a heated legal battle with Motown Records over her contract, and there were disagreements about releasing her new material. The lawsuit resulted in "The Brockert Initiative", which made it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist. In such instances, artists are able to sign and release their music with another label instead of being held back by an un-supportive one. She subsequently signed a worldwide deal with Epic Records, releasing the concept album 'Robbery', followed in 1984 by her biggest-selling album 'Starchild', and more albums were issued over the next few years. 

During the 1990's, her classic R&B, soul, and funk records were either sampled by hip-hop artists or covered by R&B divas, and Teena Marie became regarded as something of a pioneer in helping to bring hip-hop to the mainstream by becoming one of the first artists of her time to rap on her single 'Square Biz'. In late 1994 she released the 'Passion Play' album on her independent label Sarai Records, after which she took a break from the music business to raise her daughter Alia Rose. During the late 1990's, she began working on a new album, to be called 'Black Rain', but she was unable to secure a major label deal for it, and she didn't want to put it out on her own Sarai label in light of the modest sales of 'Passion Play'. A number of songs were pretty much completed and put onto a promo CD, but this was soon bootlegged by fans, and so tracks such as 'The Mackin' Game', 'I'll Take The Pressure', 'Butterflies", and 'Blackberry Playa' were able to be heard by fans while she sought out a label to release it. Eventually she put the record on the back burner, and then, after a 10-year hiatus from the music industry, she resumed her musical career by signing with the Classics sub-label of the successful hip-hop label Cash Money Records, and releasing her eleventh album 'La Doña' in 2004. 'La Doña' used a number of songs that were originally recorded for 'Black Rain', with 'My Body's Hungry', 'Baby I'm Your Friend', 'The Mackin' Game', and 'Black Rain' itself appearing in re-recorded versions, and 'Ecstasy' was included on the follow-up album 'Sapphire' in 2006, but the other nine songs have remained officially unreleased, so you can now hear them here, including the lovely duet with Pretty Terry of the Polyester Players on 'Butterflies'. I think the cover is a particularly unflattering picture of the singer, but as I believe that it was intended to be the actual sleeve of the record I've used it for this post.  

Track listing

01 Intro - The Mackin' Game
02 I'll Take The Pressure
03 Baby I'm Your Friend
04 My Body's Hungry
05 Ecstasy
06 Fire
07 1999
08 Black Rain
09 Whatchu Got 4 Me
10 Butterflies
11 Spanish Harlem
12 Blackberry Playa
13 The Perfect Feeling
14 Rainbow