20 years ago today Stevie Ray Vaughan went to play guitar in heaven ... I liked all his stuff (so much that I named my son Steven Ray) but Lenny is just a really nice instrumental.

I met SRV once while I was at UT. I worked as a teller at old InterFirst bank in downtown Austin. He was a regular customer of ours. Super nice guy. Always had time for us college kids working there.

Got to see his last show in Houston at the old Sam Houston Coliseum. He and Jeff Beck put on a heck of a guitar demo that night! R.I.P. S.R.V.!

Can't believe it has been 20 years. At the time, I worked for the agency that represented him (in the literary division, not music). You might remember that his agent died with him. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news - a lot of tears were shed for everyone that day.

And to this day I can't recall hearing anyone who set a higher bar in terms of sheer guitar playing.

Twenty years. Man. I recall how blown away I was by his playing on David Bowie's "Let's Dance" record. (they still made records back then). I'd listen to ut over and over, enthralled. I was looking forward to what would be next...and then he was gone....

I going to go down to Auditorium shores an leave Stevie a beer, and a little sumptin on the brim of his hat.

I was turning left at the intersection of Prairieville and Tyler streets in Athens in my old pickup when the news came on the radio. It was a stone cold bummer. I think about hearing that news every time I listen to The Sky Is Crying.


Moral: If you play a geetar, stay off things that fly.*





*See: Holly, Bopper, Valens, Skynard, Nelson, et al.

KERA is playing a SRV concert now. I think I saw it was from '85.

Yeah. I was living in California at the time, and all the DJ's could do is say, literally, thank goodness it wasn't Eric Clapton. They didn't have a clue. i thought "Caught in the Crossfire" was a pretty good book. Imagine sweetening your whiskey with cocaine ... then turning it all around. He always thought his brother was a better guitar player than he was, and Jimmie is pretty darn fantastic. http://www.myspace.com/jimmievaughan