Artist

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Austin, United States • 1978 – 1990

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble is a music group from Austin, United States, active 1978–1990. Their discography on Gatefold includes 23 records.

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Albums tracked

349

In collections

1978

Since

Biography

Formed in 1979 with drummer Chris Layton and bassist Jackie Newhouse, Stevie Ray Vaughan fronted the band which he named Double Trouble. The band was joined in 1981 by bass player Tommy Shannon & 1985 by keyboardist Reese Wynans. Stevie Ray Vaughan tragically died on August 27, 1990 in a helicopter accident, having taken the seat that his brother Jimmie Vaughan or some have reported Eric Clapton would have been sitting in. He had a wide range of influences

The Arc of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

The pivots — what forced Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble to reinvent.

The Down Home Sessions
The band went into Jackson Browne's studio on a whim after a set at Montreux and tracked the debut live to tape without a record deal in place. Produced by the band and engineer Richard Mullen, the record sounds exactly like a sweaty Texas roadhouse at 2:00 AM. There are no overdubs or double-tracked guitars to hide behind. You hear the raw headroom of those high-wattage amps and the telepathic chemistry between Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon that established the modern Texas blues standard.
The Fifth Member
In 1985, Stevie brought in Reese Wynans on keyboards and expanded the trio into a quartet for the Soul to Soul sessions. This shift was a calculated move to move away from the strict three-piece blues format and lean into R&B and jazz-fusion textures. The production got denser, and the songs started incorporating more sophisticated arrangements. While the sessions were plagued by the band's escalating substance abuse, the addition of the B3 organ gave Stevie a harmonic cushion that allowed him to experiment with his phrasing.
The Sobriety Pivot
After a near-fatal collapse in Germany, Stevie cleaned up and went into the studio with Jim Gaines to record In Step. The result was a dry, punchy sound that lacked the hazy reverb of his mid-80s records. The songwriting became personal and stark, specifically on tracks like 'Tightrope' and 'Wall of Denial' which addressed his recovery head-on. It was a technical masterclass that proved his speed and precision hadn't been a byproduct of the drugs.

Influences

Albert King — Stevie famously covered 'Blues at Sunrise' and 'Sky Is Crying' as a direct homage to the man he called his biggest influence. You hear it in the massive, wide string bends and the way Stevie aggressively snapped the strings against the fretboard. It's that physical, top-end bite that King owned first.
Lonnie Mack — Stevie co-produced Mack’s 1985 comeback album Strike Like Lightning and cited 'Wham!' as the reason he started playing fast. The rapid-fire vibrato bar usage and the heavy tremolo picking on tracks like 'Rude Mood' are straight-up Lonnie Mack worship. He took Mack's rockabilly-blues hybrid and turned the volume up to ten.
Jimi Hendrix — The receipt is his note-for-note studio cover of 'Little Wing' and the live staple 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return).' Beyond the gear—Wah pedals and Leslie speakers—he copped Jimi's fluid thumb-over-the-neck chordal embellishments. He played Hendrix with a Texas grit that swapped psychedelic haze for pure muscle.
Buddy Guy — Stevie frequently shared the stage with Buddy and credited him as the spark for his flamboyant stage presence and feedback control. The staccato, stinging attack found on 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' is a direct lift from Guy’s early Chess Records style. It’s that erratic, explosive energy that makes the guitar sound like it’s about to blow up.
Otis Rush — The band took their name from the Otis Rush song 'Double Trouble.' Stevie’s minor-key blues phrasing on 'Texas Flood' owes everything to Rush’s Cobra Records era. He mirrored that specific, mournful sustain that Rush used to make a guitar sound like it was crying.