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People talk about legends and even
consider them Gods at what they do. When people talk about guitars, they talk
about Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, the superstars
of Blues & Rock during the 60s & 70s. They were astonishing, stunning
for the audience who were now hooked into Blues-Rock. However, Stevie Ray Vaughan, a local blues guitarist from Texas
wasn’t making commercial records; instead he was playing his crazy guitar all
over the southern states of America with various bands. He was spreading that
good old Blues with the fusion of amplified Rock music. Wherever he played, or
with whomever he jammed along, he stunned them from their core with unique
guitar style and skills that is considered unmatchable. In the early 80s, when
he finally began to be noticed by most popular record producers and musicians
of the time, he and his band Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble began to
make commercial records releasing hits after hits till the end of the decade. A
young legend who was praised by every other legends and criticized by very few,
he hooked the young generation with the magic of Blues, shortly reviving the
genre and leaving behind such an impression that still chills and stuns anyone
who hears his records.When I talk about SRV (Stevie Ray
Vaughan), people might feel that I exaggerate a lot, but for any blues and
guitar fan out there, they might understand what I’m talking about, because the
people might consider Eric Clapton a little overrated, Jimmy Page as not so
great, Hendrix as an odd musician or show off but when they listen to Stevie
Ray, the guitarist with a hat like Zorro’s, they will have their fucking brains blown out by his heavy solos and riffs.
A son of a World War II veteran, he lived a troubled life as his
family moved time to time at different places all over southern USA. His
interest on guitar developed at early age of 7 being inspired by his brother
Jimmy Vaughan who later became a popular blues guitarist. His first guitar was
a toy with three strings on it but he took it and tried to practice with it. Jimmy Vaughan
The Brooklyn Underground with Stevie Ray
later recalls about his small brother who always played his guitar while he was
gone and how he used to get angry when Stevie used to touch his guitar. Due to
all the financial problems, their parents wanted their sons to quit chasing
music and focus more on studies, but Jimmy left the house soon after and Stevie
was left in a house which was breaking apart mostly due to his father’s
drinking problems and domestic violence. But that didn’t stop him to play his
guitar, he never learned to read music, not even in schools, he was terrible at
school as he was failing in his grades. He learned music through his eyes and ears. By the time he was 12, he had already
developed his guitar skills experimenting with electric guitars, amplifiers and
jamming along bands in school and all around Dallas, Texas. But his financial
troubles compelled him to work at restaurants where he dumped trashes and
washed dishes all day long. It was until one day when God decided to throw him on a barrel of
grease in which he was covered up till his shoulders, at instant he quit his
job and focused in his music career.
1960s, Little Stevie Ray In Texas
In the late 60s, when British
Rock, and British Blues artists were ruling the charts, Jimi Hendrix travelled
to UK to come out as a Guitar God. An African-American who came from the land
where the blues began had to go to another foreign land to play the blues and achieve mainstream success. Meanwhile, Stevie Ray was in Dallas jumping from one band to
another. When he was 14 he had joined Southern Distributor in 1969, a local
band where
The Blackbirds
he played Jeff Beck’s (formal Yardbirds member) “Jeff’s Boogie” to
audition for the band. A kid covering that song was kind of a miracle. Mike
Steinbach, the group's drummer, commented: "The kid was fourteen. We
auditioned him on 'Jeff's Boogie,' really fast instrumental guitar, and he
played it note for note.” That was the beginning of Stevie’s career, for the
entire decade, he kept on moving from band to band. He was still in school but
soon abandoned school after he lacked time for rehearsals. Soon, Stevie formed
his own band named “BlackBird” after getting tired of playing pop/rock music.
He was told that playing blues won’t be enough to make a living so he
moved to Austin, Texas with the band where Blues-Rock was flourishing. Stevie was
getting recognition all around Texas and Mississippi where legendary bluesmen
like Albert King, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters used to tour for their concerts. They
were the locals down at the south and Stevie had finally received a chance to
jam alongside Albert King. Albert King recalled about his experience while
jamming with the young kid Stevie in 1973 at Austin. Albert used to play a piece and Stevie used
to play the exact same piece at instant in his guitar without breaking a sweat, and the most amazing
fact was that he was a small kid maybe 17 by that time. Later in 1983 when Albert
King was set to do a live television album named In Session he was
In Session : Stevie Ray Vaughan & Albert King
supposed
to be joined by Stevie Ray Vaughan (who had recently released his first studio
album) but at first King denied because he didn’t know who Stevie Ray was, only
later he realized that Stevie was that little Stevie kid he had allowed
to jam along when he was in Austin back in 1973. After realizing that the kid
was now an established blues musicians he happily agreed to play alongside SRV.
1970s, The Blues-Rock Bands
In late 70s, the Blackbird was already dissolve and Stevie was in a band
called Paul Ray & The Cobras, they played at different venues jamming along with
blues legends like Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers etc. The Cobras were
famous in the south and had even recorded a hit single “Other Days” that
featured SRV as the lead guitarist. SRV was achieving success; till 1977 the
Cobras were playing music and touring across
Stevie Ray Vaughan in Austin, Texas
USA until they decided to chase
for a mainstream success that meant leaving the blues behind. Stevie left the
band and formed his own band, he knew that he wasn’t set to play music for
commercial success and leaving the blues behind wasn’t an option. He formed his
own band named Triple Threat Revue which included singer Lou Ann Barton,
bassist W. C. Clark, and drummer Fredde Pharaoh. In January of 1978, they
recorded four songs in Austin, including Vaughan's composition "I'm
Cryin'". The thirty-minute audio recording marks the only known studio
recording of the band. The band was renamed Double Trouble after Barton, Clark
and Pharaoh left the band being replaced by Jackie Newhouse & Jack Moore with Stevie doing both vocals and lead guitar. The
name was inspired by Otis Rush’s song. Soon, Moore and Newhouse were replaced
by Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon. In 1982, The Double Trouble Band appeared on
Monteux Jazz Festival in Switzerland where the band played and many were
impressed but also few booed, there were boos because the crowd was not there
to listen to Blues-Rock with heavy guitar riffs and solos, fast tempos and
shuffle rhythms, many preferred Jazz and Chicago Blues. SRV was highly
disappointed, he recalled that day stating, "It wasn't the whole crowd
[that booed]. It was just a few people sitting right up front. The room there
was built for acoustic jazz. When five or six people boo, wow. It sounds like
the whole world hates you. They thought we were too loud, but shoot, I had four
army blankets folded over my amp, and the volume level was on 2. I'm used to
playin' on 10!". Vaughan opened with a medley arrangement of Freddie
King's song "Hide Away" and his own fast instrumental composition,
"Rude Mood". Double Trouble went on to perform renditions of Larry
Davis' "Texas Flood", Hound Dog Taylor's "Give Me Back My
Wig", and Albert Collins' "Collins Shuffle", as well as three
original compositions: "Pride and Joy", "Love Struck Baby",
and "Dirty Pool". Although the set ended with boos from the audience,
People's James McBride wrote: "He seemed to come out of nowhere, a
Zorro-type figure in a riverboat gambler's hat, roaring into the '82 Montreux
festival with a '59 Stratocaster at his hip and two flame-throwing sidekicks he
called Double Trouble. He had no album, no record contract, no name, but he
reduced the stage to a pile of smoking cinders and, afterward, everyone wanted
to know who he was."
Mainstream Success, Addiction & Rehabilation
The Monteux Jazz Festival was the band’s biggest night, it was their big break, their performance caught
the attention of the famous pop/rock icons of the 70s, David Bowie and Jackson
Browne. After Double Trouble's performance, Bowie telephoned Stevie and asked him
to play on his forthcoming album Let’s Dance, while Browne offered the
group free recording time at his Los Angeles studio, Downtown. Stevie Ray and
his bandmates were signed to a record deal with Epic, where they were put in
the capable hands of legendary musician and producer, John Hammond, Sr. After that,
there was the release of “Texas Flood” that went to charts reaching No.31
SRV & Double Trouble in Monteux Jazz Festival
followed by another album “Couldn’t Stand The Weather” reaching the charts again.
Texas Flood might be SRV’s first studio album but it is an epic album that
clearly demonstrated the band’s ability, the album solely brought back
Blues-Rock into the early 80s. In the 70s, Blues-Rock was being highly ignored by
the success of Country-Rock, Glam-Rock, Progressive-Rock and other sub genres,
but SRV and Double Trouble were the face of Blues-Rock in the 80s, its not that
Blues artists like Clapton or Beck had stopped producing records, they were
just more focused on tours. Stevie Ray Vaughan was in whole new level. With the
popularity of MTV, the band had also recorded live sessions and official music
videos at the time, one for Crossfire from Stevie Ray’s album In Step for which
he won a Grammy Award. He was finally an established blues musicians like his
brother Jimmy was. But, his major enemy was drugs and alcohol. He was into
alcohol before he was a teenager, his dad’s alcoholism attracted him to try all
kinds of liquor, while growing up he was eventually introduced to marijuana, cocaine
and methamphetamine. But Cocaine and Alcohol became his major drug. In 1979,
when Double Trouble was supposed to be backing band for the legendary Muddy
Waters, SRV was bailing out of jail after being arrested for cocaine
possession. Muddy Waters, who observed Vaughan's substance abuse commented: "Stevie
could perhaps be the greatest guitar player that ever lived, but he won't live
to get 40 years old if he doesn't leave that white powder alone." Not only Muddy, many of Stevie’s colleagues
who realized that he was highly dependent into alcohol and drugs had commented
that he won’t live for long and that will be a great tragedy, another great
musician washed away by narcotics. Stevie couldn’t live without alcohol and
cocaine, during the height of his addiction he was completely engulfed by
alcohol and cocaine, he used quarter ounce of cocaine every day. Vaughan
recalled his days, "It got to the point where if I'd try to say
"Hi" to somebody, I would just fall apart crying. It was like solid
doom.” In September 1986, Double Trouble traveled to Denmark for a
one-month tour of Europe. In September 28, 1986 Vaughan became sick after a
performance in Ludwigshafen, Germany, he suffered from near-death dehydration,
for which he received medical treatment. He checked into The London Clinic, the
Doctor warned him that he was a month away from death. After staying in London
for more than a week, he returned to the United States and entered Peachford
Hospital in Atlanta, where he spent four weeks in rehabilitation.
Jimmy Vaughan with Stevie Ray Vaughan
After the rehabilitation, he was a
changed man, he was back healthy rehearsing with the band for the next Live
Alive Tour, On August 6, 1987, Double Trouble appeared at the Austin Aqua
Festival, where they played to one of the largest audiences of their career. In
May 1988, which included a concert at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, the band
was booked for a European leg, which included 22 performances, and ended in
Oulu, Finland on July 17. This would be Vaughan's last concert appearance in
Europe. In 1989, In Step was released that turned out to be the band’s final
studio album. After all the success and fame, Stevie was back in Dallas, living
in Dallas and finally getting a chance to make a record featuring his big
brother Jimmy Vaughan. In 1990, Jimmy Vaughan and SRV were recording together
for the album “Family Style”. In the same year, SRV was invited to a concert
featuring all the great Blues musicians at Alpine Valley
Robert Cray, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan &Jimmy Vaughan
Music in Wisconsin.
There was Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan. On August
26, 1990, after performing in the event, just after midnight, Stevie hopped on
a helicopter bound for Chicago. Contending with dense fog, the helicopter
crashed into hilly field just minutes after take-off, killing everyone on
board. The other people included agent Bobby Brooks, Clapton’s entourage Nigel
Browne, and assistant tour manager Colin Smythe. At 4:30 am, Civil Air Patrol
was notified of the accident, eventually locating the crash site almost three
hours later. Meanwhile, Clatpon and Jimmy Vaughan were jamming alongside, after
they heard about the accident both Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan were asked to
identify the bodies; a Coptic cross necklace, worn by Vaughan, was given to
Jimmie Vaughan. It was a tragic day, the death of another blues guitarist,
maybe the finest one and the drugs didn’t took him away, and that was a
surprise.
Remembering Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial, Austin, Texas
No matter how he died, Stevie Ray
Vaughan is remembered for his days, his concerts in which he stunned the world
with his guitar skills and voice, he somehow managed to revive the blues and
showed the world that guitar solos and riffs were not yet dead, his skills
influencned and inspired so many new musicians and guitarists. He had his own
personality and people don’t remember him as a guitarist who died in a tragic
accident, they remember man who lived in a time when people had forgotten how
crazy and face melting guitar solos are, he wasn’t like AC/DC, nor he was like
the Cream or Aerosmith, he and the Double Trouble were the band who kept the
blues alive till this day, leaving behind such performances and skills that
cannot be compared. Every new blues artist we see now like John Mayer, Gary
Clark Jr, Albert Cummings, guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani or even Rock
artists, they were all at some point inspired to play like Stevie Ray Vaughan. Since
his death, many compilation albums, early recording and biographies/videos of
him has been released as a tribute. Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial, a bronze
sculpture of Stevie Ray Vaughan by Ralph Helmick is located at the intersection
of Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail (South Bank at South 1st and Riverside Drive)
in Austin, Texas, in the United States. The work was installed in 1994 and is
maintained by Austin Parks & Recreation.
2015 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
In 2015 Rock Hall Of Fame, the
young artists gave SRV a beautiful tribute, the artistson stage took turns
singing verses on "Pride and Joy." John Mayer kicked the run of solos
off, followed by Doyle Bramhall II and the brilliant Gary Clark Jr., whose
bluesy tone was easily the best fit for the song. Jimmie Vaughan, the older
brother of the late SRV got in on the act with his own solo, honoring his
brother. There are lots of books and documentaries still being produced in
honor of the Texas legendary bluesman and guitarist.
2015 Rock Hall of Fame Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan
Kutumba performing in Kathmandu, Kutumba has revived and improvised many old folk songs from various tribes of Nepal
Nepali Folk music is one of the most popular nepali genre all around the world. The thing about Nepali folk is that it is very diversified. There are dozens of tribes and culture in the small country and they all have their own kind of music. However, in popular culture, folk songs of Tamang, Gaiens, Sherpas, Gurungs, Newars are famous, geographically, these kind of music originated from hilly regions of the country. Folk songs had been popular even in the 60s and is still popular now but the influence of Rock n' Roll in the modern industry has diminished the popularity of folk music.
Nonetheless, many Nepali artists like Jhalak Man Gandarbha (A Sarangi player), Diwas Gurung, Kutumba (band), Sur Sundha etc are still preserving folk music and improvising old folk songs but still keeping that nepali folk vibe alive. The folk music is local music and nepali people from hills and the mountains are generally singers and composers of these kind of music. Like the traditional African-American Blues, Field hollers or Bluegrass & Appalachian Music, Nepali folk is also sang locally while farming and in various festivals. Many tribes have many festivals in Nepal, and in these festivals they have their traditional songs that dates back to the medieval times.
The current situation of Nepali Folk Music is that there are still very few bands that focuses on producing Nepali folk music. Although new young artists like Bipul Chettri and his band who are originally from Darjeeling are spreading Darjeeling folk music in Nepali music industry. Darjeeling is heavily populated and influenced by nepali culture and their music had been ignored for a long time. Chettri's ambition to spread the old and new folk songs he and his band created has attracted a whole new mass of young generation. He has also collaborated with many folk musicians and players like Kiran Nepali of the band "Kutumba" who is a sarangi player.
Searching For Nepali Folk Music
Terrence R. Bech (Picture By Amar Gurung)
Well, in the music industry only few kinds of Nepali folk are popular. Meanwhile there are so many tribes living in different corners of the country. Nobody had ever set on a journey to search for the folk songs of Nepal until Terrence R. Bech came to Nepal. Terrence R. Bech came to Nepal in 1964AD as a volunteer for Peace Corps. His journey through Nepal made him realise that how diversified the cultures were in Nepal and many of these cultures had their own cloths, traditions, language and customs, like everything else their music also differed and almost all of these tribes had their own music. Bech travelled 15,000 km across Nepal recording folk music, collecting musical instruments and translating lyrics. He traveled to remote districts with a backpack weighing 40 kg, and a porter carrying his Uher tape recorder and batteries. By the time he left Nepal in 1966, Bech had collected 260 hours of recordings in 400 open-reel phonotapes, 200 musical transcripts, 120 musical instruments, 7,500 song texts, 41 life history studies of Nepali musicians, along with thousands of photographs. These were housed in the Archive of Traditional Music at Indiana University in Bloomington... (read more on Songs Of Our Past - Nepali Times)
Live Concert By Hollywood Vampires in Fraze Pavillion, Kettering, OH tonight!
Joe Perry performing with Hollywood Vampires
Oh yeah, the famous super-band
consisting of two legendary rockstars and one the most versatile actor (who
also happens to be a guitarist) – The Hollywood Vampires are going live tonight
in Ohio. Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper & Joe Perry are currently on a tour to
spread Rock n’ Roll across the state. The last concert in which the band’s lead
guitarist Joe Perry (Also famous for being co-founder of Aerosmith) suddenly
collapsed on the backstage suffering a cardiac arrest last Sunday night. He was
rushed to the hospital that very moment, although the band kept on the
performance going. After the show was over, the band canceled shows on Monday.
But since news of Perry’s health returning to stable condition was announced in
the social media, the band is set to continue their tour again (though without Perry).
As announced by Alice Cooper, the veteran rock-star The Hollywood Vampires will
be in Fraze Pavillion, Kettering, Ohio tonight. It is certain that Perry won’t
be joining the band tonight but he would be back on the tour as soon as
possible.
Johnny Depp & Alice Cooper
As soon as the new surfaced all
over the world about Perry’s health, a flood of well-wishes appeared on Twitter
and Facebook. Even Perry’s formal bandmates from Aerosmith tweeted wishing for
Perry’s fast recovery and good health. The Hollywood Vampires have been on
spotlight for over a year now. Since their formation in 2015 and performance at
Rock In Rio in Brazil, last September, followed by many other concerts even the
tribute concert in Grammy Awards 2016 for the late Lemmy Klimister of Motorhead,
the band is has gained enormous ratings and exposure. They had also released a
studio album titled Hollywood Vampires in 2015. Hollywood Vampires was
formed to tribute the legends of Rock & Roll who once dominated the
industry during the 70s but died very soon. The name of the band was derived
from a club which was once formed by Alice Cooper and few other rockstars in
L.A including Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. The club was formed in 1972 at a
place in Sunset Strip called Rainbow Bar & Grill. According to Cooper,
the club used to be a junction for rockstars who travelled throught L.A. All
kinds of rock artists even Bernie Taupin, John Lennon, Keith Emerson, Jimi
Hendrix used to hang out in the bar. Cooper remembers, “To join the club, one
simply had to out drink all of the members.” After decades, Cooper decides to
not let those memories die, he had been previously affiliated with both Depp
and Joe Perry, hence he decided to form a band just to tribute those musicians
and cover their songs, the name Hollywood Vampires was perfect. Besides the
core members, the band also consists of bassist Duff McKagan, drummer Matt
Sorum, rhythm guitarist Tommy Henriksen, and Bruce Witkin on keyboards and
additional guitar. They have also been joined by guests such as Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh and many more.
The Hollywood Vampires
Soon the band became famous in
media and Hollywood. Johnny Depp who devoted himself in the band had said in
various occasions that he had always been a rock n’ roll fan and had performed
with both Perry and Cooper previously as a guitarist. The whole concept of
touring with the band and spreading classic rock was exciting but he has also
stated that even though music is a big part of his life his fans won’t be
hearing The Johnny Depp Band in future. As for Perry, he had been on tours
since last year, touring alongside his old band Aerosmith and then forming the
superband. Perry in the past had been infamous for being a drug user but he had
never before troubled with issues regarding his health on stage. But, it is
certain that Perry will be back in the group very soon and will be joining the
band in coming days playing rock n’ roll till the end. But tonight, the fans
will be expecting the rest of the band to perform in Ohio, also hoping for
Perry’s surprise return.