Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire

thanks for the great book

This book covers Stevie Ray from childhood, all the way up through his death in 1990, and even after his death, up through about 1992. Stevie Ray was killed in a helecopter crash. Stevie Ray was born & raised in Dallas, Texas. He first started playing his older brother's guitar at their home. His older brother is Jimmy Vaughan, founding member of the "Fabulus Thunderbirds" band. Stevie grew up in the same neighborhood with another Texas Guitar Great, Doyle Bramhall (who is the father of current Texas Guitar Great Doyle Bramhall II). Also Stevie had some interaction with Texas Guitar Great Charlie Sexton,who was younger than Steive. Doyle II & Charlie along with Double Trouble currently have a band called "ArcAngels". They have a great new concert dvd and live cds of this concert available from their website, and they are highly SRV influenced.This book covers the Texas Music scene, and especially the Austin, Texas Music scene also, because this environment influenced Stevie's life. It covers that Willie Nelson was instrumental in getting the Austin, Texas Music scene going, back in the early 1970's. It covers some other Texas musicians that somehow had interacted with Stevie, such as ZZ Top, Johnny Winter, Doug Sham, & especially Albert Collins, and others. It covers a little of the "Cosmic American Music" explosion of Gram Parsons, even though he was not a native Texan.On page 163 it covers the "Southern Rock Music Scene", including the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wet Willie, and others.This book covers how Stevie Ray gained fame by playing in huge, Texas Honky Tonks, how he met Chris Layton & Tommy Shannon (Double Trouble) and the formation of their band. During this time they started working on their first album "Texas Flood". They were interrupted, by getting an opportunity to play in the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switerland. So they went & performed. This was during 1982, and they were booed off the stage. However, David Bowie was in the audience & he was very impressed with Stevie's guitar playing, and invited him & Double Trouble over for a talk. The result, Stevie Ray played the lead guitar on David Bowie's famous studio album of 1982/83, "Let's Dance". So, when you listen to the music on that album to songs like "Let's Dance" & "Little China Girl", the fantastic guitar playing you are hearing is that of Stevie Ray's. Bowie wanted Stevie to go on a World Tour with Bowie, but after agonizing over it, Stevie declined the offer to tour with Bowie. He instead wanted to finish his 1st ablum "Texas Flood", with Double Trouble, and they did in 1983. It won a Grammy for best Blues Album or something like that.Stevie Ray & Double Trouble returned to the Montreaux Jazz Festival again, during 1985, and this time they received standing ovations, plus there were people in the audience waving Rebel flags, this was sometime around the performance of "Look at Little Sister". Anyway, there is a DVD of both Montreaux performances, in one package, available from Amazon. I have one, and it is fantastic, especially the 1985 performance, because it includes Reese Wymans on keyboards, and Texan, Johnny Copeland on electric guitar for a couple of songs. This book mentions that Stevie had Texas black bluesman Johnny Copeland to join him on stage for a few songs in the 1985 concert. The crowd loved them, this time around. They actually did 2 encores!!!Stevie Ray won 2 awards at the 5th annual W.C.Handy National Blues Awards Convention in Memphis. Stevie was named "Entertainer of the Year & Blues Instrumentalist of the Year." It was the 1st time in the history of the event that a white person had won either category. (P.180). Stevie Ray was heavily influenced by black bluesmen, especially Albert Collins & Jimi Hendrix.This book covers Stevie's drug & alcohol addiction & how he totally recovered from it.It covers the addition of Reese Wymans to Double Trouble. Stevie spotted him playing keyboards in a Texas Honky Tonk.Anyway, this book covers Stevie's marriage & divorce to Lenny, and his new girlfriend who he was living with, when he was killed. Her name was Janna Lapidua, and she was from New Zealand. It covers Stevie's & Double Trouble's career up through Stevie's death in a helecopter crash, 20 years ago, in 1990.This book covers Stevie's funeral, and it is very touching, you had all these great blues musicians there, paying respect & tribute to Stevie.Then the book covers the next few years after Stevie's death, up until about 1992.It has a discogrophy from "Texas Flood" in 1983, & releases on up through about 1992. This book has an index, making it easy to locate specific things in the book.This book has been praised by "Entertainment Weekly" and The "Austin Chronicle".The book was published/copyrighted in 1993, the author is Joe Nick Patoski, who at the time was a senior editor at "Texas Monthly", & columist for the "Austin American-Statesman". He also had contributed articles to "Rolling Stone" and other music magazines.This is a great book about a great man, and I highly recommend it. Thanks!!!

I've always been fascinated with Stevie. I loved his style, but truly fell in love with his music when I heard a live version of Life Without You on the remastered In Step. I was blown away by his guitar, of course, but loved the words that he spoke in the middle of the song. It told me that he had lived a life much different than most people and was able to come out of it his head on straight. Having known he heavily abused alcohol and cocaine, I was immediately drawn to want to learn more about him.Caught in the Crossfire is an excellently written biography. First off it covers SRV's life in great detail from numerous interviews with those closest to him. It felt as though I were there with him, there hitting the clubs and tagging along with SRV through his rollercoaster of a ride. You see the passion, you feel the blues as SRV progresses from a teenage guitar player to a guitar god in a matter of a couple of years. Additionally, you are shown his drug and alcohol abuse and you watch as it slowly begins to crescendo into his inability to play as well (i.e. Live Alive, which is also where Stevie began to realize he wasn't playing on the same level that he used to). You sit back and can't believe the amount of abuse he inflicted upon himself, how wasted he got, and then see him suddenly shake it off and become completely enraptured in playing the guitar. It seems cliché to say that a musician needs drugs to play well, but with Stevie he truly thought it, and that certainly led to him playing some amazing music.The authors have done a great job in bringing the Texas blues scene to life. They have many asides and tangents, a recursive style of writing that gives the history behind a certain person in SRV's life before finally turning back to Stevie. I love this style of writing because it gives you a very in depth look at not only SRV but also of those that interacted with him, leading to a bio that feels like it has a substance behind it.What is even more important than Stevie as a guitarist is how Stevie overcame his addictions and came back even stronger. His faith in religion as well as his faith in living a clean life lead to Stevie returning to his beloved blues even stronger, which is a testament to the man himself. It is sad that he was cut down in his prime, a time when he was in the best position to not only play the blues, but to impart a life lesson to his many adoring fans about what he went through. Stevie truly is a legend. This bio does a truly great job in bringing SRV down to earth and showing us who he was, as both the man and the guitar legend.5 stars.

This book is superbly written and had me gripped from the very beginning. The detail and imagery is such that I felt as if I were there. Emotions, guts, passion, heartache, misery, healing - nothing is left out of the Stevie Ray story. Told intelligently and with eloquence, I do not think that I will read another book about SRV as well written as this. I have`Texas flood' which I am about to start and if it is as good as this, then I will be in ecstasy. The only thing that prevented me giving this five stars was that I would have liked to have seen more pictures included and of better quality too. There are none in colour here and I feel this would have enhanced this (fairly large sized) paperback. Nevertheless I feel this book is so good, it is the standard to which I will measure all other SRV books.

Fantastic pre used buy. Quick delivery and very good price. Will use these guys again. Any SRV fan should have a copy. Fantastic insight into the life of one of my all time heroes.

Absolutly brilliant book enjoyable informative about the late truly Great Guitar Slinger five Stars all the way

Damaged spine and pages clearly copied , looks nothing like a new book...don’t buy this book at full price...

Bought as xmas present - recipient happy.