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One of the best SRV albums. There's not too much else I can say about it than it's just an awesome album.
Good blues but ultra clean - not a smidge of anything but crisp.Crisp snare, licks, crisp recording, crisp crisp.Its like surgery - sharp and clean.I like it but it's not if hardly on more than once a year.If you like clean blues - this is your clean babyIf you like more soulful blues - no its not what your looking for.
People can do other things really, really, well, but no-one will ever top this album on it's own terms. In fact, I would go so far as to sum him up as "The Next Jimi Hendrix," except that SRV was a composer while Hendrix was an improviser. Fully developed, chemical-free, and not overly commercial or over-produced. If ever there was a best-of-genre album for driving rockabilly blues, this is it. I will regret that decision the rest of my days.Do not wait for something better to come along. His version is more driving and "perfect" than Hendrix's though somewhat less spontaneous.
Stang's Swang is a credible attempt at electric jazz blues (though serious jazz musicians will complain that he plays IV-V-I over every II-V-I cadence, true rockers will like it better than any jazz they have ever heard).He gives a nod to his blues roots in almost every song (several are blues standards), but none more-so than Voodoo Child.
Stevie's guitar playing is soulful and virtuosic, his band could not be tighter, and his vocals add the perfect focus for his songwriting.
But he plays each note with such conviction that you would never know without studying his discography.At one point, I held that against him and passed up an opportunity to see him perform because the show would be "just like the album" and I thought I could always catch him the next time he came to town.
This album catches SRV at the top of his game.
What I mean by that is that SRV played exactly the same solos in concert as he did on the record.
Even the slow, quiet songs are so high energy that listening to them is like being bathed in intense white light.Scuttle Buttin' is burst of high-speed virtuoso blues energy.
The title track shows the band's ease with changing time signatures.
Tragically he died a few weeks later and I passed up the chance of a lifetime.
Buy this album, clear your schedule, and treat yourself to the best Texas blues ever performed on guitar.
Other standouts include the title track (with its unusual timings) "Things That I Used to Do" (applying his lightning fingers to a slower blues) and the delicious "Cold Shot". Blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughn tears it up in this, his sophomore effort with backing band Double Trouble. Throughout, Vaughn does a creditable job with the vocals, and his backing band wisely stays out the way. From the electrifying opening track "Scuttle Buttin'" to the jazzy "Stang's Swing" Vaughn shows why he was the premiere axman of his era. There may have been guitarists in the past who were more in touch with the raw emotion of the blues, but nobody can match his technique, his precision, and his fire. He fails to come up with anything special for his cover of Hendrix' "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" but then, when has anyone ever managed to improve on Hendrix. A must for aficionados of blues guitar.
This has never been one of my favorite releases from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. There are some very strong points, however, such as the soulful slow blues of "Tin Pan Alley," which really is a top notch track. It's just that I have high standards when it comes to SRV, and this one doesn't quite measure up to his best work. For example, "Scuttle Buttin'" is a decent opener, and a high energy one at that, but I've never thought it to be quite up to some of their other instrumental pieces. "Hide Away" is relatively mild and "Look at Little Sister" doesn't come across as much different than the version on Soul to Soul. And, while a bit of Jimi Hendrix is always appreciated, his treatment of "Voodoo Chile" doesn't really offer up anything new and, so, is a bit disappointing. It's not bad by any stretch, but it never hooked me that way I would have liked. This seems like a negative review.but I really like this album.
None of these songs are bad. They just don't grab my attention the way SRV did with his debut, Texas Flood, or would again on later albums. But it's still good.The album sounds great, so it gets high marks for the remaster.The bonus tracks are always a nice addition, but they just don't make a big impact on this one. Decent additions.but not much that's above and beyond.
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