On this episode, we look at the 1983 debut of legendary Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan: Texas Flood. While Stevie Ray Vaughan seemed to come out of nowhere when he walked on stage with his band, Double Trouble, at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and, indeed, he was the first to perform without a record label backing him.
While the performance was met with boos from the audience, it did catch the attention of two figures in the audience: Jackson Browne and David Bowie. Bowie was so impressed he asked Vaughan to lay down tracks on his upcoming album, Let's Dance. Jackson Browne was so impressed that he lent them his private studio to record some tracks. The recordings at Browne's studio caught the attention of legendary Columbia record executive John Hammond, who liked what he heard enough to release it as an album. That album, Texas Flood, launched Vaughan's solo career.
Vaughan’s blend of traditional blues and rock and roll swagger was already known around his home state of Texas, particularly in Austin, where he had been a staple of the club scene for nearly a decade. However, his work on Let’s Dance, as well as his videos being in constant rotation on a fledgling MTV, catapulted him to international stardom. Texas blues would never be the same again.
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