And we are back with one of the blog's most stalwart featured artists and one of my all-time favourite guitarists, Texan blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan! So far SRV has featured in each year of the current blog iteration - in 2020 I transcribed his 1983 debut album "Texas Flood" , 2021 I did his incredible version of "Little Wing" (among others), 2023 I finished up 1984's follow up "Couldn't Stand The Weather" so this year it was the turn of the "difficult third album" - 1985's "Soul To Soul".
Now, it has to be said that this one didn't grab me quite as much as the first two - of course it's a good blues album and of course it's got some searing guitar playing in it, but compared to the first two it felt a little like SRV and the boys (this time featuring keyboard player Reese Wynans, who would also show up in Joe Bonamassa's band for "Live At The Greek", the album that started off this iteration of the blog..) were going through the motions to some extent.
This is backed up by some accounts from those involved with the recording - basically, by this point, the punishing performance and recording schedule was starting to take its toll on the band. Bass player Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton recalled waiting for cocaine deliveries before the band would go in to record and Stevie Ray himself recalled an incident pre-gig where Albert King gently took him to task for being a little too fond of the bottle.
And I think this shows to some extent as although all the tracks are pretty solid with some great playing throughout, there didn't really feel like any standouts like "Lenny", "Little Wing" or "Tin Pan Alley"... plus does anyone else think it's weird seeing SRV wielding a 335 on the alnum cover?!?
Nonetheless, there are a a slew of great licks to steal as always, so let's dive into the minutiea and get nicking!
This first example is a portmanteau of a couple of signature ideas SRV uses on "Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love" using the A minor pentatonic scale - the first example is kind of a hook that Stevie repeats through the song as a response to the vocal line, while the second incorporates some interesting string bending ideas as SRV is clearly channelling his inner Albert King!
Here the tricky part is where Stevie bends the D note (10th fret high E) up to E (4th to 5th) but comes off back to the 8th fret bent up a tone (b3 into 4th), gradually releasing the 8th fret note as it moves down from D to in between C & C# (b3 and major 3) before resolving to the root note A on the 10th fret B string. This is easier shown than told so as always, keep an eye on the YouTube channel (approaching 1000 subscribers now!!!) for the demo video (and don't forget to check out the preceding ones) .
Of course, it wouldn't be an SRV album without some serious showboating somewhere in there, and this next example from "Say What" shows exactly that - SRV head down, pedal to metal, charging through a repeating pattern based on the B minor pentatonic (but also note the use of the 2nd, C#, just to tweak the ear a little) - regular students of mine will notice the Magic 3 Notes concept at work here - dig in hard and make sure your vibrato is strong and confident, as so much of Stevie's tone came from his sheer attack and precision.
As with "Lenny" and "Stan's Swang" on the earlier albums, SRV teases us with some hints at the jazzier elements of his playing, and on "Gone Home" we see him using the D blues scale to great effect - this line comes in just after the organ solo, Stevie creating a jazzy melodic affect without using anything outside the standard blues vocabulary. This run works it's way down from 2nd position D Blues to 1st, and watch for the tasy major 3rd (F#) right at the end of the line.
And just as no SRV album would be complete without some blistering pentatonic fury, equally it wouldn't be complete without some of his gorgeous, clean toned Hendrix-style partial chord rhythm playing, as this intro to "Life Without You" shows - here SRV works his way down the CAGED system with doublestops to imply the A chord, working through the A, C & G shapes before using an F# blues scale phrase to imply the F#m chord.
So that wraps up another look at one of my all time heroes - stay tuned for the demo video (as I'll be the first to admit that my rhythmic notation is not alway 100% accurate ;-) ) as we all know SHOW > TELL every time when it comes to music! Meantime check out the One Minute Licks and Licks Of the Legends series as well as the newer Five Minute Solos and the Guitar Gymn series for more content to help you develop your skills.
See you next month as we take trip to Electric Ladyland - let's see how much of this one I can get through!
