"The Complete Epic Recordings Collection" by STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN and DOUBLE TROUBLE - Featuring Five Officially Released Albums Between June 1983 and June 1989 (Four Studio Sets and One Live Double) Plus Five Posthumous Compilations Featuring Studio/Live Tracks From As Early As 1980 Issued Between November 1991 and July 2010 - Featuring Jimmy Vaughan, Tommy Shannon, Chris "Whipper" Layton, Reese Wynans, Joe Sublett with Guests Fran Christina, Stan Harrison, Dr. John, The Roomful Of Blues Horn section, Angela Strehli, Darrell Leonard and more (October 2014 UK Epic/Legacy/Sony Music 10-Title/12-CD Clamshell Box Set in Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves with Vic Anesini Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 <iframe sandbox="allow-popups allow-scripts allow-modals allow-forms allow-same-origin" style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B00MJFQ24W&asins=B00MJFQ24W&linkId=6634d1eafc4ec4bb1a721ce3f3637a49&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>

 

This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

No Cut and Paste Crap...

<iframe sandbox="allow-popups allow-scripts allow-modals allow-forms allow-same-origin" style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B0B2BFFB62&asins=B0B2BFFB62&linkId=24792af4460cdf9fa1bbb2629c6b9aa5&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>

 

"...Pride And Joy..."

 

Sony Music and their Legacy Label imprint have coughed up some doozies in their nifty Clamshell Box Set Series of 'Complete Collections' over the decades - The Byrds, Nilsson, Paul Simon, Bill Withers, Electric Light Orchestra, Blue Oyster Cult, Earth Wind & Fire, Leonard Cohen - and I've reviewed most all of them in detail. 

 

But this kick-ass audio slice of Blues Rock gorgeousness celebrating the genius of guitarist STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN and his band of Rhythm 'n' Blues pirates DOUBLE TROUBLE makes me thrill and shed a tear into the bargain - especially that simple but so brilliant debut LP from June 1983 when the band was a three-piece. I only have to play the undeniably beauty in his instrumental "Lenny" that ends the LP and I'm tapping my cloth cap in awe. 

 

But then in August 1990 - just when the whole world was beginning to feel his stunning playing skills - SRV was gone. Much to discuss...to the details first...

UK released 28 October 2014 - "The Complete Epic Recordings Collection" by STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN and DOUBLE TROUBLE on Epic/Legacy/Sony Music 88843091422 (Barcode 888430914223) is a 10-Title/12-CD Clamshell Box Set of Remasters housed in Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves that plays out as follows:

Disc 1 "In The Beginning" - Recorded live 1 April 1980 in Austin, Texas

Released 6 October 1992 US on Epic EK 53168 - 40:06 minutes, 9 Tracks 

 

Disc 2 "Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985" - Recorded live 17 July 1982/15 July 1985

Released 20 November 2001 US on Epic/Legacy E2K 86151

CD1: 42:14 minutes, 8 Tracks - CD2: 76:13 minutes, 11 Tracks 

 

Disc 3 "Texas Flood" - Recorded 23/24 November 1982

Debut Studio Album issued 13 June 1983 US on Epic BFE 38734 

CD: 38:56 minutes, 10 tracks 

Disc 4 "A Legend In The Making: Live At The El Mocambo" 

Recorded Live 20 July 1983 n Toronto, Canada during the "Texas Flood" Tour

Tracks 1, 3 to 8 with 12 and 14 first released 1983 as a 9-Track Radio Broadcast Promo-Only LP in Canada on Epic CDN-115

Tracks 2, 9 to 11 and 13 first released on Video in 1991 on SMV Enterprises 19-V-49111

CD: 76:30 minutes, 14 Tracks 

Disc 5 "Couldn't Stand The Weather" - Recorded January 1984 in NYC 

Second Studio Album released 15 May 1984 US on Epic FE 39304 

All Outtakes and 'Legacy Edition' Live Tracks surround this release are on the "Archives" 2CD Set - see Disc 10

CD: 38:13 minutes, 8 Tracks

 

Disc 6 "Live at Carnegie Hall" - Recorded 4 October 1984, NYC 

Posthumous Compilation released 29 June 1997 US on Epic EK 68163

CD: 61:36 minutes, 14 Tracks 

 

Disc 7 "Soul To Soul" - Recorded 1985 in Austin, Texas 

Third Studio Album released 30 September 1985 US on Epic FE 40036

CD: 40:09 minutes, 10 Tracks 

 

Disc 8 "Live Alive" - Recorded 16 July 1985 at Montreux Jazz Festival, 17-18 July 1986 at Austin Opera House and 19 July 1986 at Dallas Starfest 

Fourth Album Released November 1986 US on Epic EZ 40511

CD: 79:39 minutes, 14 Tracks 

 

Disc 9 "In Step" - Recorded January to March 1989 

Fifth Album (Fourth and Final Studio LP) released 6 June 1989 on Epic OE 45024

CD: 41:08 minutes, 10 Tracks 

 

Disc 10 "Archives" 

CD1: 48:27 minutes - CD2: 46:03 minutes 

I'm sure it sounds like full-on collector's nerd mode, but half of me wishes that Sony wouldn't 'border' these Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves with that white rim they do because I think it detracts. At least these individual cards are large enough and flexible enough to allow the CDs to slip in and out without having to tear telephone books to remove them. It's pretty cool too to have the five posthumous compilations in Card Form. 

 

The 32-page booklet is jam-packed with reissue credits - each of the ten discs given pages of musician/writer credits, photos, occasional live shots etc. Online Managing Editor of Guitar World DAMIAN FANELLI gets to give SRV the opening homage - a fellow axe-wielder who saw Vaughan in his 1984 and 1986 heydays - and literally climbed a mountain to see and hear the New Jersey gig from a distance (lucky bugger). Nowadays - we gawk in wonder at YouTube footage where he breaks a string, un-clips his battered Strat with flippy-floppy wire, slaps on another guitar from the roadie handing it to him - and literally doesn't miss a beat.

 

VIC ANESINI - one of Sony's Top Audio Engineers - has handled the Remasters. His catalogue of artists is a ridiculous who's who - Elvis Presley, Santana, Mott The Hoople, Simon and Garfunkel and Paul Simon, the Byrds, Nilsson, Aerosmith, The Jayhawks, Spirit, Mountain and loads more. Needless to say that all those rockin' moments that needed uplifting get just that - uplifts. I immediately go to Track 2 of the debut album "Texas Flood" to hear his signature tune "Pride And Joy" - and bam - it's in my face for all the right reasons. The beautiful instrumental "Lenny" where you just don't expect that kind of musicality from a born rocker - yet there it is - class and technique combined. I would imagine that Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton would all have been afraid of SRV - and that's really saying something.  

The beauty of a Box Set like this is the mixture of studio tracks like his own "Honey Bee" (the way we kiss, just can't miss), the rocking cover of Hank Ballard's "Look At Little Sister" or the nine-minute 'Lenny' like beauty of the slow instrumental "Riviera Paradise" (used to play this in Reckless and punters would think it was a moochy Santana track). And of course, the explosive live stuff where he was frankly untouchable. Even if it's 1980 and he's ripping through "Shake For Me" on that "In The Beginning" set - or when he attacks Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" - who could pull that off! Check out his gorgeous version of Jimi's ballad "Little Wing" which SRV does as one long instrumental flitting between slow and wild, the tremelo bar liberally employed to amazing effect - it was originally one of the extras on CD2 of the double-disc Legacy Edition of "Couldn't Stand The Weather". 

 

But for me, the now forgotten outtakes LP of November 1991 "The Sky Is Crying" is the absolute bomb. I can play this sucker all the way through. Check out his "Boot Hill" - could very well wake the dead - or his playing and growling on the Howlin' Wolf cover "May I Have A Talk With You" or that Elmore James title track "The Sky Is Crying" - wow. 

Will we ever see the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan again? Hard to say - but (no pun intended) what a Legacy our "Pride And Joy" left behind. Take this Box Set away from me and you could see this man get mean...