This June marks the 25th anniversary of the Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble electric-blues release Texas Flood. The album is lauded for exposing Texas bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan and his electric-country sound to the rock-n-roll mainstream of the mid-80’s. This week The Ruckus takes a look back in this Retro Review.
Texas blues-trio Double Trouble was a late-blooming act of sorts.
Guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, bassist Tommy Shannon, and drummer Chris Layton were regional darlings around Dallas during the early 1980s, boasting a hard country-blues sound loved by the local legions.
It wasn’t long before their reputation caught up with their talent, and the group had their first record in the form of a three-day session tape they had cut in Jackson Browne’s personal recording studio.
The Epic Records release was titled Texas Flood, and became the first album of a too-sudden career catalogue from axe-master SRV.
Double Trouble’s grunge-blues sound makes an impressive introduction in the form of “Pride and Joy.” Vaughan’s clenched-teeth southern drawl sings about his “pride and joy,” which in this case is the woman close to his heart, his wife.
The sweet lyrical content is a pale contrast to the aggressively driving style that Double Trouble adopted to showcase their leadsman’s incredible talents.
Next up is the album’s title-cut “Texas Flood,” a virtuoso guitar performance from Vaughan so legendary it was enshrined as a Guitar Hero song in the videogame franchises original release.
Other songs include a lighter rendition of Buddy Guy’s “Marry Had a Little Lamb,” the taboo “Dirty Pool” and the weeping ballad “Lenny.”
The track “Rude Mood,” which was nominated for Best Instrumental Rock Performance at the 1983 Grammy Awards, is a recording that guitar aficionados regularly sink their teeth into, as Vaughan spends four minutes jamming at breakneck speed.
The chops that SRV plays with are staggering, and really, how come he never gets tired?
A lot of Texas Flood is drummer Layton pacing and bassist Shannon plugging – really fast.
The fact they can keep the pace going is amazing in its own right, so finding anything to nitpick about isn’t really justified.
While Vaughan always had jaw-dropping skills, some of his later records ceded to an over- computerized production era. Texas Flood is Vaughan and Double Trouble at their most raw, a band transitioning from their high-energy club performance days into an established three-piece label outfit.

Questions or comment?
Contact Jack at
JCChandl3168@winona.edu