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Rating: Quantifying precisely the enormous impact of Stevie Ray Vaughan on a world in crisis and considered definitively outdated like blues is impossible, just as it's impossible to describe the myth of this man in the few lines of this review, but the topic is this dazzling debut album.
In 1982, after years of hard work, this 28-year-old Texan guitarist was noticed by a certain Mick Jagger who in turn brought him to the attention of producer Jerry Wexler. Thus, our artist landed at the prestigious Montreux Festival, where an impressed and astonished David Bowie noticed him and asked him to participate in the sessions for his new album "Let's Dance" and the subsequent tour, but he declined to go on the road to focus on his career as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble and the creation of the first album of this project.
And we finally arrive at the album itself, this amazing "Texas Flood," musically presents a skilful blend of all the styles and influences of the electric blues greats like B.B. King, Freddy King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters but also and especially Jimi Hendrix (who would become the main influence for live performances) and Albert King. Highly recommended is the incredible testimony "In Session" to better understand the enormous influence of the great bluesman on Stevie Ray's sound.
Ready, set, go, and you're struck in every sense by "Love Struck Baby," an energetic rock blues just 2 minutes and 19 seconds long, it would instantly become a classic of his repertoire. We arrive at what is in all probability his most famous track, the striking "Pride And Joy," a dazzling 4 minutes laced with a cheerful and carefree love lyric.
In third place on the tracklist is what, if the previous track is the most famous, is the second in popularity, the longest on the album at 5 minutes and 21 seconds, the wonderful "Texas Flood," a reinterpretation of an old blues from '58 by Larry Davis, a long and intense cover that leaves a significant mark. "Tell Me," another cover, this time of the legendary Howlin' Wolf, recalls the sounds of the first two tracks, a cheerful and fast electric blues of 2 minutes and 48 seconds, another great piece.
After such a start, you expect a drop, but on the contrary, an exhilarating instrumental moment comes along almost 8 minutes long with "Testify" and "Rude Mood," a moment when the Texan can freely unleash and indulge his talent, especially live. It's time for another cover, the last of the album, the great "Mary Had A Little Lamb" by Buddy Guy, another electrifying rock blues of 2 exciting minutes and 46 seconds.
At this point, the pace slows down and the slower pieces arrive, but they are no less worthy, rather, "Dirty Pool" is, in the writer's opinion, the most beautiful and underrated track of the album and one of the best in the entire Texan's repertoire, an enveloping, dark, deep, and intriguing song, the emotional peak of the album.
The last two tracks start with "I'm Cryin'," almost a "Pride And Joy" but slower, which in the end, while not disappointing, turns out to be the weakest track, and we close with the touching "Lenny" dedicated to the guitarist's wife, a long instrumental of 5 minutes that live stretches even to 10, perhaps too long but a fitting end to this wonderful debut album, an astonishing album, cheerful and lively but also deep and intense, fast, smooth, enjoyable, never boring and never heavy, and revolutionary in its way of mixing styles and influences to create an original sound that has influenced generations, just ask the likes of John Mayer and Joe Bonamassa, and that led him to duet with all his idols: B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Dick Dale, etc.
An album that laid the foundations for an unstoppable rise interrupted only by a terrible fate that took him from us at 36 years old in the now distant 1990, in a helicopter crash after a concert, only such an accident could interrupt the path of one of the greatest of all time, who quickly became a legend, just in time to debut with an album, this one.
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