Stevie Ray Vaughan was born in Dallas Texas on October 3, 1954 and is remembered by many fans for his awe inspiring speedy fingers. Vaughan started playing guitar by ear when he was only eight years old. He never learned how to read music, but by the time he was thirteen he was already playing the club scene where he had the chance to meet many of the blues guitarists he admired.
Stevie loved to play the blues and his skill began to attract the attention of such notable artists as Johnny Winter, David Bowie and Jackson Browne. His wife claimed that he used to play guitar in his sleep with “his fret hand and pickin’ hand moving hard and fast…” He used to dream that Jimi Hendrix was teaching him how to play “secret chord changes”. The only trouble was, he couldn’t remember the lessons after he woke up!
He soon realized that he would need to figure things out for himself, and that he did. He was ranked #7 in the Rolling Stone magazine list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
on August 26, 1990, after his band finished playing a show with Robert Cray and Eric Clapton, Vaughan boarded a helicopter headed for Chicago. It crashed into a ski slope only 0.6 miles from where the concert had taken place. Stevie Ray Vaughan, along with the pilot and three other members of Clapton’s crew, were killed.
In 1991 a compilation album called The Sky Is Crying was released. It spans most of Stevie’s performing career and features ten tracks originally recorded between 1984 and 1989. Below is a free tab file of Stevies song by the same title, if you’d like to give it a try.
Stevie was the type of guitarist who played with all his his heart. He once said: “that’s what the music was for… it was for love.”
Until next time…
Keep practicing!
guitarcoach
