Stevie Ray Vaughan and CSNY historic recordings now on vinyl. Rev. Keith A, Gordon and Bill Glahn take a look.

 

[Back in the day (1993-2000) when Live! Music Review was doing print editions, bootleg recordings were almost exclusively released on compact disc. With a resurgence of interest in vinyl, that is changing. Being vinyl junkies, this excites us tremendously. However, as a non-profit fan venture on the Internet, we are limited to our meager incomes and the willingness of manufacturers to supply review copies that will determine how much we can cover. "Back in the day," review copies arrived in the mail daily. While L!MR never made even a pittance, the expectation of sample goods at least kept quality writers interested in writing. Yeah, times have indeed changed in more ways than one. Review samples may be sent to the address in the header. In the meantime, we will soldier on. (Bill Glahn)] 

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN: Live In Albuquerque & In Denver

(Radio Looploop Records U.K.)

[review by Rev. Keith A. Gordon]

VENUE(S): Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, New Mexico; November 28th, 1989 and McNichols Arena, Denver, Colorado; November 29th, 1989.

SOUND QUALITY: Decent, but not great FM broadcasts, possibly sourced from second or third-generation copies. Somewhat hollow sound, but with nice sonic definition, and little distortion even when played at higher volumes (turn it up!). Both shows originally recorded for Westwood One Radio Networks’ Superstar Concert Series and originally broadcast the week of April 24th, 1993.  

COVER: Simple, but effective – a cardboard pocket housing two nicely-thick slabs o’ black vinyl in plain white paper sleeves. Sepia-toned photo of Stevie Ray on the front cover, a color “action” photo of the guitarist on the back cover with no liner notes, just the venue info and track listing.  

TRACKLIST: (Albuquerque, Side A) The House Is A Rockin’ • Tightrope • Look At Little Sister • Let Me Love You Baby (Albuquerque, Side B) Texas Flood • Leave My Little Girl Alone • Wall of Denial (Denver, Side C) Cold Shot • Life Without You (Denver, Side D) Superstition • Crossfire • Voodoo Chile

COMMENTS: By the early 1980s, blues music had largely disappeared from the world of rock ‘n’ roll. Hard rock and new wavish pop dominated the Billboard charts in 1982, with artists like AC/DC, the Go-Go’s, Asia, Fleetwood Mac, and Paul McCartney scoring chart-topping albums that year. Things would begin to change just a year later, however, with talented fret-burners Stevie Ray Vaughan (Texas Flood) and Robert Cray (Bad Influence) releasing ground-breaking and influential albums whose impact can still be felt on the blues and rock genres. Whereas Cray would hit his stride a couple years later with the astounding Strong Persuader album, and he continues to record and perform to this day, Stevie Ray’s career was a supernova that exploded with his tragic death in August 1990. Vaughan recorded only four solo studio albums during his too-short career, as well as one disc with his brother Jimmie (also a gifted guitarist), but his legacy has been kept alive by numerous live album releases, legit and otherwise, that serve as a permanent record of the guitarist’s electrifying on-stage persona.

The two performances documented by Live In Albuquerque & In Denver draw their set lists primarily from Vaughan’s 1989 album In Step, released in June of that year, and from 1985’s Soul To Soul album. In Step was notable because it marked the guitarist’s first recording made after his newfound sobriety, Vaughan shedding himself of the drug and alcohol abuse that plagued his career from the beginning. In Step offered fans a mix of classic blues covers by legends like Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, and Howlin’ Wolf alongside original songs, many of them co-written with friend and fellow Texas roots-rocker Doyle Bramhall. These two performances took place on subsequent nights, mid-week, in November 1989, as part of the third leg of the In Step tour.  

The guitarist is backed on both night’s performances by his longtime Double Trouble band, comprised of bassist Tommy Shannon, drummer Chris Layton, and keyboardist Reese Wynans. The Tuesday night show in Albuquerque kicks off with the roadhouse favorite, “The House Is A Rockin’,” which is the perfect showcase for Vaughan’s unique guitar pyrotechnics and his band’s immense musical chemistry. These guys have been playing together so long by this point that little flourishes, like Wynans’ underlying honky-tonk piano riffing, fly under the radar. The song itself swings, a hybrid of sorts of West Coast jump blues and Asleep At the Wheel’s jazzy Texas twang. “Tightrope” is a horse of a different color, a muscular blues-rock construct that sports a longer and more incendiary guitar solo, Vaughan flying high above Shannon’s rock-solid bass rhythms and Layton’s busy hands on the skins.

In Step’s “Let Me Love You Baby” is a cover of a classic Willie Dixon tune, but the legendary Chicago blues singer, musician, and producer never rocked the song like SRV and crew. With Stevie Ray’s guitar set on ‘blowtorch’ and the band boogieing up a storm, it’s an engaging performance that displays Vaughan’s rediscovered joy in playing. The title track from SRV’s 1983 debut LP, “Texas Flood” has always delivered an explosive live experience, and it’s no different here. SRV steps into a greasy, larger-than-life guitar lick and strangles that mutha to within an inch of its life as Double Trouble shuffles behind, Vaughan’s tortured vocals matched only by his anguished guitar-mangling and Layton’s relentless banging of the cans. 

Buddy Guy’s “Leave My Girl Alone” (mistakenly listed as “Little Girl” on the sleeve) is a provided a smoky Chicago blues arrangement, with Vaughan’s emotional vocals paired with his crying fretwork, and an ambient, shuffling, late-night backing soundtrack. It’s a nice performance that shows that SRV could be nuanced with his playing, and his guitar tone on the track is mesmerizing. The Albuquerque set closes out with “Wall of Denial,” another In Step track, on which SRV shows off his dexterity with a fleet-fingered and downright confusing guitar intro that would twist a lesser-player’s fingers into knots. The song’s another rocker, with a touch of Chi-town in the grooves, and a slingshot rhythm accented by Wynans’ funky keyboard licks. 

The following night the band was in Denver, and there’s no overlap with the Albuquerque concert’s set, which is why they’re often paired together. SRV starts the party with the fan-fave “Cold Shot,” a rowdy cover of a tune by Stevie Ray’s friend, Texas bluesman W.C. Clark. Stretched out to half-again its album length, the performance is given room to breathe with some white-hot six-string playing juxtaposed against sometimes minimal backing instrumentation and other times crashing drumbeats and heavy bass lines. “Life Without You” is one of Stevie Ray’s underrated original tunes, kinda bluesy, kinda soulful, what might have been called “Southern Rock” a decade earlier. The performance is top-notch, with Jimi-tinted fretwork complimented by SRV’s most effective R&B vocal drawl, the song stretched out with a gorgeous instrumental jam.

The band’s riotous cover of Stevie Wonder’s wonderful “Superstition” had yet to be recorded in the studio, but the song made frequent appearances on stage, and SRV even performed the song earlier that year with Wonder himself for the MTV special Stevie Wonder: Characters. It’s provided a powerful performance here, just under five minutes but the lightning-bolt guitar alone is enough to singe yer eyebrows and ear hairs down to the root. In Step’s “Crossfire” is similarly incendiary, a dangerously-flammable performance that stops just short of ignition with plenty of stinging guitar and a smothering backing sonic drone. The album-ending cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” is a reverent homage to the master, SRV tearing at the strings like a hungry bird-of-prey while the band’s thunderous din provides a suitable backdrop for Vaughan’s relentless axe assault.    

According to the online SRV Archive (https://srvarchive.com), these two performances have been previously released on bootleg CDs as Brotherly Love, Colorado & New Mexico, and Crossfire, among other titles. The shows have also been released on vinyl as “copyright gap” recordings several times over recent years, but few of these releases offer the full shows from either venue (a non-album song from each performance is usually dropped). Altogether, the Albuquerque show runs roughly 35 minutes in length, while the Denver show clocks in around 39 minutes and change, so you get a CD’s fill of live music for a double-LP price. Is it worth it? Sure, as I’ve seen this current set go for as little as $30 on eBay, which isn’t too steep a price for a double-album these days. Although both shows are truncated from their original length, they’re each lively, rollicking affairs that capture a scary-as-hell blues outfit that still had fire in its belly and an eye on future conquests. Grade: B+

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Roosevelt Raceway, Westbury, September 1974 (Wax Radio WLVR 029, limited edition of 500)

[review by Bill Glahn]

Venue: Roosevelt Raceway, September 8, 1974, End of Summer Festival

Tracklist: (side A) Love The One You’re With/ Wooden Ships/ Immigration Man/ Helpless (side B) Military Madness/ Johnny’s Garden/ Walk On/ Almost Cut My Hair (side C) Teach Your Children/ Only Love Can Break Your Heart/ Lee Shore/ Time After Time (side D) Southbound Train/ Another Sleep Song/ Our House/ Hawaiian Sunrise

Sound Quality: Excellent FM broadcast from an off-air master, but with a couple of caveats. The live mix wasn’t the greatest to begin with and there are times when the backing vocals overwhelm the lead singing. Also, there are one-second gaps of digital silence between each song, something you might have came across in the early days of CD-R burning, but inexcusable in the 21st Century.

Cover: Simple single pocket jacket with little in the way of information beyond the title on the front and the track list on the back. Nice, but unaccredited stage photos used, color on front, black & white on back. The photo credit should probably go to Joel Bernstein, the official tour photographer.

Review: After two multi-platinum albums, Crosby Stills, Nash, (and Young) went their separate ways and recorded only solo, duo (Crosby-Nash), and outside band projects (Stills’ Manassas, Crosby’s brief sojorn with a reformed Byrds), well received at first, but showing rapidly diminishing returns by 1974. Without the formidable union of the quartet, neither albums nor tours were selling very well. Manager Elliot Roberts proposed a tour of large stadiums and arenas to the band. They accepted and Bill Graham, who had orchestrated Bob Dylan’s return to the stage early in the year, was hired on as tour director. Rehearsals began in May. Against group objections, Atlantic Records released So Far, a hits package culled from the two studio albums and a non-lp single. Nash, especially vocal, called that “absurd.” The album went to number 1 in the charts. 

Many of the shows on the tour were recorded, ostensibly for Neil Young’s unrealized “Human Highway” project (a film was released in selected theaters in 1982, a subsequent DVD in 1995, but never as an album of music), possibly for a follow-up to 4-Way Street, the 1971 live double album by the quartet. But apparently the band felt that two double live albums for a band that had only recorded 22 tracks in the studio was just as ludicrous as a greatest hits compilation. The recordings would sit in a vault until the 2014 box set, 1974. 1974 was a compilation of tracks that sought to assemble some semblance of the group’s marathon shows.

And marathon they were. The tour was primarily used as a tool to generate much needed cash into their failing fortunes. Even Neil Young’s Time Fades Away had been a commercial flop. The setlist was used to generate some renewed interest in their solo careers, with the bulk made up of solo material, both released and unreleased. Both proved to be failures (possibly Neil Young, the exception). The legendary excess of the tour - from the extravagance of using Joni Mitchell’s So Far cover design for dinnerware at catered backstage feasts - to the huge cost of taking along a recording crew and various extras including a tour photographer – not to mention vast amounts of cocaine – left very little in the till at tours end. Crosby, Stills & Nash would be playing small clubs and theaters as solo acts by the ‘80s, only generating public interest by re-grouping for albums and future tours. Neil Young, who remained a critic’s darling and with the occasional radio hits, would fair better.

Of the recordings used for 1974, none came from this show, the final one in North America. One more show, a week later, at London’s Wembly Stadium would follow, marking the end of the tour.

Part of a “Summer’s End” festival put on at a racetrack, at least the first set was broadcast and it became fodder for bootleg and protection gap specialists in the CD era. For vinyl enthusiasts, this set works to fill a gap in the ol’ record collection. The one-second gaps between the songs, suggesting a CD-R source, don’t really interfere, as the gaps come at the cessation of crowd applause, rendering them unnoticeable to all but the most anal of listeners.

Things start off with a fast paced take on Stills’ hit, “Love The One You’re With,” from his debut solo album. Stills would never see that level of solo success again. This rendition is both too fast and sloppy. Percussionist Joe Lala and drummer Tim Drummond are completely out of sync. You’d expect more at this late date in the tour. What “Love The One Your With” does forecast is that both Young and Stills would be using a fatter and fuzzier tone than the guitar sound on the studio recordings. Perhaps no sound check for the festival? There are other indications in the performance that indicate the monitors weren’t performing their intended purpose. Side A closes out with “Helpless,” which starts off reasonably well. But following a classic bit of Young fuzz-stutter guitar, a falsetto vocal emerges from the background to overwhelm Neil’s lead vocal. It’s most likely Crosby singing too closely to an already very hot mic. That’s why they have monitors! 

In the best of cases, the guitar tones transform the performances here into an alternate dimension. “Military Madness,” an up-tempo folk tune in the hands of Crosby and Nash, borders on garage boogie when Young and Stills get going. A win for the rockers in the audience. An inspired take of “Almost Cut My Hair” concludes the electric portion of the first set. Somewhere along the way, Lala and Drummond have found rhythmic cohesion, making the transition from the first verses to a faster tempo jam and back for the final verse in perfect unison. The version here is easily the equivalent of the best takes you’ll hear anywhere else and a highlight of Roosevelt Raceway. On to the second disc…

For the second half of the first set, the band sits down and grabs the acoustic instruments. The harmony vocals are pleasant this time around and emit some genuinely beautiful moments. The folkies in the audience will surely be satisfied. Particularly notable are gorgeous renditions of “Only Love  Can Break Your Heart” (the piano is infectious!), “Lee Shore,” and “Our House.” Despite a solid vocal from Crosby, the unreleased “Time after Time” slows things to a crawl. It would eventually emerge in 1976 on the Crosby & Nash release, Whistling Down The Wind. Graham Nash’s “Another Sleep Song” is as boring as it was on his album, Wild Tales, released earlier that year to a ho-hum response from critics and a non-response from the public. The set closes with a Neil Young oddity, “Hawaiian Sunrise,” which the normally prolific Young kept in the vaults until the 2014 release of 1974. Interesting but not essential.

In conclusion, this Wax Radio release is of minimal interest to casual fans, but borders on essential for the hard-core. For those with a vinyl fetish (raising my hand!) it is preferable to the bootleg CD releases that all suffer from the same flaws. (B)