Roadhouse Blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Texas R&B [Paperback]

Hugh Gregory (Author), Stevie Ray Vaughan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

Texas is the honorary home of roadhouse music, and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan its uncrowned king. More than just a biography and musical exploration of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Roadhouse Blues tells the stories of the great Texan musicians that came before him and influenced him so deeply. It puts in context Stevie Ray's rise to fame - including the part played by his family, his friends, his heroes (like Jimi Hendrix), and his addiction to drink and drugs - as well as the lasting impact that his brief but turbulent life and work had on his contemporaries, and on later generations of blues fans and guitar players.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hugh Gregory is a music writer, journalist and critic. He is the author of The Real Rhythm And Blues, 1000 Great Guitarists, Soul Music A-Z, and Who's Who In Country Music. He is a regular contributor to music magazines such as Country Music International and Folk Roots, and has worked as contributing editor to important reference titles such as Brewer's Dictionary of 20th Century Music. Gregory lives in Italy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879307471
• ISBN-13: 978-0879307479
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,574,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misleading, December 23, 2007

By 

Ecologist_1 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roadhouse Blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Texas R&B (Paperback)

I don't see how SRV can be credited as an author of this book. The author listed in the book is Hugh Gregory. If you want to learn about SRV, who he was and where he came from, do not buy this book. The Patoski and Crawford SRV bio and the Keri Leigh SRV bio are much more informative and much better books. The Antone's Home of the Blues DVD would also do a lot to help someone understand SRV's music.

The author's view of music itself is diametrically opposed to that of SRV. Gregory gives us the well known SRV quote about how when he (SRV) plays from his gut he is OK, but when he plays from his head, that's where he gets into trouble. Gregory doesn't like this, and has to respond with a statement that playing from your gut limits a performer. Gregory lauds a number of Jazz fusion-like artists in this book as if they have something to do with SRV, reflecting an obvious bias towards whatthe author considers as "intellectual" forms of music.

My intellectual training is in science, where elegance, not sophistication, is the intellectual goal. Thus I suppose I go more for simple, powerful music (elegance by definition) over sophisticated powerless music, regardless of the intellectual wizardry the music may represent. Thus I am an SRV fan! ..and I don't think much of Gregory's writing! Any musical artist who cannot take the basic form and make something meaningful (to others) of it simply isn't any good, let alone in the league of someone like SRV, who could create masterpieces in both his original compositions and his covers of other works (like Little Wing, for example).

I should have seen the misleding nature of this book in it's title, Roadhouse Blues. The Blues of SRV is more accurately described as Juke Joint Blues, and comes from the Delta and Chicago. Many of the artists to whom SRV's music is associated with in this book have little to nothing to do with SRV, and probably reflect the author's own tastes. Many artists whose works were fundamental to the development of SRVs music are discussed very little, or not at all, like Hubert Sumlin and Jimmy Rogers. Gregory refers to the Muddy Waters classic "Honey Bee" as an SRV composition that he (SRV) "unearthed from the Mississippi mud."! Partially accurate, I guess!

Through understanding SRVs music, many of us came to understand Delta Blues and related art forms quite well, much to our enrichment, and so will anyone who listens to SRVs music. An enduring legacy for which I am very grateful! This book doesn't cover this aspect of SRV at all.

This book is an interesting read for me as an example of how the authors of history distort history to suit their own biases. I suspect that this author knew next to nothing of SRV prior to authoring this book. His analysis of the 1982 Montreaux conceret really shows his lack of knowledge of SRV, where Gregory claims the crowd started out booing, but really got into SRV during the concert, flies in the face of the evidence on the DVD of the event, where the booing increases as the concert goes on, and they are loudly booed at the end.

This book reads much like a textbook, and could be a Guiness Book of World Records candidate for names dropped per unit of prose. In any event, one thing for certain, this book will do next to nothing to educate you on who SRV was and where he and his music came from.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent biography & quick delivery, February 28, 2010

By 

Don Hester "Don, the letter lover" (Orange County, CA.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Roadhouse Blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Texas R&B (Paperback)

Biography of one of the stellar guitarists of modern western music. The book was almost untouched and was delivered very quickly. Excellent transaction.