Throwback Thursday: SRV & Albert King
Usually when we go to Throwback Thursday, we head back like ten or fifteen years to albums that the Fresh Scouts gang enjoyed in high school or college. But the album we’re revisiting this week goes all the way back to the year after I was born. Tank wasn’t even a glimmer in his father’s eye in 1983, but that’s the year Albert King joined up with Stevie Ray Vaughan to record one of the hottest blues albums of all time.
As far as anyone knows, it’s the only recording in existence that features the great Stevie with his idol, Albert King. The story goes that King actually didn’t want to play the gig for a Canadian television show called “In Session” because he had no idea who Stevie Ray Vaughan was. “Texas Flood” has just been released earlier in the year, and Vaughan had been gaining steam, so you’d think King would’ve known who he was.
Turns out, he did. He just knew him by another name.
That name was “Little Stevie,” a moniker King gave Vaughan at a show in Texas several years before when SRV was just getting his start. Once Al realized who was making the request to play, he made it happen. The rest is 26-year-old history.
From the introduction of the record to the last second of the last track, this is raw blues at its finest, but part of what makes the album so incredible is Vaughan’s need to show off for his all-time favorite guitarist. This results in some of the most ridiculous guitar playing you’ll ever hear. Two tracks—“Stormy Monday” and “Blues at Sunrise”—feature Vaughan snapping off on the git-fiddle like some sort of savant having a seizure of genius on his instrument. It’s like listening to a waterfall spill down the bridge of an electric guitar.
It’s a damn shame both guys are dead now, but at least we have this album to remember them by. The best part? There’s lots of back-and-forth banter on the record that shows the personality of the guys. Listening to King laugh his brilliantly soulful belly laugh makes everything feel so authentic. Seriously, check out “Blues at Sunrise” and get ready to shake your head in amazement.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was the man. What else can I do to persuade you to buy the disc other than to tell you he’s prominently featured?
