Saw SRV five times, beginning in 1983. First time hearing Voodoo Chile live, I was floored. It was a song I never would have thought anyone would attempt to cover - but there he was, just killing it. Little Wing was also an amazing tour de force live.
Got into the tape trading (which evolved into CD trading) scene in the early days online with the SRV message board. That was a thriving community and some absolutely wonderful shows being traded. Years later some bits and pieces were released in his box set and other releases by Sony…Still have a somewhat thorough collection of bootleg releases, primarily in my interest which was the '79-'84 years.
His early music with Lou Ann Barton is pretty enjoyable. Her vocals complemented his very early style well. Seems like his later, more Hendrix-esque years would not have worked well with her but remain my favorite era of his musical evolution.
I always liked SRV. He seemed to know which notes to leave out and his band was a cohesive extension of each other. I’m not musically inclined so there’s probably a more eloquent way of saying that.
I saw him in a smallish venue in Boston in the late 1980s. Went with my boyfriend. I wasn’t a huge fan, but it was a great show.
[quote=“Loach, post:16, topic:712911”]
All the other times he was amazing. We took a road trip from Maryland to Massachusetts to see him while I was in college. Me and my buddy dropped our friends off out front because we were late and went to look for a parking spot. We parked around back and as we were walking up Stevie and the band came out of the bus. We ran up to him and we both got autographs. He literally was dragged into the venue by his band because he wanted to give time to everyone. He could have easily blown all of us off but he didn’t. /QUOTE]
I have heard that SRV used 13 gauge strings, i.e. 0.013" high E string, and that he’d frequently swap necks on his axes because the frets would wear down so much. True? I don’t know. He must have had incredibly strong hands. It would be brutal to play blues on those heavy strings.
As a guitarist myself, I never could play a good Texas shuffle rhythm. Whenever I hear ‘Pride and Joy’, I think to myself “how does he do that?” SRV was the master at Texas shuffle. This does sound like it could be 2 or 3 guitars.
I was still a kid when SRV died so I never saw him perform.