OK… I’ve always enjoyed listening to Stevie Ray.
I own exactly - 0 - of his CD’s.
what are some ‘must haves’ of this talented musician’s catalog?
Here’s the list of albums that I consider essential (in chronological order, not necessarily order of preference):
Texas Flood
Couldn’t Stand The Weather
Soul To Soul
The Sky Is Crying
In Step is really good too. Damn, I guess pretty much everything he’s done is essential. But any of the ones above are a good start. If it helps, the first song of his I ever heard was “Look At Little Sister” from Soul To Soul.
I was fortunate enough to see him play an outdoor show in Santa Fe, NM a year or two before he died. It was incredible. No opening band, no fancy lighting, no stage show. Just him, his guitar, and Double Trouble. WOW.
Seriously smokin SRV.
All - although you can skip the compilations.
Sadly, there aren’t really all that many.
get the concert video, Live From Austin.
Everything SRV has made is worth having. However, if you’re going to invest in a video, may I suggest Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at the El Mocambo? If nothing else, the renditions of “Texas Flood” (some consider it his best version ever) and of “Lenny” will make it more than worth your while.
Oh, and I was also fortunate enough to have seen him twice in concert. Once, at La Ronde, an amusement park near Montreal, and another time, when he was the opening act for Robert Plant. He was a tough act to follow.
I am a big fan and would have to agree - all 4 studio albums plus the poshumously released The Sky is Crying are all worthwhile. Soul to Soul (and Live Alive) were both done at the height of his drug use, so are generally considered less well put together, but Soul to Soul still has some great stuff on it.
I have some friends who only own his greatest hits disc (actually, I think there are two volumes now), but his stuff is of uniformly high quality. You’d have to ask yourself what you are looking for - a good cross section, or to truly try to understand the material…