I first heard of Stevie Ray Vaughan when I was 12 or 13. By then, I had been taking guitar lessons for a few years and one of the requests I had for my teacher was to not only show me how to play the six string, but tell me about the people who could do it the best. SRV was at the top of that list.
This song is probably one of my favorites of his. Sure, SRV is best known for his blisteringly fast and intricate guitar solos, but he was also an incredible all-around blues man. This song was released about a year after Stevie's death in 1990 on a compilation of un-released studio tracks called "The Sky Is Crying". This song is by far the most powerful. Featuring just Stevie and an acoustic guitar, it's a song that people believe is about his past drug & alcohol addiction and his reflections on it.
To me, Stevie Ray Vaughan wasn't just a guitarist or a musician. He was the blues guitarist. A lot of people disagree with me, citing musicians like B.B. King, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, etc. and I do partially agree with them, those men are incredible. But Stevie didn't play the blues, he was the blues. His life was littered with pain and anguish, from both him and his surroundings... all the way to the tragic circumstances of his death.
Listen to this song tonight, by yourself. Very few songs out there can make your heart hurt the way this one does.
