Greatest Hits Herndon VA

Greatest Hits

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

Epic Records, 1995

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/20/1999

Was Stevie Ray Vaughan the greatest blues guitarist who everlived?

The question is impossible to answer, in part because Vaughan,surely the finest blues guitarist of the 1980s, died in an August1990 helicopter crash. He was 35 then, at the height of his skills-- and a young pup by the standards of the blues. How much bettermight he have become? You might as well ask how high the skyis.

The die-hard blues fan probably needs all of Vaughan's albums.His skill as an interpreter of anything from traditional electricblues to the work of his idol, Jimi Hendrix, is incredible to hear.But for the new fan, Greatest Hits makes an excellent starting point.

The one -- and only -- fault I can find with this album issequencing. Starting off with the familiar -- but in Vaughan'shands, utterly transformed -- "Taxman" is bound to lead the casuallistener astray in terms of expectations. The song is the onlycover of a mainstream pop-rock song on the whole album, andVaughan's rumbly barroom-shouter vocals here are a far cry fromGeorge Harrison's sweet tenor.