Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble- Couldn’t Stand the Weather 40th- Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, Buddy Guy, SRV

Second albums, such as Couldn’t Stand the Weather forty years ago by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, are particularly fraught with a “no win” handicap. Almost without exception, the performer has had their whole lifetime up to that point to gather their best material on the debut, and then as little as a year to write and record another entire album, while simultaneously touring constantly to promote the first one. And if you are fortunate to gain favorable attention on your first effort, as Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble did on Texas Flood, then half of the critics will demand more of the same on any followup, while another equally-sized and very vocal bunch will pan you for “not evolving enough”. On Couldn’t Stand the Weather in May 1984, Stevie Ray Vaughan did both.

There are masterful blues standards by Guitar Slim, Jimi Hendrix (“Voodoo Chile”), Hound Dog Taylor, Hank Ballard, and Elmore James, butt-rockin’ originals including “Empty Arms”, and some bonus track chestnuts, as well. Double Trouble’s Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon are joined by blues legend Buddy Guy and my rare archival 1984 interview with the late Stevie Ray Vaughan here In the Studio for the fortieth anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble’s Couldn’t Stand the Weather. -Redbeard