Stevie Ray Vaughan had already done his 10,000 hours by the time he released his debut LP, Texas Flood, the most important, and definitely most impactful, blues album of the last 40 years. There isn’t even a record that comes close; the only one that challenges its supremacy is Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Stevie’s second album.
He was the first blues guitarist to come of age in a post-rock world who seemed to absorb all its tendencies. This was blues music that could crush you like a Zeppelin live show, had more pyrotechnics than a WWF show in Madison Square Garden, had more air than the New York Dolls, Kiss and Motley Crue combined, and sounded like the ’80s.
