[.ca] Blues At Sunrise

From Amazon.com:
A decade after his tragic, untimely demise, electric-blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan has left behind a void that remains largely unfilled, despite a number of ballyhooed young pretenders. The guitarist's career was long troubled by personal demons, and this album chronicles those deceptively languorous, slow blues jams where Vaughan did battle with them. The howling, fervent tone he coaxed from his instrument was a product of lessons learned only in the School of Hard Knocks, accompanied by a voice--perhaps the most underrated of Vaughan's talents--that perfectly underscored his tortured gospel. But those who stereotyped Vaughan as a paint-by-numbers bluesman misunderstood the breadth of his lexicon; listen to "Chitlins con Carne" (from the guitarist's posthumous The Sky Is Crying album) here and you'll hear tinges of Wes Montgomery and other jazz inflections. Especially notable are three previously unreleased cuts: a live version of "Texas Flood," a 1985 Montreux Jazz Festival duet-jam of "Tin Pan Alley" with the late Johnny Copeland, and an '84 outtake of Elmore James's "The Sky Is Crying"--plus a 15-minute TV-taping workout with Albert King on the elder legend's "Blues at Sunrise." Raw, passionate, and uncompromising, this is SRV at his gut-wrenching best. --Jerry McCulley

Beware!:
There is no faulting these wondeful songs. The only problem is that this is not a "real" album - every cut has been released previously, except for two of the three live tracks, so "Blues At Sunrise" should really be presented as a compilation of Stevie Ray Vaughan's best slow blues numbers. And as such, it is really too short and too narrow to work as a career retrospective - the double-disc "The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble" is a much better place to start. Or you could just get Vaughan's original four studio albums, and the excellent "Live Alive" and "Live At Montreux"!

sloooow and easy:
If you haven't already OD'ed on Little Rave On's post-mortal Hendrixonish blues-on-Reds Texas riff noodling, here's some more. This time it's the slo-o-o-w stuff, the blues as blue can be, sort of a 'Stevie Ray Vaughan Plays Songs To Swing And Cry By' album. Course, it's all good, not a bad song in the lot, with a couple of originals, plenty of covers (Buddy Guy, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf), a few unreleased gems (a live workout of Tin Pan Alley, a video version of Texas Flood)and a blistering live fret duet with Albert King on the title track (from last year's In Session album). Good for an hour or so of prolonged and pained soul-healing blues with an overload of apropos opportunities for face-scrinching air guitar theatrics.

This compilation KICKS...:
If you are a blues fan, you should make "Blues at Sunrise" a part of your collection, without question. If you're not a blues fan but are interested in getting into the genre, make this album one of your first purchases. I had never owned a blues album before and then one day I saw this one and thought "I heard this SRV guy is incredible, I think I'll check it out." Since that day, I've been wearing the CD out (if and when it starts skipping, I'm definitely buying a new copy). I went from someone who had a vague interest in the blues to an all-out diehard blues fanatic. Be forever transformed and buy "Blues At Sunrise." You won't be disappointed.

Nothing new, but it's great anyway:
Well, I felt a little bit bad about not actually reviewing the album...you can find my original "review" below, where I make myself interesting by pointing out that this is not new material but rather a collection of previously released songs (with the exception of "The Sky Is Crying", an outtake from the "Couldn't Stand The Weather" sessions, but that one also appereared on the similarly titled album of outtakes issued after Vaughan's tragic death, although that was a different take). So if you're a tried and true SRV fan, you won't find anything new here...a live rendition of "Tin Pan Alley" doesn't really count. But if you only have, say, "Greatest Hits", this album would serve as a nice addition. It brings together ten slow blues tunes, many of which are among Stevie Ray Vaughan's finest recordings, like the soulful opener "Ain't Gonna Give Up On Love", a swaggering rendition of Guitar Slim's "The Things That I Used To Do", and the smouldering slow burner "Dirty Pool". The live "Tin Pan Alley" is top-notch as well. Lots of magnificent guitar playing, and an excellent, expressive vocal by Stevie Ray. His playing on "The Sky Is Crying" is equally superb, but if you've ever heard Elmore James' blistering original you'll probably find that Stevie Ray lacks a little bit of vocal power. If you haven't, you won't care one way or the other :o) Again, longtime fans will find nothing here which they don't already own, but more casual listeners should enjoy "Blues At Sunrise". The quality of the material assembled here is sky-high all the way through, and it is a great testament to Stevie Ray Vaughan's abilities on the guitar. Only reason I'm deducting a star is the fact that this is really just a re-packaging of already issued material. And the liner notes are kinda brief as well. But the music? Oh yeah, A+ from beginning to end.

Another Great CD for Stevie:
Another nice CD of his fabulous guitar work - a little more laid back on some tunes but the cut "Tin Pan Alley" burns with great low volume guitar with Johnny Copeland. Another great cut with Albert Lee - you can see how well Stevie could emulate that style, he even had Albert laughing when he was playing the Jimi Hendrix style licks. Sky is Crying and Texas Flood are great cut. As a die hard SRV fan I am glad I bought this CD. Better live cuts here and the quality of the sound was great

• Ain't Gone 'N' Give up on Love
• Leave My Girl Alone
• Tin Pan Alley (AKA Roughest Place in Town) \oLive\c\o#\c - Johnny Copeland, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
• Chitlins con Carne
• Things That I Used to Do
• Sky Is Crying \o#\c
• Texas Flood \oVideo Version\c
• May I Have a Talk With You
• Dirty Pool
• Blues at Sunrise \oLive\c