Solos, Sessions and Encores

Artist - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Friends
Album - Solos, Sessions and Encores
Label - SonyBMG

Stevie Ray Vaughan, like Hendrix before him, was an itinerant guitar slinger for hire alongside his formidable solo work.

As one of the best guitar players of he past 40 years, his untimely death is still casting a long shadow.

This disc neatly captures the best of his extra-curricular work, with front men including David Bowie, Dick Dale, AC Reed, Johnny Copeland, Jeff Beck, Lonnie Mack, Albert King and BB King.

The choice of Let's Dance instead of Bowie's China Girl is a shame, but all if forgiven when you hear the incendiary Pipeline, Albert's Shuffle, or Bonnie Raitt's addition to Vaughan's own Texas Flood.

In an age when Guitar Hero is bringing a lot of youngsters to electric guitar, there is hopefully some room for the kind of touch, the kind of passionate power that SRV brought to the instrument.

If so, this album is also a completist's disc - some tracks characterise the kind of posthumous release that Hendrix fans have become used to - but it only takes a few seconds of his magic to make any album worth its purchase.

Rating 7/10
Mike Rea

9:34am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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