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One by One, the musicains climb on stage and take their places: B.B. king, Eric Clapton, Buddy guy, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, Dr, john and Art Neville.Vaughan, standing at center stage, launches into "Six Strings Down," A moving tribute to his late brother, Stevie Ray, whose meemory has drawn this group together.The guitarists fall in, each finding a corner of the song to call their own; King plays fills to Clapton's solo, Cray fires off economical, chiming counterpoint to Raitt's stinging slide, and Guy unleashes piercing single-notes bends to answer Vaughan, who's finger-picking the main theme on hisbattered Strat.Suddenly, the song blasts into the stratoshpere, a gorgeous mosiac of clairon guitar tones. And when Vaughan shuts his eyes and sings,"Alpine Valley, middle of the night, six strings down on a heaven bound flight," the music levitates to such degree that for a lingering instant, no one would be surprised to see Stevie Ray Vaughan stride on stage, black hat on head.
This was a trancendent moment in a remarkable night, May 11, 1995, when the blues royalty gathered on a Austin, Texas, soundstage to remember Stevie Ray Vaughan, the best way they know how, with their voices and their fingers> It is a methiod od communication with which Stevie Ray Vaughanwas well aquanted.
"Stevie spoke through his guitar," says Jimmie Vaughan."It was his voice and much more.It was his instrument of liberation, his maguc sword.The music meant everything to him, so there was only one way of paying tribute- by making the music pure and natural."
And so they did.The proof is in your hands.
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