The Soul to Soul Tour was a concert tour through North America, Europe and Australasia, undertaken by American blues rock band Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble from 1985 through 1986. At the beginning of the tour, the band had finished recording their album Soul to Soul. Their commercial and critical acclaim had been demonstrated during the Couldn't Stand the Weather Tour in 1984, when they had played before a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall. Longing for opportunities to expand the group's lineup, Vaughan and Double Trouble hired keyboardist Reese Wynans during the Soul to Soul recording sessions in Dallas, Texas. Throughout the tour, the band's success was confirmed as their performances consistently amazed and gratified their audiences.
The first leg of the tour's itinerary took the band to the United States and then on to Europe, where they performed for nearly two weeks. They then returned to North America where during a span of eight months, they alternated visits between the US and Canada, before the fourth leg took the group to Australasia. After two additional North American legs, the band made a second trip to Europe, where the schedule of performances was interrupted after Vaughan suffered a mental breakdown, although he continued to perform for two more shows. The final leg in Europe incorporated stops in seven countries, before the group's return to the US in October 1986.
Although the tour elicited a variety of reactions from music critics, it was generally well-received. Among several sold-out shows, the Farm Aid concert sold over 40,000 tickets. The band's 1986 live album, Live Alive, was recorded during select shows of the tour, and many of its songs were played in 1986 through 1988. The length of the Soul to Soul Tour, then Vaughan and Double Trouble's longest, exhausted the band as the final leg unfolded. However, the extended break at the tour's conclusion enabled both Vaughan and bassist Tommy Shannon to enter treatment for drug and alcohol addictions and successfully achieve sobriety. In Vaughan's case, this lifestyle would continue through further tours in the following four years, prior to his death in a helicopter accident in August 1990.
Video Soul to Soul Tour
Background
Stevie Ray Vaughan is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of blues music, and one of the most important musicians in the revival of blues in the 1980s. Allmusic describes him as "a rocking powerhouse of a guitarist who gave blues a burst of momentum in the '80s, with influence still felt long after his tragic death." Despite a mainstream career that spanned only seven years, Vaughan eventually became recognized among musicians as the future standard for success and promise in blues. Biographer Craig Hopkins explains that Vaughan's talent was the result of the youth culture in the 1960s: "the popularity of playing instruments as a form of teen entertainment, the prevalence of teen dances, the success of his older brother, the practicality of playing guitar as an outlet for a shy boy and the singular, intense focus on the guitar all contributed to create one of the best electric guitar players of all time."
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Vaughan began playing guitar at the age of seven, inspired by his older brother Jimmie Vaughan. He was an apt pupil, no less quick to learn than his brother, and was playing the guitar with striking virtuosity by the time he was fourteen. In 1971, he dropped out of high school and moved to Austin the following year. Soon afterward, he began playing gigs on the nightclub circuit, earning a spot in Marc Benno's band, the Nightcrawlers, and later with Denny Freeman in the Cobras, with whom he continued to work through late 1977. He then formed his own group, Double Trouble, before performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in mid-July 1982 and being discovered by John Hammond, who in turn interested Epic Records with signing them to a recording contract. Within a year, they achieved international fame after the release of their debut album Texas Flood, and in 1984 their second album, Couldn't Stand the Weather, along with the supporting tour, brought them to further commercial and critical success; the album quickly outpaced the sales of Texas Flood.
In October 1984, Vaughan and Double Trouble headlined a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City. For the second half of the concert, he added guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, keyboardist Dr. John, drummer George Rains, and the Roomful of Blues horn section. The ensemble rehearsed for less than two weeks before the performance, and according to biographers Joe Nick Patoski and Bill Crawford, the big band concept never entirely took form. However, Vaughan was determined to deviate from the group's power trio format: "We won't be limited to just the trio, although that doesn't mean we'll stop doing the trio. I'm planning on doing that too. I ain't gonna stay in one place. If I do, I'm stupid." As recording began for the band's third studio album, Soul to Soul, Vaughan found it increasingly difficult to be able to play rhythm guitar parts and sing at the same time, and was longing to add another dimension to the band. They hired keyboardist Reese Wynans to record on the album in April 1985; he joined the band soon thereafter.
Maps Soul to Soul Tour
Tour itinerary
Early legs (June-July 1985)
The tour's beginning, on June 7, 1985, took place at Grant Park in Chicago, where Vaughan and Double Trouble performed at the city's second annual blues festival. In Morrison, Colorado, on June 19, the band played before an audience of nearly 9,000 people at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, earning a gross revenue of over $140,000 for the performance. The next stop was Del Mar, California, where they performed at the city's annual fair. The group then moved on to Hampton, Virginia and New York City, the latter of which was a tribute concert for Hammond.
The next extended stop was in Europe. For nearly two weeks, Vaughan and Double Trouble gave ten concerts in the region. Beginning in Hamburg, the band traveled to seven countries, where several jazz festival concerts were given. Among those present at one of these was the President of Finland Mauno Koivisto, who attended the group's outdoor performance at Pori Jazz. An article from the concert stated that the president's visit to the festival was "a valuable acknowledgement for the work of two decades", alluding to the festival's conception in 1966. Additionally, "for the organizers it was a sweeter event when it completely surprised the city's management."
The band proceeded to France, Netherlands and Italy. In France they arrived in Vienne, where a performance was given at the Antique Theater. They proceeded into Den Haag, where they played at the North Sea Jazz Festival, on July 13. After a delayed appearance in Perugia, Vaughan and Double Trouble gave a concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 15. Before the encores began, Vaughan said to the audience, "Three years ago tomorrow. First time we ever got booed, first time we won a Grammy," which were allusions to the band's negative reception during their first performance in 1982, and a resulting Grammy Award for a live selection from a recording of the show.
North America (July-December 1985)
On July 25, 1985 Vaughan and Double Trouble moved on to Canada for a week during which, beginning in Quebec City, they were booked to open for Dire Straits. However, Vaughan reportedly provoked a negative reception from local critics. One of them who took particular note of the guitarist's performance was Toronto Star writer Christopher Hume, whose review critiqued Vaughan's skills in unfavorable terms: "Dressed like a cotton-candy cowboy, Vaughan hauled out every cheap trick in the guitar hero's handbook." The Varsity?s own assessment, written a few days later, was similarly disapproving: "The mix was utterly atrocious, and so unnecessarily loud, I feared Vaughan was simply boring and unoriginal." On July 31 the band returned to the US for two-and-a-half weeks, where they performed at the Meadow Brook Music Festival in Rochester Hills, Michigan and also the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. In Newport they also featured the Roomful of Blues horn section, a group native to Rhode Island--"jazz lovers clapped and danced to the performance by Vaughan", according to the Associated Press. In a prior recollection by United Press International, Vaughan and Double Trouble had the audience on its feet even before they took the stage.
Further concerts were given in Canada on August 27 through 31 in Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria and Vancouver. Tickets were sold out for the band's appearance at the Commodore Ballroom on August 31, so a second performance was fixed for August 29 during which, according to The Georgia Straight, Vaughan "wowed the crowd by playing behind his back, above his head, and all over the place. At one point he strolled off the front of the stage and across a few tables, where he pulled off the Hendrix trick of playing with his teeth". Both concerts were deemed as the group's finest shows to date "due in large part to the addition of keyboardist Reese Wynans". The next stop was in Seattle. Vaughan was ill, but he still gave a concert with Double Trouble at the Seattle Center Coliseum during the Bumbershoot festival, which took place on September 1. Wynans recalled, "We got up there and Stevie was so sick and could barely go on. We ended up doing a great show despite that." From Seattle the band traveled to Salem, Oregon, where a free concert was given at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Their tour manager was doubtful that Vaughan would be able to perform the show, but he persevered. "He didn't look good," recalled photographer David Wilds, recounting that Vaughan had been in the hospital the day before, where he was diagnosed with fatigue. "But he arrived, he was in great spirits and he played at least ninety minutes." The group proceeded into the Midwest, where they arrived in South Bend, Indiana. After taking a few days off from performing, Vaughan and Double Trouble gave a concert at Morris Civic Auditorium on September 6. The next day the band performed in Pittsburgh.
Jackson Browne arranged for Vaughan and Double Trouble to appear at a benefit concert for the Sanctuary Movement on September 19, at the McKale Center alongside Browne, Stevie Nicks, and Don Henley. Vaughan saw this effort to support charitable works as "something we'd like to help with". He was critiqued as "a throwback to Jimi Hendrix; acid rock musical gestures and, for good measure, behind-the-back playing and extended guitar cadenzas". On September 21 there was a filmed performance at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, from which resulted in the airing of selections from the show, and interview segments featuring Vaughan on MTV's Rock Influences music television program. "Vaughan's brilliant performance left no doubt that he is the reigning guitar king," Barbara Jaeger wrote in The Bergen Record in response to the band's show. Soul to Soul was released on September 30 to mixed reviews from music critics. Jimmy Guterman of Rolling Stone wrote, "There's some life left in their blues rock pistache; it's also possible that they've run out of gas." According to Patoski and Crawford, sales of the album failed to match those of Couldn't Stand the Weather, suggesting that the band had reached a creative plateau.
Between September and October, both Johnny Copeland and Lonnie Mack performed as Vaughan and Double Trouble's opening acts in the Midwest and Southwest regions of the US. On October 14 there was a private performance on-board the USS Peleliu at Pier 32 in San Francisco, during which the band performed for members of the Pacific Fleet. Organized in celebration of the US Navy's 210th anniversary, the group was piped onstage by an honor guard. That same evening Vaughan's first public acoustic set was performed during a benefit concert for the Seva Foundation at Berkeley Community Theatre. The emcee introduced him as "some kind of incandescent meteor breath" in reference to the fiery guitar playing he witnessed during the band's Greek Theatre show three days before. While touring with the Fabulous Thunderbirds in November, Vaughan contemplated refusing to travel from New York to Pennsylvania, due to what he considered as "thoughtless itinerary planning". According to Vaughan's friend Donna Johnston, "He was in New York with no show but had to travel to Pennsylvania, only to turn around and come back for three more shows in New York." However, he pressed on as the band performed in Upper Darby, Albany, Rochester, and Syracuse. They took a break for a couple of weeks, and for the final portion of the second leg performed in Chicago, at the Aragon Ballroom, with opening act Eddy Clearwater. On December 31 they finished the leg with a concert in San Antonio, which took place at the city's convention center. An advertisement for the concert announced it as a "New Year's Eve party...Holiday spirits will be for sale. Beer, wine and champagne! It will be a party!! Be there to ring in the new year!!"
Tour dates
See also
- Stevie Ray Vaughan
- Soul to Soul
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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