morganflag: ON THIS DATE (38 YEARS AGO) September 30, 1985 – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Soul to Soul is released. # ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 4.5/5 # Allmusic 3/5 stars # Rolling Stone (see original review below) Soul to Soul is the third studio album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, released on September 30, 1985. It reached #34 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart. Recording sessions took place between March and May 1985 at the Dallas Sound Lab in Dallas, Texas. Vaughan wrote four of Soul to Soul's ten tracks; two songs were released as singles. On Soul to Soul Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble are joined by keyboardist Reese Wynans whose contributions gives it a funkier edge than its two predecessors. Vaughan was always respectful of his roots and this time out he chose to included covers of songs by Hank Ballard ("Look At Little Sister"), Earl King ("Come On [Part III]") and Willie Dixon ("You'll Be Mine"). Even on songs he'd written himself, the Texas guitar slinger can be heard channeling Albert King's high-bent, string-squeezing technique on "Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love," while a Jimi Hendrix-like combo of squalling leads and wah-wah-soaked rhythm playing saturate the infectious title track. Wynans fattened up the trio's sound and his use of Hammond organ is a perfect compliment to the Grant Green-like touch Vaughan gave to Eddie Harris' "Gone Home." "Change It" takes on an insistent edge as Wynan's organ swirls around SRV's crunching riffs. The bonus tracks include a 1989 interview with Timothy White along with the Slim Harpo-flavored "Slip Slidin' Slim" and a monster medley of Hendrix's "Little Wing/Third Stone From The Sun." __________ ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW Three albums on, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble stand at the crossroads. There's enough evidence on Soul to Soul to suggest that there's some life left in their blues-rock pastiche; it's also possible that they've run out of gas. Like George Thorogood, Vaughan has achieved considerable success by presenting some of America's richest music in diluted form. This album's cover versions (with nothing as obvious or gratuitous as Couldn't Stand the Weather's reworking of Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Chile") will bring songs by Hank Ballard and Willie Dixon to the larger audience they deserve. Vaughan's original compositions are as superfluous as Thorogood's, but his singing has greatly improved, and the addition of keyboard player Reese Wynans to the power-trio format fills out the sound without adding much clutter to it. These gains are genuine, but they're also limited. Vaughan's downfall is his refusal to marry his roots commitment with any kind of pop sense: song structure is continually abandoned in favor of open-ended jams. Maybe next time an outside producer, such as Don Gehman (John Mellencamp, the Blasters) or Joe Boyd (Richard Thompson, R.E.M.), could impose some structure and tighten Vaughan and Double Trouble's sound, bringing it into 1985 without draining it of its integrity. ~ Jimmy Guterman (November 7, 1985) TRACKS: All songs were written by Stevie Ray Vaughan, except where noted. Side one "Say What!" – 5:23 "Lookin' Out the Window" (Doyle Bramhall) – 2:48 "Look at Little Sister" (Hank Ballard) – 3:08 "Ain't Gone 'n' Give Up on Love" – 6:07 "Gone Home" (Eddie Harris) – 3:07 Side two "Change It" (Bramhall) – 3:57 "You'll Be Mine" (Willie Dixon) – 3:46 "Empty Arms" – 3:03 "Come On (Part III)" (Earl King) – 4:31 "Life Without You"