Sky Crying for Kids

Stevie Ray Vaughan's astonishingly accomplished guitar playing ignited the blues revival of the '80s, as he drew equally from bluesmen like Albert King, Otis Rush and Hubert Sumlin, as well as rock 'n' roll players like Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack, and the stray jazz guitarist like Kenny Burrell, developing a uniquely eclectic and fiery style that sounded like no other guitarist, regardless of genre.

The Sky Is Crying, released after SRV's 1990 helicopter crash that took his life, proves to be one of Vaughan's most consistent albums, rivaling In Step as the best outside of the Greatest Hits collection. These songs, recorded in sessions spanning from 1984's Couldn't Stand the Weather to 1989's In Step, were left off of the LPs for whatever reason (or, in the case of Soul to Soul's "Empty Arms," a different version was used). The eclectic diversity of the record is what makes it work - Vaughan plays slide guitar on "Boot Hill" and acoustic on "Life by the Drop"; he smokes on the slow blues of "May I Have a Talk With You" and the title track just as much as on the up-tempo Lonnie Mack cover, "Wham"; and he shows the jazzy side of his playing on Hendrix's "Little Wing" and Kenny Burrell's "Chitlins Con Carne."

The sound of this 200-gram pressing by Quality Record Pressings is big, bold, up front, and clean as a whistle, with Vaughan's different tonal shadings - from warmly purring, to raggedly distorted, to wasp-tailed sting, plus a rare acoustic turn on the gorgeous closer, "Life By The Drop" - all superbly captured, and the drums and bass having plenty of clarity and wallop.

Mastered from the original tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, this is the finest-sounding Stevie Ray Vaughan collection ever preserved on vinyl, with no link in the chain that wasn't absolute first-rate. Analogue Productions' passion for the blues and Stevie Ray Vaughan shines through in this brilliant musical document, a sad reminder of the talent we lost.

product information: