Recently, at the invitation of a friend, I saw a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute at a West Bank bar. It was an up-and-down, but ultimately enjoyable enough, night with plenty of skilled guitarists playing the work of Dallas' best musical export and one of my all-time favorite artists.
Of course, there were some moments where I was reminded that I was not watching Vaughan himself – mainly on the vocal side, since he had such a powerful and distinctive voice that perfectly fit his brand of blues rock. Anyone would sound underwhelming by comparison.
I've told friends before, and I still believe, that if I could bring back any one musician that died prematurely for a one-off show, it would be either Keith Moon or Stevie Ray Vaughan. In the interest of serving the latter fantasy, and of relating to my tribute show experience, I present my ideal setlist for a Vaughan resurrection concert.
As said in the Iron Maiden iteration of this exercise, the rules to which I hold myself are straightforward: The setlist must be roughly the same length as what the artist would typically do. On his last tour, Vaughan played 14 or 15 songs, so we'll do 15. I can pick whatever songs I want (as long as he played or recorded it at least once) and choose their order, though my hypothetical setlist doesn't necessarily have to match a list of my 15 favorite songs he recorded. I try to include a good mix of standards and B-sides, and I try to avoid redundancies.
With everything properly introduced, let's get on with it.
