CD Titles: T through Z

Page 26sep02

Testify [Minotauro Records, LTD19]

• A must. Soundboard quality and great setlist! One of my favs, I highly recommend it.

Testify [Cool Daddy Productions]

Testimony
Information about buying radio shows.

• Incorrectly listed as having tracks from Syracuse, 1984. The Montreal tracks are King Biscuit Flower Hour material. The Dallas tracks may have Jimmie Vaughan on bass.
• The King Biscuit Flower Hour [DIR Radio Network] was a syndicated radio show that specialized in live performance broadcasts. The "KBFH material" notation on the boot list means "Excellent to superb quality multi-track recordings" of some of Stevie's finest performances.
• To date, the main problem with "KBFH" broadcast discs [and their boot CD copies] is that they include only a few songs from each performance. To make matters worse, DIR reissued the same show many times, all with the same track list. There are only two versions of SRV "KBFH" shows. Now the good news!!! The good folks at Swingin' Pig Records, in their infinite wisdom, have released "In Memoriam" [TSP-CD-205-1,2,3, 3 CD set]. "IM" contains the complete, unedited "KBFH" recordings, including the tracks that were not broadcast on "KBFH." To my ears, this set is without a doubt, some of Stevie's finest moments, both in performance and audio quality.

Texas Flood Austin, TX

Texas Flood Norfolk, VA

Texas Flood Seattle, WA

• limited edition Japanese release, exceptional sound quality, contains the best sound of all the Seattle titles.
• Identical to Parkers Place. It is an excellent concert.

Texas Lightning

• One of the best versions I've heard of Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up on Love is an excellent 12 minute live performance on Texas Lightning. The vocals aren't very loud, but Stevie's guitar playin' is excellent and it comes through loud and clear.
• Texas Lightning is a rocking performance... they made some recordings for LiveAlive from this venue but a different night. Too bad, these performances are much better (energy/excitment) than the ones on the Live Alive album.
• When I first grabbed the Oriental Theatre show, I thought it was quite good...but the more I listened to it, the more I began to dislike it: Stevie is sloppy, he's all over the place, though there are still moments where the heart and soul of his playing shines through the fog of his substance abuse.
• Texas Lightening is outstanding.

Thanks for the Memories

• The sound on tracks 1 to 5 (1983) is average-to-above-average, but not excellent. The 1986 tracks (6 to 11 and 13) are similar in sound quality to tracks 1 to 5. Tracks 11 and 12 (year unknown) sound superb and one of them is an astounding rendition of "Texas Flood" that roars from beginning to end!
• Track 13 Willie the Wimp is from that well circulated concert from Philadelphia 1987 -- listen to the spoken intro from SRV.

There's More Rock Ahead

• It is (despite some flaws) quite impressive!
  First, the flaws: The sound is generally superb but there is an inconsistent "ticking" type distortion effect (that's my best attempt to describe it) throughout the CD. (It's worse on some songs than others.) Also, there are two odd distortions early on Track 11 ("Testify"). Despite this, the only other 1983 shows on CD that have better sound are probably El Mocambo and In Memoriam.
  There are some edits between songs and at least one song is missing.
  About the performance: Stevie plays very well throughout, and sometimes reaches superb heights. The highlights (much like all 1983 shows) are an intense, soul-wrenching version of "Texas Flood" (10+ minutes), a wonderful "Little Wing" (7+ minutes) and a sublime version of "Lenny" (8+ minutes). Beautiful stuff. But add to that great versions of "So Excited," "You'll Be Mine" and a wild version of "Testify." ("Third Stone" also has some great moments and is considerably better than the El Mocambo version of this tune.)
  This CD was never on my must-have list, so I didn't know what to expect. All I can say in conclusion is that it SHOULD have been on my must-have list!

Three Bar Blues

Together In Love

• One thing that interested me is that "Texas Flood," which is the same concert (I believe) as "Together In Love," is rated as an excellent recording. I have found Together in Love to be a rather poor mix. I think it may be a bad copy of something good. Good concert but poor mix. Could easily have been mastered better.

Tokyo '85

Touch The Sky
Important information about how this CD set relates to the actual Soul to Soul recording sessions and the other boot CDs that comprise parts of those sessions has been provided by Steve Toney, a member of the Texas Flood.

• excellent to superb sound quality
• Touch The Sky is VERY GOOD.
• It is superb unreleased studio recordings. A SUPERB quality CD of unreleased studio sessions.
• "Touch the Sky" is a series of sessions from the Power Station in NYC, Feb. 1984 (some tracks are from the Dallas Sound Lab in May 1985). The quality is good. It is interesting because it shows some of Stevie's creative studio work. Very good studio outakes
• "Touch the Sky" is the best quality of the available CSTW or STS sessions. This is well worth buying.
• Interestingly enough, both tracks No. 8 and No. 15 are the SAME song which is =really= "May I Have A Talk With You" from the commercial CD "The Sky Is Crying." Track 8 is the EXACT same recording (less the echo which was added to Stevie's voice for the commercial release) while Track 15 is markedly different. I guess they didn't want too many of the same song titles!!
  And imagine their nerve... on the front of the CD are the words... " All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, hiring, public performance and broadcast of this recording prohibited. " !!!!!!!!!!
  It has 3 nice photos of Stevie, too. The back photo is a pic of Stevie in front of the plaque on Carnegie Hall. On the inside is a shot of Stevie holding No. 1 with NO SHIRT! If you see this boot, get it, it's good!
• An excellent choice for any SRV enthusiast. I personally like the Hang Nails and Boogers track.

Triple Trouble

• Stevie Ray Vaughan, "Triple Trouble", with Albert King and Buddy Guy. Three of the best bluesmen ever, ripping into the blues like the world is fixin' to end. It don't get no better than this.
• I think the quality is great !

Triple Trouble w/ Albert King & Buddy Guy

• Stevie Ray Vaughan, "Triple Trouble", with Albert King and Buddy Guy. Three of the best bluesmen ever, ripping into the blues like the world is fixin' to end. It don't get no better than this.
• Just a warning to add to the bootlist duplicate title: Stevie Ray Vaughan Triple Trouble With A.King B.Guy Label: [Smokin Cactus sc003] Same as "Jammed Togther" and "Let it Happen" except there are three additional tracks on the end with Buddy Guy

Two (Vaughan) Hearts Are Better Than One

The Understanding of Love

• I personally have this boot and recommend it. The Understanding of Love is a 2 CD set of a Helsinki concert and has some "unplugged" on CD2 - great stuff.
• The Understanding of Love is a great SRV title, it is on a very appropriately named label, [Music With Love]. "The Understanding of Love" is an excellent quality audience recording of The Culturehouse, Helsinki, Finland [13 tracks, 27 MAR 84]. The second disc also has 4 tracks from Finnish TV, the 3 MTV Unplugged tracks (Rude Mood, P&J and Testify done on his Guild 12-string) and 4 tracks of various live MTV.
• Understanding of Love has good recordings of the Unplugged songs. On these tracks, the sound quality is excellent and the editing between songs is less than great but acceptable.
• I recently got a decent copy of "The Understanding of Love." The copy of "Love" is really not the best in sound quality, but the second disc is really cool. It has the MTV unplugged stuff, as well as some other stuff off Finnish TV.

Unforgettable Night

Unplugged & Jamming

• Rating: **** , Length: 90 min
• The stuff with Albert Collins and BB King is really great. As is the acoustic stuff.
• I just got this CD and while the sound is not of audiophile quality it is more than passable. The MTV stuff is of very good quality, while the jams with BB and Albert Collins are good; there isn't much separation or staging in the music, they all seem crowded over to the right a bit.
  The solo acoustic stuff is good, albeit a little flat sounding at times. Overall I would say that while the sound quality isn't as good as say a direct to two track Audioquest recording, it is better than most of the top-40 pop stuff that continually pounds the airwaves.
• Overall, I liked it..but it's Stevie,so how could I not? The only acoustic cuts are 4-7 and 10-12..the rest of it is all electric stuff.. I was sorta let down by that, expecting an acoustic album -- but its good anyway -- worth my $23.
• love it.
• I have this CD, the quality is good. The Berkley sessions came out well and so did the MTV sessions.
• Two words... grab it! The jam with Albert Collins and BB King on Texas Flood are worth the price of the disc. And you get Superstition with Stevie Wonder, which is awesome; the Star Spangled Banner on slide, which is very cool despite that track's bad sound quality; and both acoustic sets are awesome too.The quality overall is excellent.
  I bought it for the MTV Unplugged performances but found all but the Star Spangled Banner a pleasant surprise.
• My recommendation is to buy it and buy it quickly.
• Love it.
• Heres the set list

  New Orleans Feb 88 w/BB King and Albert Collins

  Life Without you

  Boogie (duel w/ Albert Collins... excellent)

  Texas Flood (w/ BB King... also excellent)

  very good sound quality on this part

  Berkeley Community Center acoustic set (a little better sound quality than White Lightnin', but not much) (these are the labels from the CD, and are wrong)

  Pride and Joy

  Instrumental

  Lenny

  Instrumental

  MTV 1988 w/ Stevie Wonder, Jody Watley and Salt and Peppa

  Superstition (pretty good, very good sound)

  MTV 1990

  Voodoo Chile (cuts in at the solo section. no 1st verse???)

  MTV Unplugged 1988

  Instrumental

  Pride And Joy

  Scuttlebuttin' (like I said,CD labels are wrong)

  Night Music 1989

  Crossfire

  Jam

  Sailing Shoes

  pretty good sound quality on this part, with the Night Music house band

  Houston Astrodome 1986

  The Star Spangled Banner (on slide no less)

  The sound quality is awful,but I'd wanted to hear it for a long time,and was impressed... no Jimi-like solo in the middle, just the star spangled banner.

  Anyway, overall, I liked it... but it's Stevie,so how could I not? It's about 70 mins long total. Oh yeah, the only acoustic cuts are 4-7 and 10-12. The rest of it is all electric stuff. I was sorta let down by that, expecting an accoustic album -- but its good anyway.

• The sound is not of audiophile quality, but it is more than passable. The MTV stuff is of very good quality, while the jams with BB and Albert Collins are good, there isn't much separation or staging in the music, they all seem crowded over to the right a bit. The solo acoustic stuff is good, albeit a little flat sounding at times. Overall I would say that while the sound quality isn't as good as say a direct-to-two-track Audioquest recording, it is better than most of the top-40 pop stuff that continually pounds the airwaves.
• The "Unplugged and Jamming" CD is great for the acoustic instrumentals at Berkeley Community Center and the MTV Unplugged stuff. But the best part is the liner notes describing this collection of "unique performances by the late, laminated Stevie Ray Vaughn." I was laughing so hard I had to start the song over. I guess when he stopped gettting plastered he got laminated instead.
• It's awesome. He does a jam w/ Albert Collins and BB King. It also has his first acoustic set in addition to his MTV Unplugged set, which has Pride and Joy. It also has the one and only time he played the Star Spangled Banner, which was at the Houston Astrodome
• (MTV stuff and other dates...) Favorite part is Life Without You from New Orleans in '88. Great speech in the middle of the song - slows down and says "less than two years ago I found myself down on the ground and I couldn't get up, I mean I was tryin and I couldn't...". Finishes the speech, then rips into a solo - it gets me every time. The rest of the disc has been widely discussed - its a great one for your collection.
-- but its good anyway -- worth my $23.

Unplugged & More

Unsurpassed Masters, Vol. 1
Important information about how this CD set relates to the actual Soul to Soul recording sessions and the other boot CDs that comprise parts of those sessions has been provided by Steve Toney, a member of the Texas Flood.

• I was very disappointed on the way the info. was presented on the packaging. Rather misleading to say the least. They were entitled Stevie Ray Vaughan: Unsurpassed Masters Vol I, II and III. These cd's are nothing more than the SOUL TO SOUL outakes, which I already had. I can't remember what exactly was on the "Touch the Sky Sessions" but if my memory serves me correct, this was more SOUL TO SOUL outtakes as well.
• "Unsurpassed Masters" are all studio recordings most likely from the "Soul To Soul" sessions, mar-may85. I wouldn't recommend these. The first discs has one second "gaps" during tracks 5,10,12,13. And Volumes 2 & 3 sound like a partial mix and are missing the vocals on most tracks.
• I'm certainly no authority on all SRV music, but I purchased these cd's and was very disappointed on the way the info. was presented on the packaging. Rather misleading to say the least. They were entitled Stevie Ray Vaughan: Unsurpassed Masters Vol I, II and III. These cd's are nothing more than the SOUL TO SOUL out-takes which I already had. I can't remember what exactly was on the "Touch the Sky Sessions" but if my memory serves me correct, this was more SOUL TO SOUL out-takes as well.
  "Unsurpassed Masters" are all studio recordings most likely from the "Soul To Soul" sessions, mar-may85. I wouldn't recommend these. The first discs has one second "gaps" during tracks 5,10,12,13. And Volumes 2 & 3 sound like a partial mix and are missing the vocals on most tracks.

Unsurpassed Masters, Vol. 2

• I was very disappointed on the way the info. was presented on the packaging. Rather misleading to say the least. They were entitled Stevie Ray Vaughan: Unsurpassed Masters Vol I, II and III. These cd's are nothing more than the SOUL TO SOUL outakes, which I already had. I can't remember what exactly was on the "Touch the Sky Sessions" but if my memory serves me correct, this was more SOUL TO SOUL outtakes as well.
• "Unsurpassed Masters" are all studio recordings most likely from the "Soul To Soul" sessions, mar-may85. I wouldn't recommend these. The first discs has one second "gaps" during tracks 5,10,12,13. And Volumes 2 & 3 sound like a partial mix and are missing the vocals on most tracks.

Unsurpassed Masters, Vol. 3

• I was very disappointed on the way the info. was presented on the packaging. Rather misleading to say the least. They were entitled Stevie Ray Vaughan: Unsurpassed Masters Vol I, II and III. These cd's are nothing more than the SOUL TO SOUL outakes, which I already had. I can't remember what exactly was on the "Touch the Sky Sessions" but if my memory serves me correct, this was more SOUL TO SOUL outtakes as well.
• "Unsurpassed Masters" are all studio recordings most likely from the "Soul To Soul" sessions, mar-may85. I wouldn't recommend these. The first discs has one second "gaps" during tracks 5,10,12,13. And Volumes 2 & 3 sound like a partial mix and are missing the vocals on most tracks.

Up From the Skies

• The last three tracks are from the Soul to Soul sessions. To check, Come on (Part3) track 12 is the same as take 1 from Touch the Sky CD.

We Are Called Double Trouble

• These "new" CDs: Holiday (CT 78), Live at Lupos (live 79), Live at the Silk Creek Saloon (live 79), Through the Night (RI 79) are actually part of the 5-CD set. I believe what's happening here is that the place that's selling these is making the individual discs available separately, and is either getting these titles off of the discs or they're attempting to put their own "titles" to them. SRV never played at the Silk Creek Saloon, but he DID play at the Soap Creek.
• We Are Called Double Trouble (below?)Average audience recording. Good mix, the voice is "clear" and loud, the bass guitar is quite saturated and makes the whole music difficult to listen to sometimes, especially on the Jazzy instrumental and the following tracks. The mix changes a little in the middle of the show and when Lou Ann sings. Probably a very low generation master as there's nearly no noise and hiss.
• Recorded Live at The Soap Creek Saloon, Austin Texas, April 1979 (part1)
  (below?)Average audience recording. Good mix, the voice is "clear" and loud, the bass guitar is quite saturated and makes the whole music difficult to listen to sometimes, especially on the Jazzy instrumental and the following tracks. The mix changes a little in the middle of the show and when Lou Ann sings. Probably a very low generation master as there's nearly no noise and hiss.
• Live from The Cascade Room at The Knickerbocker Cafe, Westerly, RI, Nov.22nd 1979
  Soundboard ? probably not but the sound is very good, very listenable anyway. Good mix but you get the crowd and guitar on one side and the Drums and vocals on the other side. The sound is really excellent compared to the first volume even if the voice and bass guitar are slightly saturated. Great show !
• Live from Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI, Nov.24th 1979
  Excellent audience recording. The mix is very good, clear and loud vocals. Nothing else to say. Stevie smokes that night !!
• Live at the Holiday Inn, Groton CT., March 1980
  The Holiday Inn show has the best sound quality of this set. Excellent mix, clear vocals. Better than "FON" (IMHO). The studio tracks are the same as what you can find on "Nashville 1978".
• This is a 5CD set. Mine came in a cardboard box with a poster, though I have not seen many of these complete for sale. Often seen for sale as individual CD's in a rapidly reducing number of places in London. I believe I have read within your pages that the 1980 date for the Groton gig has been questioned. I am not surprised. Before track 6 Come On (part 3) SRV introduces the band and it includes Tommy Shannon on fender base. This may be one of those gigs that he sat in on, or could it one of those gigs after Tommy joined the band. This would clearly push it well past 1980. Does anyone know?
  A great set of CD's with mega versions of Dirty Pool at every gig!
  If you can still get it, and don't have the money, or someone to CDR it for you, sell your granny, mother-in-law, sell the house or your body! Its that good.

Wild Man From Texas Plays Houston
Important information about Colorado/New Mexico concerts and the supposed Auditorium Shores concert.

• This is probably the most duplicated SRV performance...

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