AUSTIN – Stevie Ray Vaughan’s meteoric career has been the subject of several books and documentary films, but none of these biographies had the cooperation of the person who knew Stevie best — his older brother, Jimmie.
Until now.
Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues has enjoyed the full support of Jimmie Vaughan, from sitting for interviews to sharing never-before-seen family photos, but also contains the memories of Stevie’s contemporaries — Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Jackson Browne and Nile Rodgers — as well as a host of the Vaughan brothers’ early bandmates in Oak Cliff and Austin.
The screening is the culmination of nearly four years of overcoming numerous obstacles to create an insider’s look at Jimmie and Stevie’s incredible journey from ordinary kids in Oak Cliff to global acclaim as blues royalty.
On Thursday, March 23rd at 7:00 p.m., the historic Texas Theatre will screen Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues as part of a four-city Texas Tour. Tickets are available at the Texas Theatre’s website: https://thetexastheatre.com/film/jimmie-and-stevie-ray-vaughan-brothers-in-blues/
Although he died 33 years ago, Stevie has millions of fans who were not even born when he was still performing. Yet as good as Stevie was, he always said that his favorite guitar player was his older brother Jimmie.
As one of the hottest young guitar players in Texas in the 1960s, Jimmie shared the stage with Billy Gibbons at a sold-out show in Houston, opened for Jimi Hendrix in Dallas, and at age 15 was making more money than his own father.
Watching and emulating Jimmie’s guitar licks was his younger brother Stevie. Both brothers were regulars on the Texas club circuit of the 60s and 70s, playing Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Lubbock and Dallas.
Unlike other Texas blues players who went on to national fame after moving to California (Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter and Steve Miller), the Vaughan brothers remained in the Lone Star State, playing Texas nightclubs without the media coverage that Rolling Stone, Creem, Circus or The Village Voice gave performers at clubs on each coast such as The Fillmore East and West, The Troubadour, The Roxy or The Electric Circus. Even though Jimmie and Stevie built up a large and rabid fan base, it was all located in “flyover country” decades before the Internet, Tik-Tok or cell phones. That made getting signed to a record label much more difficult.
During this time, they built a reputation among the greatest rock stars of that era as being “a guitar player’s guitar player,” and soon celebrities such as Bob Dylan, Dickey Betts, Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, Robert Plant, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Mick Jagger and Muddy Waters were flocking to their shows in Texas bars like The Rome Inn, Antone’s and Mother Blues.
Now, the entire tale, with plenty of never-before-told stories, comes to the big screen for one night only: March 23rd. Brothers in Blues also features the only on-camera interviews with Eric Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan discussing August 27, 1990, the night Stevie died after leaving the stage at Alpine Valley Resort, Wisconsin. The screening at the Texas Theatre is part of a Texas Tour that will include Austin (March 22nd) , Houston (March 26th) and Waco (March 27th)
For more information, call 214-600-5861 or email kirby@bigbendquarterly.com.
Ticket orders and a trailer for the film may be found here.
