SRV didn't have very many well recorded albums. His best was probably In Step, which you have. The only other album he did that was recorded pretty well was the one he did with his brother, Jimmie Vaughn...Family Style, was the title.

If you are an SRV fan, you still have to have Texas Flood, regardless of the recording quality.

Yup, Texas Flood and Soul to Soul and Couldn't Stand the Weather are the discs that bonded me to his tunes.

His disc with Albert King is good, too.

They're all pretty good.

The trick with Stevie discs is not to get a "good" audiophile recordning so much as it is to get the feel of being in a hot and humid road house having his playing cut through the haze of smoke and whiskey to grab you by the short hairs and make you happier to be right where you are than in any other joint on the planet.

I think he did that maybe more than anybody, perhaps with the exception of Junior Kimbrough.

Robert Palmer really nailed this feeling in "Deep Blues."

I'll see if I can find a bit of it...

Cheers!

(EDITED TO SPELL "PALMER" CORRECTLY)

I couldn't find the piece on the net, so I'll take it from the liner notes of Junior's disc, "All Night Long."

Robert Palmer wrote it this way, it applies to Stevie Ray, to, I think...

"Crawling around in the dirt between the rows of blooming, blinding-white cotton in the field to the side of Junior's old country juke, and this woman, Lord she must have been sixty, she was out there crawling in the dirt with me, I'm not lyin'! Both of us out there in the sun, drunk on white lightnin' in the middle of the day! And this was a Sunday! Amps turned up all the way in the shack, drums making the floorboards boom, you could hear it fine. Yeah, out there in the dirt.

Sometimes the music inside would be so intense, you'd think twice about going in. People would be clustered on the front porch, perched on the railing like birds, drinkin' out of mason jars. And that one big room that was most of the house, that would just be throbbin' with Junior's rhythm...You went in that room, got in there between the band and the peple dancin' off it, you'd be dancing too, before you'd know it was happening. Like trance dancing, everybody breaking a sweat and the song would go on until their eyes were rolled back in their heads. You'd be dancing and then somebody would be dancing with you, and pretty soon the two of you would be out there crawlin' around in the dirt again. Now how about that!"

Just reminded me of some early Stevie Ray shows in little dive joints...he and Junior tapped the same vein of musical ore.

Along with Buddha's suggestions, check out his Live at Carnegie Hall. IIRC the sound is pretty good as well as being a killer show.

If you're into the blues and want great sound, check out some discs on Audioquest or Mapleshade.

Get the "In Session" w/ Albert King SACD DSD Hybrid!!!! Great stuff

SRV is one of my favorites. The posthumous The Sky Is Crying is recommended, and some care seemed to have been taken with its sound. Not quite as crisp and modern as In Step but better (sounding) than the noisy lo-res earlier stuff.

However, with SRV, his recorded output was limited so it's all about the music, not how well it was or wasn't recorded. If you like his music you'll own the first 3 as previously mentioned even though you already have much of it covered with the Greatest Hits.

Get thee also Live at the El Mocambo. This is a video (or film?) of a small-venue concert recorded in 1983, so it covers the Texas Flood era output. Years ago I bought the LD and only got to see it a few times before my LD player broke but today you can get it on DVD:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6305019681/103-4917327-6522224?v=glance&n=130

The up-close viewing of his playing is astonishing. It's one thing to understand he played both rhythm and lead at once but amazing to see it happen.

There is also a new release, DVD of SRV at Austin City Limits. Very nicely done. You can almost feel the spray of sweat.

I know you are asking about CDs but there were several of his LPs reissued lately and the sound on them is remarkable. Traditionally his recordings didn't sound good, but these LPs showed a quality that is surprising. I'm at work now and can't tell you who did the releases, but maybe someone else has heard them too.

Quote:
There is also a new release, DVD of SRV at Austin City Limits. Very nicely done. You can almost feel the spray of sweat.

This is the one I would get. SRV's take on Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) on this DVD shows him at the height of his power and fury and desperation. Later in the DVD you see the cleaned up mellow SRV coming back to the Limits after a few years and he still has the chops, but the first half of this DVD is what you want. Not the best audiophile quality, but it captures the urgency of his live performances during that era perfectly. Oh, and at the very end don't forget to catch the montage video set to SRV's "Little Wing" - not a bad bonus to the disc.