Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Ray Vaughan succeeds in just the way it must to reach both Vaughan’s fans and those first learning why he’s a shoo-in for a Mount Rushmore of Texas music. By collecting the voices of those who were there, authors Alan Paul and Andy Aledort get as close as possible to Vaughan’s journey from record-obsessed Dallas kid to all-time guitar god, taking care to convey what made his music transcendent. And they make fresh the profound tragedy of his sudden loss at age 35—no easy feat in 2019, when Vaughan has been dead almost as long as he was alive.
Paul and Aledort are well-suited to write the behind-the-legend story. Both are veteran music journalists who followed Vaughan for decades; Aledort interviewed him four times. The authors’ conversations with those closest to Vaughan form the book’s foundation, with so many firsthand accounts of Vaughan’s life that a cast-of-characters list comes in handy. Stevie Ray’s brother, Jimmie Vaughan, and the bassist in Double Trouble, Tommy Shannon, bless the book with an epilogue and afterword, respectively. (The book’s only standout absence is Lenora “Lenny” Bailey Vaughan, who was married to Stevie Ray from 1979 to 1988 and died in 2018.)
