I had the pleasure of seeing Vaughan in Eugene Oregon 1989. Robert Cray was the headliner for the outdoor show. Being Oregon it was wet. Vaughan however put on a show rivaling any Springsteen or Carlos show I have ever seen. When Cray came on, I realized that the sound setup was totally geared for his act. Cray sounded wonderful... just like a recording studio produced CD. On the drive back to Portland, my brother, his soon to be wife and I all agreed that Stevie stole the show. In hindsight, I wonder just how good that show might have been had the sound been geared for Vaughan.

I enjoyed SRVs music too, but it is hard to listen to Leadbelly,Robert Johnson,Son House,Muddy Waters and a thousand others and not wonder if he wasn't just the '90s version of Pat Boone. Certainly he never would have existed without the afforementioned originals, and one could argue that he was really just a sort of reverse minstrel boy. As for the,"a new sound from old sounds distilled into a blazing mix of nuance and ferocity" claim, all I can say is, check out the Saturday afternoon college "Blues Show" in your area, and you will hear things that dwarf his talent,and some of them are actually sober. But at least he brought some attention to the genre if not its forebearers.

I have been to a lot of "blues shows" and have seen nothing that dwarfed SRV's talent. I saw both he and Albert Collins in DC in the mid 80's both were great neither were "sober". As if Leadbelly et.al were very much sober....not sure what that has to do with good blues playing.