To help mark the 20th anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan's death (27 August 1990), Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble's1984 breakthrough album Couldn't Stand The Weather will be reissued on 26 July as a remastered, deluxe two-CD set, featuring 11 studio outtakes from the original recording, three of them previously unreleased.
The second CD in the set premieres a previously unreleased, late-night concert from August 1984 at The Spectrum in Montreal, Canada. Featured are a mix of songs from Couldn't Stand The Weather, plus tunes from the band's 1983 debut, Texas Flood.
According to Andy Aledort, associate editor of Guitar World, who wrote the liner notes for the project, "Though a mere six months had passed between the release of Texas Flood and the start of the Couldn't Stand The Weather recording sessions, a great deal changed for the band, professionally and personally, in that short period.
"Couldn't Stand the Weather represented the first time the band had a recording budget, but with it came record company pressures that had been absent previously. In addition, as the pace of the band members' careers increased, so did the level of partying and drug use."
The bonus track studio outtakes on disc one add a new perspective to the band's chronology at this early stage, starting with Stevie's original, Empty Arms, one of several tracks here from the first posthumous SRV collection, 1991's Grammy-winning The Sky Is Crying.
Video: Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble perform Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), 1983, around the same period that they recorded Couldn't Stand The Weather
Hank Ballard And The Midnighters' Look At Little Sister and Earl King's Come On showed up in different versions on SRV&DT's 1985 album Soul To Soul. The band had performed Freddie King's Hide Away and Hound Dog Taylor's Give Me Back My Wig at various concerts, but neither song would appear on any of their album's during Stevie Ray's lifetime.
Additionally, the previously unreleased versions of Boot Hill and Elmore James' The Sky Is Crying differ from those heard on the 1991 set. Disc one closes with a previously unreleased alternate take of the short instrumental, Stang's Swang, one which dispenses with the saxophone.
Complete tracklisting
Disc One
1. Scuttle Buttin'
2. Couldn't Stand The Weather
3. The Things (That) I Used To Do
4. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
5. Cold Shot
6. Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town)
7. Honey Bee
8. Stang's Swang
Bonus tracks
9. Empty Arms (A)
10. Come On (Pt. III) (B)
11. Look At Little Sister (B)
12. The Sky Is Falling (C)
13. Hide Away (B)
14. Give Me Back My Wig (B)
15. Boot Hill (C)
16. Wham! (A)
17. Close To You (A)
18. Little Wing (A)
19. Stang's Swang (alternate take) (C)
Key to bonus tracks
A - from the 1991 album The Sky Is Crying
B - from the 1999 expanded edition of Couldn't Stand The Weather
C - previously unreleased
Disc Two (recorded live at The Spectrum, Montreal, Canada, 17 August 1984
1. Testify
2. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
3. The Things (That) I Used To Do
4. Honey Bee
5. Couldn't Stand The Weather
6. Cold Shot
7. Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town)
8. Love Struck Baby
9. Texas Flood
10. Band Intros
11. Stang's Swang
12. Lenny
13. Pride And Joy
