by Alan Paul
With a simple commitment, they carved out a small window of time, and Mark Proct took the lead on making arrangements.
“Stevie wanted to record with his brother, and after In Step, the timing of this just felt right,” says Hodges. “We surrendered some control of the environment to get it done, because Stevie wanted the atmosphere to be as harmonious as possible, which can be difficult in a situation with two leaders, two managers, new musicians, and a new producer.”
“The short list of producers was Don Was, Billy Gibbons, and Nile Rodgers,” says Proct. “Don was booked through the year, and it became clear that [ZZ Top manager] Bill Ham wasn’t going to let Billy produce. Nile jumped up enthusiastically. Jimmie was intrigued by him, and Stevie liked him a lot from the Let’s Dance sessions.”
Rodgers was not an obvious choice; the Chic guitarist was fresh off working with Duran Duran, Diana Ross, Depeche Mode, Eddie Murphy, and the B-52s and best known for his production of Let’s Dance, Madonna’s Like a Virgin, and Sister Sledge’s We Are Family. He was a pop funk hit-maker.
PROCT: It was a very spontaneous decision. It all seems to make sense now, but Jimmie really wanted to think outside the box and do things no one thought he would do. Nobody would have ever suggested the guy known for Madonna, Duran Duran, and Bowie, and that helped make Jimmie a huge advocate.
FREEMAN: One thing about Jimmie that’s always been true is if you think you can predict what he’s gonna do, you’ll be wrong. Nile Rodgers was obviously a very successful guitarist, producer, bandleader, and innovator, but most people wouldn’t think that the Vaughan brothers would work with him, and I’m certain that made him more attractive to Jimmie.
PROCT: We had a meeting, and they all really liked each other, and Nile was available in our window. Then he went, “What do you have? Play me some material.” Um … we really had no completed songs, though Stevie and Jimmie both had sketches. We had a short time before we’d start recording, and Jimmie took his idea for “Tick Tock” to Tulsa to finish it with Jerry Williams, and Stevie got together with Doyle to finish a few songs.
BRAMHALL: At the end of our In Step writing sessions, I had ideas for “Hard to Be” and “Long Way from Home” and Stevie had an idea for “Telephone Song.” If we had finished them, they’d have been on there, but we didn’t, so we put them aside. Things have a way of working themselves out, and it’s interesting that when we got back together to write for Family Style, it was like, “Well, we do have those three songs we can work on.”
FREEMAN: Jimmie had a great riff for “Baboom / Mama Said” and needed help making it a song. He asked to meet up, saying they had to show the record company something and didn’t really have finished songs. I got to the Sound Lab in Dallas first and was smoking a cigarette when they pulled up in Stevie’s big red Caprice convertible. Stevie was driving, and they both looked great. It’s a visual I’ll always remember.
I sat down at a Hammond organ, Jimmie played his riff, and we started jamming, and I said, “It needs a middle eight,” as John Lennon called a bridge. It had a James Brown funk feel, so I suggested holding one chord, then just going up or down a step, as he did on his great jams. Jimmie went from B, briefly up a half step to C, back to the riff, and when Stevie’s improvised solo comes in, it goes up a whole step to C♯. Then Stevie took out a primitive drum machine and programmed a funky drumbeat, and we recorded with Jimmie playing bass. I was impressed that he knew how to program it so well, because we weren’t drum machine kind of guys.
Jimmie took half credit and gave me and Stevie a quarter, which seemed more than fair. My contribution was simple, but going to another key was that missing ingredient.
LAPIDUS: The songwriting for Family Style was a completely different process than In Step because he was sharing the record with his brother, but he was also writing on his own and with Doyle. What came out of them there was something that was pure in a different way.
PROCT: Nile’s next question was, “Who’s the band?” And again, I had to say that we didn’t have one. Jimmie and Stevie didn’t want to use Double Trouble or people from the T-Birds. They wanted to do something different.
JIMMIE VAUGHAN: We didn’t have to go by anything we’ve done in the past. It was a new beginning.
RODGERS: The situation didn’t even feel a little daunting. That’s what I do. I loved them and had nothing but their best interests at heart.
PROCT: Nile called back and said, “I think I have the guys for this project.”
On February 13, In Step was certified gold, and on February 22, it won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, a great honor but one which annoyed Hodges a bit; he didn’t think Stevie should be pigeonholed in the genre category. A couple of weeks later, Jimmie and Stevie convened at Ardent Studios in Memphis with Rodgers and his handpicked band to begin recording Family Style.
PROCT: Nile was there with Al Berry [bass] and Larry Aberman [drums]. The guys all introduced themselves and started cutting basic tracks.
AL BERRY, bassist on Family Style: Larry and I had done quite a few things with Nile but were still quite young, and we were thrilled when he asked us to do this record.
RODGERS: Al, Larry, and Rich [Hilton, engineer, keyboards] were some of the finest musicians I knew. They were my band on my VH1 TV show New Visions. I knew they could easily cut the gig, and I believed that they’d become the Vaughan Brothers Band.
BERRY: Honestly, I had no idea of the depth of Stevie’s talents. I knew, but I didn’t know. I loved his playing, but having a close-up view of his passion and drive and his command of the instrument as well as the way he could come up with ideas off-the-cuff was heavy, humbling, and very inspiring. Once I grasped how serious both Stevie and Jimmie were, working with them became a life-changing experience.
PROCT: Stevie and Jimmie were as close as they ever were when we made the record, and these sessions were the opportunity for them to come together and really get to know each other. We did everything together.
BERRY: The true beauty was the relationship between the brothers and how they brought us all in. They trusted us enough to sit down and have meals and spend all this time together, which really built our confidence and the vibe. We sat and listened as they spoke about their journey and their separation, about Jimmie running away from home to be a musician and how Stevie was alone then but also got the confidence to do this thing. All these years having this dream of playing together, and here they were. It was an honor to be a part of. We took in so many stories and so many great times. It was a bunch of guys being in the moment.
LARRY ABERMAN, drummer on Family Style: Jimmie was more vocal, but Stevie had a powerful nature and vibe. It felt very balanced between them, and there was a lot of give-and-take. It was very collaborative, which I was too young and naïve to fully appreciate. I’ve since been in a lot of situations where the band is treated as “the help.”
BERRY: I never felt for a second that they thought we were below them, and their attitude towards us translated into the music.
Jimmie and Stevie songwriting with Nile Rodgers, Memphis, TN, 1990, during the Family Style sessions. (Mark Proct)
PROCT: There was a genuine acceptance and camaraderie, and it impacted the way the whole thing proceeded, and that’s how it had to be. The songs were barely arranged, so everyone was working on them together. Everyone was throwing ideas off of each other. Nile was writing words for “Tick Tock” as they were starting to record it.
ABERMAN: Jimmie took out his acoustic guitar and said, “I’ve got this song I’ve been working on, but it’s not quite done. I’d like to know what you guys think.” He starts playing the hook: “Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, people/ Time’s slipping away,” and goes, “What do you think?” We were all like, “It’s a fucking smash!” It wasn’t done, but the theme was there, and it was so good.
RODGERS: I’d always loved Kool and the Gang’s music, and the intro to their song “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight,” starts with th
e phrase “People, the world today is in a very difficult situation.” I vibed off that and wrote the start of a song: “People of the World,” which Jimmie and I retooled into “Tick Tock.”
PROCT: Stevie and Jimmie really connected in the studio with no one telling them what to do. Nile was so creative, a great conduit who was somehow very freeing.
BERRY: Nile has a rare gift of allowing you to be your authentic self in a nonjudgmental way, which creates magic. And he has an amazing way of then manipulating what you did into being even more magical.
JIMMIE VAUGHAN: You can imagine how special making this record was for us as brothers. We wanted to do a record that showed everything that we could do on the guitar. It’s got Albert King, B. B. King, Johnny Watson, T-Bone Walker, Lonnie Mack, Hubert Sumlin, Freddie King. It’s like a short history of who we listened to.
ABERMAN: They had a record player in the lounge and their favorite records—all the influences that ended up being on that album, notably James Brown and Albert King. Jimmie just kept saying, “Check this out.” He wasn’t giving us instructions about how something should sound. They were creating a vibe, filling the space with the music they loved and wanted us to understand. Having all their guitars there—most of which they didn’t use—did the same type of thing.
Playing video games with guitar tech René Martinez, Memphis, TN, 1990, during the Family Style sessions. (Mark Proct)
JIMMIE VAUGHAN: We got to spend all that time together, and the whole project was just fun.
BRAMHALL: Family Style was really loose, no pressure whatsoever.
ABERMAN: Nile maintains a loose environment, encouraging people to bring friends by and for everyone to make suggestions, and that was right in line with what Stevie and Jimmie wanted. “Long Way from Home” had a train beat on the demo, and we did a take like that, then I started playing a more pop beat that I just felt. Jimmie and Stevie sat back and were like, “Eh.” It felt wrong to them, and Jimmie said, “I’m not sure I’m down with this,” but Nile was raving about it and was adamant, and Jimmie and Stevie were really leaning on having an open mind, and that’s what we used. They didn’t want to do what they normally did with their own bands.
JIMMIE VAUGHAN: We didn’t have anything to compare this project to. We [were] a “new artist.” The Vaughan Brothers was something new. We wanted to say all the shit that we always wanted to say but couldn’t for one reason or another, and I think we did that. I love it! There were a lot of times where I was thinking of something to do, and Stevie would already be doing it. I guess it comes from having the same blood, growing up together, and having a lot of the same influences.
ABERMAN: Sometimes the two of them would sit in the control room and play together, unplugged, and the thing that really impressed me was the way they tapped along with the time. The heel goes up and comes down on the beat, and they were in unison, doing exactly the same thing; it looked like the same leg. And the power of that groove was immense. It was like watching a great conductor of an orchestra emitting total control of the music with his body. Their time was unerring, and their playing was so physical and seemingly effortless. Both of them had these big strong hands and just owned the guitar; they exhibited total command, like the guitar was part of their body.
PROCT: Stevie and Doyle were finishing songs, which were not near complete the day we stepped into the studio. Some of them didn’t even exist.
BERRY: Larry and I assumed that we were just there to get sounds and help them get the songs together for power guys like Nathan East and Steve Jordan. We were only booked for five days, but we were really clicking, and on the third day, Mark Proct pulled us into a room and said both guys were really happy with how things were going and asked if we could stick around a while longer. The answer would be yes!
RODGERS: Bringing other people in was never even a thought in my mind. It’s funny how differently people experience the same situation. Maybe Al felt that way, because I didn’t speak about it. I just called musicians to make a gig as I’ve done my entire professional life.
PROCT: There was no plan B! Nile had faith in those guys, and Stevie and Jimmie had totally open minds and were willing to trust him and see what happened. The connection was complete. From the first day those guys walked into the studio, it worked. After a couple of tracks, it was pretty obvious that this was the band.
BERRY: We were hitting a song a day with the most incredible ease and freedom. Stevie would come over and play a riff, and I’d start playing something or Jimmie would play something to Larry, who would hit a beat. It all went down in the most organic, beautiful way. For me, it felt like having the endorsement of the gods.
ABERMAN: The very first song we cut was “D/FW,” and the feeling in the control room listening to the playback was like electricity, something I’ve only felt a couple of times. It was like you could see electricity in the room. It was the feeling of pure jubilation.
RODGERS: Stevie and Jimmie loved each other greatly. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they hadn’t recorded an album yet. So my approach was to get them over whatever invisible barrier existed that had kept that from happening until Family Style.
BERRY: Stevie talked about how bad of shape he had been in chemically, and as someone who didn’t know him then, it was hard to believe, because he was the most loving, gentle, encouraging, inspiring spirit I’ve ever encountered. Whatever turned in him turned into the most beautiful thing. It was like working with someone who had discovered their angelic power.
ABERMAN: He was at the top of his game. His playing and singing were incredible, and he had this really lovely girlfriend that he loved. He seemed so peaceful. We’d go out and have these great dinners and talks, and then me and Al and Jimmie would go to hang out and have some drinks and René and Stevie would go their own way. One night, I urged Stevie to come with us, and he said, “No, man. I’m going back to my room to call my girl and to pray.” I was blown away. This guy is at the top of his game. He can do whatever he wants, and that’s what he wanted. He said a few times, “I don’t know why I’m here. Hendrix is gone, and I almost died. I’m here for a reason.” It took a couple of years, but his experience inspired me to get sober. Through his example, I could see what was possible.
* * *
On March 14, 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan was named Musician of the Year and Decade at the Austin Music Awards, where he also collected several other awards. He flew in from Memphis to accept the honors and thanked the audience, saying, “I just want to thank God that I’m alive, and I want to thank all the people that loved me back to life so that I could be here with you today.”
David Grissom was awarded Best Electric Guitarist at the same awards show and vividly recalls his interaction with Stevie that night. “He was so sweet and humble, with a gleam in his eye and a huge smile on his face the entire time, full of life and joy,” says Grissom. “He was so gracious and welcoming to me, offering me a big congratulations. He still had a childishness about him in a healthy way, brimming with enthusiasm.”
The “Brothers” sessions broke for about a month, and Stevie went back on the road. They reconvened at Dallas Sound Lab to record two more tracks, which would get them up to the minimum needed of ten, and to cut all the lead vocals. Some songs remained incomplete; they had essentially sung scratch lyrics with their scratch vocals in Memphis.
“We were still writing ‘Long Way from Home’ when they came down to Dallas, so we would write over at Stevie’s house, then he’d invite me to the studio,” recalled Bramhall. “I had a little room off to the side where I would keep working. He’d just stick his head in and talk, and we finished the song up like that, two or three words here and there over a two-day period.”
Bramhall was in the studio for more than just songwriting; he played drums on the two new songs they recorded during the Dallas sessions, with the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Preston Hubbard on acoustic bass. They had always planned to cut “Hillbillies from Outer Space” there, an
d “Brothers” was an off-the-cuff instrumental, for which they wanted Bramhall’s Texas shuffle swing. Jimmie and Stevie cut the song live, swapping the same Stratocaster back and forth.
PROCT: “Hillbillies” was something Jimmie definitely wanted to do with upright bass and a real Texas shuffle, which is why we cut it with Doyle and Preston. “Brothers” was a little bit of an afterthought. It was just a whimsical thing where Stevie was playing and Jimmie came and took the guitar from him and they swapped it back and forth.
RODGERS: I have no memory of who suggested swapping one guitar originally, but I’d seen them do it live and was more than game for trying it.
SRV: We were taking it away from each other. It was one guitar and one amp.
JIMMIE VAUGHAN: We pulled it out of each other’s hands. People are always asking us questions about what it was like when we were kids, and they probably think that it was just like that, us fighting over the same guitar. It was just for fun. And even though it’s the same guitar and rig, the tones sound different, because we learned how to get different tones from the same setup and the same tones from different rigs. It was a little-bitty Princeton or Deluxe.
SRV: We don’t know what it is because it was skinned! It had been an old tweed, but there’s nothin’ left on it but knobs and a handle!
JIMMIE VAUGHAN: When we switched, I’d turn down a little, switch to another pickup, whatever. We could have manufactured the whole thing: gotten really good tones and played really clean, but what we liked about it was that it was so real.
SRV: Doyle played drums on it, and Preston played bass. It was funny, because we started off with a click track. We were gonna try to play to this click, so that if we wanted to change something, we could. But it was like the click was here [snaps fingers in time], and we were completely off of it! It had nothin’ to do with anything!