Stevie Ray Vaughan is Gone but His Music Lingers On

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I'm shocked to see that it has now been a full 20 years since Stevie Ray Vaughan and several others were killed when their helicopter, which they boarded after a sold-out concert, crashed into a hill on Aug. 27, 1990.  But, despite his untimely passing, his contributions to music were never (nor could they ever be) forgotten.

I first became aware Stevie Ray Vaughan -- like I did with so many other artists -- through watching MTV endlessly through the '80s. (This, of course, was back when MTV actually showed music videos, as opposed to the annoying reality shows they shove in our faces today. Do they even make music videos anymore?)

It took me awhile to really appreciate the kind of music he did, but I soon had to see that he clearly was one of the greatest guitar players ever. Even re-watching these videos of his songs after 20 years, his playing is nothing short of brilliant, and he strums that guitar with such amazing confidence that he makes it look almost effortless. I would definitely put Vaughan on a par with Eric Clapton as a guitar god, and many others have even gone out of their way to compare him to Jimi Hendrix. Is the comparison between Stevie Ray and Jimi justified? Absolutely!

Many Vaughan fans are celebrating this sad occasion by remembering him and honoring his unique style of playing the blues. KVUE News in Austin reported that central Texans near and far had come to visit the statue of Vaughan located by Lady Bird Lake to mark the occasion and honor one of the greatest guitar players ever. CBS News reported that Oak Cliff resident Jeff Castro is continuing the annual motorcycle tribute ride and concert he co-founded to commemorate Vaughn's birthday in October, and that many in Texas are still working to get a memorial up for him after all these years. Even John Mayer weighed in on his biggest musical inspirations in his blog:

"Stevie defined my love of blues music and my passion to spend as many waking hours as I could with a guitar in my hands. I never met him and I never saw him play live, but he changed my life forever. Stevie quite literally gave me a career in music."