Brothers in Blues: Jimmie & Stevie Ray Vaughan (Film Screening)
Both Jimmie Vaughan and his younger brother Stevie Ray went from a small, frame house in Oak Cliff, Texas, to become guitar heroes, selling millions of records and playing alongside legendary rockers such as David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne and Carlos Santana. Using never-before-seen photos and Vaughan brothers’ family home movies this is the story of their rise from a working-class neighborhood to the top of the rock & roll pyramid. It is the only work authorized by the Estate of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Brothers in Blues looks at the explosion of rock bands after the Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, the teen club scene in Oak Cliff that spawned the Vaughan Brothers, and their eventual move to Austin where they became mainstays of the late 1970s “live music capitol of the world” landscape. From there their recording careers are highlighted, as well as their collaborations with the rock and roll elite (David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Billy Gibbons, Carlos Santana, Nile Rodgers, etc.) ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons tells of playing the Texas club circuit in the 1960s and watching a 15-year-old Jimmie Vaughan performing with The Chessmen at The Catacombs in Houston.
As the only film, or production that Jimmie Vaughan has ever collaborated with, he and Eric Clapton give their only on-camera interviews about what happened on the night that Stevie died, while Jackson Browne recounts loaning his recording studio to Double Trouble and singing at Stevie’s funeral. Nile Rodgers tells of working with Stevie on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and producing “Family Style” the last studio recording by Jimmie and Stevie.
Filled with rock history, never-before-seen photos and home movies, as well as previously untold stories from the people who were “in the room when it happened”, Brothers in Blues is a must-see for any baby boomer and an eye-opening revelation for those who don’t know the Vaughan brothers and their enduring legacy.
