*** Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

SRV

(Epic/Legacy)

This four-CD (one's a DVD) set drawing heavily on live performances is enjoyable if not indispensable. It provides a deeper look at Vaughan's early career, running from his days with Austin's Paul Ray and the Cobras to his rising-star era; there's lots of entertaining material, including an instrumental duet with his brother Jimmie on "Rude Mood/Pipeline." But Vaughan's best live recording remains the already available Carnegie Hall concert, and there are other versions available of almost everything here. Still, when you listen to the compendium of definitive blues licks (to say nothing of a Stratocaster tone rivaled only by Jimi Hendrix) that Vaughan dispenses with offhand grace and power -- whether he's ripping through Guitar Slim's "The Things That I Used To Do," popping strings on Howlin' Wolf's "I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)," or squeezing every ounce of his Texas soul into the guitar/vocal synergy of "Leave My Girl Alone" -- it's obvious there's no such thing as hearing too much of a genius.

-- Ted Drozdowski