"Texas Flood" (sometimes called "Stormin' in Texas" or "Flood Down in Texas") is a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

song recorded by Larry Davis in 1958. Considered a blues standard, it has been recorded by several artists, including

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...

, who made it part of his repertoire.

Original song

"Texas Flood" is a slow-tempo

twelve-bar blues The 12-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on ...

notated in 12/8 time in the key of A flat. Davis wrote it in California in 1955 and the song is credited to Davis and

Duke Records Duke Records was an American record label, started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1952 by David James Mattis (WDIA program director and DJ) and Bill Fitzgerald, owners of Tri-State Recording Company. Their first release was Roscoe Gordon singing "Hey ...

arranger/trumpeter Joseph Scott. Nominally about a flood in Texas, Davis used it as a metaphor for his relationship problems: Although Davis later became a guitar player, for "Texas Flood" Fenton Robinson provided the distinctive guitar parts, with Davis on vocals and bass,

James Booker James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Booker's unique style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. Musician Dr. J ...

on piano, David Dean on tenor saxophone, Booker Crutchfield on baritone saxophone, and an unknown drummer. The song was Davis' first single as a leader and became a regional hit.

Stevie Ray Vaughan version

According to

Clifford Antone Clifford Antone (October 27, 1949 – May 22, 2006) was the founder of the eponymous Austin blues club Antone's and independent record label Antone's Records and Tapes, as well as a mentor to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Kim Wilson, G ...

, Stevie Ray Vaughan was introduced to "Texas Flood" by

Angela Strehli Angela Strehli (born November 22, 1945) is an American electric blues singer and songwriter. She is also a Texas blues historian and impresario. Despite a sporadic recording career, Strehli spends time each year performing in Europe, the US an ...

at Antone's Austin, Texas club, where the three of them worked out the song. Vaughan drummer Chris Layton recalled that

Albert King Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps b ...

brought Larry Davis to the club several times, where Vaughan was attracted to the "intriguing guitar parts". In 1983, Vaughan recorded "Texas Flood" for his debut album, also titled '' Texas Flood''. He followed Davis' song, although he added several twelve-bar sections of improvised guitar soloing, which nearly doubled the length of the song and provided a showcase for his electric guitar style. Although Vaughan performed it in using G fingering, he tuned his guitar one-half step lower; as a result the song is played in the key of G-flat. Vaughan recorded several live versions of "Texas Flood" during his career, which appeared on such albums as ''

Live Alive ''Live Alive'' is the first live album compiled from four live performances by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. The performances were recorded on July 15, 1985 at the Montreux Jazz Festival; July 17–18, 1986 at the Austin Opera House; a ...

'' (1986), ''

Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985 ''Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985'' is the fourth live album of American blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughan and his band Double Trouble, recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 17, 1982 (Disc 1) and July 15, 1985 (Disc 2), and released Novem ...

'' (released 2001), '' Live in Tokyo'' (1985, released 2006), and the videos '' Live at the El Mocambo'' (1983, released 1991) and '' Live from Austin, Texas'' (1983, released 1995). Vaughan's version is listed at number 66 by ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine in its "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Texas Flood (Song) 1958 songs Blues songs 1958 singles Stevie Ray Vaughan songs Songs about Texas Songs about floods Duke Records singles