As I mentioned last week, this past Friday marked the 20th anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tragic and untimely death. To pay tribute to SRV, the members of Double Trouble (Reese Wynans, Chris Layton, and Tommy Shannon) got together at a small club here in Nashville with a number of guitarists and played much of Stevie’s recorded catalog of music. I was able to attend the show and witnessed nearly four hours of excellent music. It was an unbelievable experience to be able to see Double Trouble play the music that has affected me so much over the years. Anthony Stauffer, from StevieSnacks.com, also attended the show and was able to record some clips, which he has posted on YouTube:

This Friday, August 27, marks 20 years since Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tragic death. Fender has posted a nice retrospective about SRV with quotes about Stevie from his family and friends, including this quote from Double Trouble drummer Chris “Whipper” Layton:

“I didn’t meet him that night, but the first time I heard him play was at a place called Soap Creek Saloon in Austin, Texas,” Layton said. “Drove up, got out of my car and I could hear the band playing, but I heard this piercing guitar. It was like outside, not even coming from inside; It was just like drilling right there in the walls of the building. I thought, ‘Wow, who is this guy?’ And, it was Stevie. I thought, ‘He’s remarkable.’ He just was.”

Read the full article here.

Guitar Center’s King of the Blues grand finals will be held this year on September 2 at the House of Blues in Hollywood, CA. Kenny Wayne Shepherd will host the event with Derek Trucks and Honeyboy Edwards performing.

Lee Ritenour released a new album titled 6 String Theory this week. The album is a celebration of the guitar and features a number of great guest artists, including George Benson, BB King, Slash, Steve Lukather, John Scofield, Joe Bonamassa, Robert Cray, Vince Gill, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Majal, Guthrie Govan, Andy McKee, and Jonny Lang, among others. There are a total of 20 great guitarists on this album! As you might expect from the wide-ranging styles of the guest artists, the album covers many different genres, including blues, jazz, rock, and even classical thanks to a contribution by 16-year-old Shon Boublil, who won Ritenour’s Yamaha Six String Theory Guitar Competition.

The track listing for the album is as follows:

1. Lay It Down (feat. Lee Ritenour and John Scofield)
2. Am I Wrong (feat. Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal)
3. L.P. (For Les Paul) (feat. Joey DeFrancesco, Pat Martino, and Lee Ritenour)
4. Give Me One Reason (feat. Joe Bonamassa and Robert Cray)
5. “68″ (feat. Neal Schon, Slash, and Steve Lukather)
6. In Your Dreams (feat. Lee Ritenour, Neal Schon, and Steve Lukather)
7. My One and Only Love (feat. George Benson)
8. Moon River (feat. George Benson)
9. Why I Sing the Blues (feat. Keb’ Mo’, B.B. King, Vince Gill, Lee Ritenour, and Jonny Lang)
10. Daddy Longlicks (feat. Joe Robinson)
11. Shape of My Heart (feat. Lee Ritenour, Steve Lukather, and Andy McKee)
12. Drifting (feat. Andy McKee)
13. Freeway Jam (feat. Lee Ritenour, Mike Stern, and Tomoyasu Hotei)
14. Fives (feat. Guthrie Govan and Tal Wilkenfeld)
15. Caprices, Op. 20, No. 2 and 7 (feat. Shon Boublil)

Below is a preview of the album:

Five years ago when I started Guitar Lifestyle, there weren’t very many other guitar blogs around. In the last five years, I’ve seen a number of guitar blogs come and go, but Guitar Noize has been one of the few that has stuck around and provided consistently good content. Jon, the creator of Guitar Noize, is celebrating the 3rd anniversary of Guitar Noize with a huge giveaway. He’s giving away a ton of stuff, including effects, strings, software, instructional material, and more! You can see what he’s giving away and sign up for a chance to win on the Guitar Noize 3rd Birthday Bonanza sign up form.

As you probably know, Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival was held this past weekend in Chicago. Rich Murray attended the show and has created a photo gallery of the performers.

Premier Guitar magazine recently featured a photo retrospective of Stevie Ray Vaughan, from the photo archives of Tracy Anne Hart. The retrospective contains 17 photos of Stevie spanning his career. Some great photos of my favorite artist.

Whole Lotta Led is an interesting website detailing the guitars, amps, and effects that Jimmy Page used during his Led Zeppelin days. The site appears to be fairly well researched and also includes a number of great pictures of Page with Zeppelin.

Eric Johnson will be playing with the Les Paul Trio and Anton Fig at the Iridium Jazz Club on June 5th, 6th, and 7th. He will play two shows each night. They will mostly play Johnson’s material but in a jazz trio format, according to Johnson’s website.

I hope they record some of these shows. I won’t be able to catch the shows in NYC, and I think this format would be really interesting for Johnson’s material. If any of you go, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts on the show.

Christopher Davis, who runs the Classical Guitar Blog and who is a graduate student at Austin Peay State University (APSU), let me know that APSU is hosting a Summer Guitar Workshop this summer from June 28-July 2. The workshop will offer classes in both classical and fingerstyle guitar styles.

The faculty of the workshop will be:

• Stanley Yates, Director
• Stephen Aron, Classical Guitar Workshop Co-director / Collegiate Competition Chair
• Mir Ali, Classical Guitar Workshop Co-Director / Pre-Collegiate Competition Chair
• Richard Smith, Fingerstyle Workshop Co-Director / Fingerstyle Competition Chair
• Roger Hudson, Fingerstyle Workshop Co-Director

In addition to the classes, the workshop will have competitions for collegiate/post-collegiate classical guitarists, pre-collegiate classical guitarists, and pre-collegiate fingerstyle guitarists. Additionally, there will be concerts each night.

The workshop sounds like a lot of fun. APSU is located about 45 minutes north of Nashville. Housing is available at the college, so if you’re not from this area you can still participate in the workshop.