Track Listing

1. The House Is Rockin'
2. Crossfire
3. Tightrope
4. Let Me Love You Baby
5. Leave My Girl Alone
6. Travis Walk
7. Wall Of Denial
8. Scratch `N' Sniff
9. Love Me Darlin'
10. Riviera Paradise
11. SRV Speaks - (previously unreleased)
12. The House Is Rockin' (previously unreleased, live)
13. Let Me Love You Baby - (previously unreleased, live)
14. Texas Flood - (previously unreleased, live)
15. Life Without You - (previously unreleased, live)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2805 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1999-03-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com essential recording
In Step embraces blues and rock without compromising the primal joys of either. This is Stevie Ray Vaughan's best studio album and the first he recorded sober. "Travis Walk" offers a heady rush of flat-picking, "The House is Rockin'" is full-tilt roots-boogie, "Let Me Love You Baby" and "Leave My Girl Alone" are sweet blues epiphanies, and the nine-minute instrumental "Riviera Paradise" is a truly soulful mix of blues and jazz. By now, just a year before his untimely death, Vaughan had also tamed his bawling voice into a rich instrument. In short, this 1989 session is Vaughan at his artistic peak. And the four compelling live performances added to this reissue--"The House Is Rockin'," "Let Me Love You Baby," "Texas Flood," and "Life Without You," all from the In Step tour--prove there was no studio trickery involved. It's raw blues-rock perfection. --Ted Drozdowski

Customer Reviews

Very good, although it's not his best
"In Step" is often cited by critics as Stevie Ray Vaughan's best studio album. And his playing on this album is actually a bit more economical, maybe even a bit more mannered, than on his earlier releases...whether or not that's a good thing is a matter of taste, I suppose.

The production is a bit more slick than usual as well, the tone of Vaughan's guitar is cleaner, and a keyboard player and occational horns have been added to the mix, but that's not to say that Stevie Ray Vaughan had gotten soft on his final solo album before his tragic death in 1990 - he just turned a little bit more towards rock rather than blues.

"In Step" opens with a blistering rocker, "The House Is Rockin'", followed by the bluesy "Crossfire", which features a superb solo by Vaughan.
"Tightrope" ventures into hard rock territory, but Stevie Ray's cover of Willie Dixon's "Let Me Love You Baby" is genuine blues-rock, and it is followed by a good reading of Buddy Guy's slow, tortured blues "Leave My Girl Alone". Vaughan didn't quite have the pipes to match the intensity of Guy's original, but he does a fine job with what he has, and the guitar playing is superb as usual.

"Travis Walk" is a funky, up-tempo instrumental with some great drumming by Chris Layton (who, incidentally, used to play drums for Buddy Guy and Lightnin' Hopkins). "Wall Of Denial" is pretty well known, but it is perhaps one of the lesser tracks on this album, with some fine guitar playing but not much in the way of either hooks or a real "groove" to grab a hold of the listener.

"Scratch n' Sniff", however, is a fine up-tempo rock song with some excellent boogie piano fills by keyboardist Reese Wynans, and a great solo by Vaughan.

Stevie Ray Vaughan can't quite pull off Howlin' Wolf's "Love Me Darlin' (May I Have A Talk With You)", but if you aren't familiar with the original, this version will actually sound pretty great, I guess. And finally, the original "In Step" album winds down with the excellent nine-minute instrumental "Rivera Paradise", a slow, moody piece.

The five excellent bonus tracks begin with a short interview snippet. The remaining four songs are all live performances: "The House Is Rockin'" and "Let Me Love You Baby" from "In Step", "Texas Flood" from Vaughan's 1983 debut album of the same name, and "Life Without You" from "Soul To Soul".
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a terrific live performer, and it's pure joy to listen to the raw, fiery live versions of the two songs from this album, which to me work better than the originals.

Highly recommended, as are all Vaughan's studio albums (although I don't agree with those who call it his best).
You should also check out Stevie Ray Vaughan's excellent live albums.

SRV - In Step
I just wanted to add some info for anyone who's considering buying this but is not completely sure:

The bonus track live version of "Texas Flood" is 7 minutes 22 seconds of Stevie's best live playing EVER recorded. It is amazing. By itself it justifies the $9 expenditure for any SRV fan. The live bonus "Life Without You" is terrific too, by far the best version I've heard of that song (minus the preachy little anti-booze speech he stops to give partway through), but nothing compares to the "Texas Flood" on here. I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for not having been born soon enough to see this man play live.

So if you're thinking about getting it - get it!

If you can only have one SRV CD, this is IT!
I'm embarrassed to admit that the first time I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan, I had my eyes closed "watching" MTV before they found reality shows more popular. He was alone, lip-synching something in garish lighting, but the song was HOT. I was fortunate enough that when this album was released, Stevie and Double Trouble promoted it in its entirety at the Arizona State Fair "in the round". People from five years old to 70 were rocking to the music; in my experience, only an Elvis Presley concert crowd matched this crowd's reaction. Stevie got a standing ovation for "Leave My Girl Alone". When I later got the album, I realized he sounded in concert as right-on as he did on the album. I have other of his CDs now but this is the best. Eric Clapton has said he didn't know where those hot licks of Stevie's came from (high praise); B. B. King said Stevie was "one of his children"; the producer of Austin City Limits on PBS said Stevie's concerts (old repeats) are the most requested. For the uninitiated. buy this CD, and you will find out why.