Stevie Ray Vaughan: The Sky Is Crying
[purchase]
The guitar wail. The vocal moan. The heartstring masculinity of the core metaphor. The poignancy of the posthumous album, the best of a bluesman lost in his prime to foggy weather and a helicopter pilot's inexperience.
I maintain that The Sky Is Crying is Stevie Ray Vaughan's greatest album, bar none -- if for no other reason than that the sheer raw emotion of the songs it contains, coupled with the bittersweet hope of its very existence, has helped me get through so many periods of great sadness and loss. Its title song is just one gem among many recorded in life, and released first in death. Talk about the blues incarnate.
