Eric Clapton, Jimmy Vaughan &Robert Cray: Six Strings Down
By: Pamela Leavey On: May 30, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Jimmy Vaughan, Robert Cray, Eric Clapton and Robert Randolph perform “Six Strings Down”:
“Six Strings Down” was written by Art Neville, Eric Kolb, Aaron Neville, Cyril Neville, Kelsey Smith, and Jimmie Vaughan.
Sphere: Related ContentThe song was written as a eulogy to Jimmie Vaughan’s brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and, by extension, many other fallen guitarists.
In its original incarnation, the song takes the form of an acoustic blues. The opening line, “Alpine Valley/Middle of the Night” refers to the Alpine Valley Music Theater near East Troy, Wisconsin where the helicopter carrying Stevie Ray Vaughan and several others crashed following a concert in 1990. The song references many other deceased blues music guitarists including Jimi Hendrix (the “voodoo chile”), Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones, Freddie King, and Albert King. The song’s refrain mourns that “Heaven done called another blues stringer back home”.
