Following career-defining stints with guitar legends Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan, bassist Tommy Shannon is practically synonymous with the blues.
“Tommy is the quintessential modern blues bassist,” said Roscoe Beck in a 1997 Special Issue of Bass Player. “Stylistically, he ranks among innovators like Jack Bruce – but he's also rooted in the tradition of of the great Chicago and Texas blues bands, right back to the early bass pioneers like Willie Dixon.”
In 1968, Shannon landed a gig with the then-unknown Johnny Winter. With drummer John Turner, the trio produced three highly influential albums – and made an appearance at Woodstock – before splintering in 1970.
Shannon drifted into drugs and jails throughout the '70s before teaming up with Vaughan and drummer Chris Layton in 1980. “I got strung out on drugs, and I got in trouble with the law,” Shannon told Bass Player. “I lost everything and every friend I had; the only thing I held onto was my Fender Jazz Bass.
“I worked in construction until I was finally able to get back into music. That led to a gig with Rocky Hill, the brother of ZZ Top's Dusty Hill.
“I was living in Houston, and I heard Stevie was going to be playing at a club in town. I walked in and saw him onstage, and this beam of light went through me telling me that was where I was meant to be.”
“I went over to him on a break, and not caring who was in earshot, I said, ‘I belong in this band. I want to play with you.’ I ended up sitting in and having a great time, and about a month later he called and asked me to join.”
The ability to cook up catchy hooks within a bluesy framework is one of Shannon's greatest assets. Perhaps his best known line is the classic riff from Crossfire by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.
Crossfire features a vintage blues flavor evident both in the repetition and note content of the unforgettable ostinato. Pinpointing its origin, Shannon stated simply, “I was sitting around playing one night, and the part just came to me.”
Crossfire begins with a drum fill and a 12-bar intro that rides on Shannon's two-bar sub-hook. For the bridge at 01:43, Shannon maintains an almost identical eighth-note rhythmic pattern, this time sticking to roots and octaves.
With the tune building and the guitar solo coming up, Shannon throws in a tasty eighth-note fill at 01:57. “That happened on the spur of the moment, and I liked it so much I repeated it later going into the ride-out guitar solo (at 03:35) – but down an octave for variety.”
As the track picks up intensity via Vaughan's raucous chordal solo, Chris Layton's drum fills, and the addition of the #9 to the Eb7 chord by both Vaughan and keyboardist Reese Wynans, Shannon holds firm.
With his bass part now the only thing keeping it all together, the effectiveness of the static-line concept really becomes apparent. “The track even starts to speed up, which we pointed out to Stevie – but he told us to leave it as is.”
Though Shannon has played various basses throughout his career, his mainstay axe is a 1962 Fender Jazz Bass that he's had since his time with Johnny Winter.
“A lot of different companies send me basses, and some of them are really good, and I'll play them for a while, but I always go back to my old Fender Jazz. I've never heard a bass that sounds better.”
To match Vaughan's Eb tuning, Shannon tuned down a half-step. The resulting lower string tension led to some string-rattle problems on the E and A strings, for which Shannon compensated by using heavier-gauge Rotosound strings and plucking over the bridge pickup instead of his usual spot over the neck pickup.
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