The album, which was co-produced by Vaughan and Mack, features Vaughan on several tracks, playing electric and acoustic guitar, something that very rarely happened.
Vaughan even sings a duet with Mack on one of the songs, "If You Have to Know," making it the closest thing to a straight-ahead SRV tune.
In August 1986, about a year and a half after the album's release, Mack joined Vaughan on stage at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tennessee, to perform a few tracks from the album, including "Oreo Cookie Blues," a comical acoustic-blues number, and "Wham!," one of Mack's best-known instrumental songs.
Although Mack originally released "Wham!" in 1963, he and Vaughan covered it on Strike Like Lightning as "Double Whammy." Vaughan's official studio recording of "Wham!" is available on 1991's posthumously released The Sky Is Crying.
Below, you can check out both songs from that night in August of '86.
Although we don't hear his name often enough these days, Mack—along with Jimi Hendrix and Albert King—was one of Vaughan's biggest guitar influences. "I got a lot of the fast things I do from Lonnie," Vaughan once said. (Let's just say that SRV's "Scuttle Buttin'" was very muchinspired by Mack.) In 1987, Vaughan listed Mack first among the guitarists he listened to, both as a youngster, and as an adult.
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
