Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Texas Flood (Epic)

DAVID BOWIE didn't discover Stevie Ray, the power blues specialist who by the sound of this solo LP was sorely tempered on Bowie's tepid Let's Dance. It was the legendary John Hammond, who previously sponsored Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen among others. (Hammond has been telling the press that in the ten years since Springsteen, Stevie Ray is the first "decent, human being" he's run across in the biz).