Monday December 27, 1982 6:00 PM: I had just gotten home from work and as I opened the front door to my apartment, the phone started to ring. When I answered the phone the voice on the other end told me that their photographer had called in sick and, if I was interested,they needed somebody to go down to The Wax Museum and take a couple of pictures of this “Kid” who was supposed to be the next big “Texas Guitar Slinger”. As it was told to me, it seems this “Kid” from Austin had recently play Monteux Jazz Festival and was so good that David Bowie had asked him to play on his soon to be released album, “Lets Dance” (1983). I told the caller that although I just got home from work, and it was short notice, I guess I could, as a personal favor, run down and take a couple of pictures. ...(Since the “Kid” had been playing around DC for a couple of years, I knew exactly who I would be photographing. And, since the show had been sold out for weeks, and I didn’t have tickets, I wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity.)... The caller thanked me and told me that when I got to The Wax Museum that I should go to “Will Call” and a press pass would be waiting there for me. ...(I still have the press pass)...

That night I took a series of black & white photographs and color slides of the concert. Although only a hand full of people have ever seen the color photographs, I’ve pretty much ignored the b&w negatives for the last??? 28 years. Since I’m converting a lot of my analog images into digital format, I decided to re-visit the long ignored negatives from that night. Now, I have to admit that because of the power and shear energy of his playing, Stevie wasn’t easy to photograph. ...(His hands, guitar or both tend to be a blur of raw energy)... But, much to my surprise, several of the images I captured that night seem to display the essence of the “Kid” and his music. The photograph I’m posting here didn’t work as a straight B&W print because of all the motion of those magic hands. And, since it was what I’d consider to be a “throw away” I decided to play with the image. So I push the grain a little here, toss in a little sepia toning there and I ended up with the image you see before you. In honor of what would have been the “Kid's” 57th birthday on October 3rd, I thought I’d honor his memory by sharing this image... Happy Birthday Stevie!