Synopsis
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble perform "Mary Had a Little Lamb" as a compact, high-energy blues number onstage at Toronto's El Mocambo club. Vaughan handles the song's vocal and lead guitar with sharp phrasing, heavy bends, and a playful swagger, while Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton provide a tight rhythmic foundation. The footage presents the trio in a classic live-club setting, emphasizing Vaughan's physical intensity and the band's raw, unvarnished performance style rather than a scripted narrative.
Factoids & Trivia
- The performance was recorded at the El Mocambo in Toronto on July 20, 1983, during the Texas Flood Tour.
- The clip comes from the concert film *Live at the El Mocambo*, which was released in 1991. The film documents an early period in Vaughan's rise to wider recognition.
- Vaughan's version is a cover of Buddy Guy's blues adaptation of the nursery rhyme, rather than a straight rendering of the traditional children's song.
- The studio recording appeared on *Texas Flood*, Vaughan's 1983 debut album with Double Trouble.
- The arrangement turns the familiar melody into a driving blues vehicle, pairing the recognizable vocal hook with Vaughan's aggressive electric-guitar attack.
- The backing band on the performance is the classic Double Trouble lineup of Tommy Shannon on bass and Chris "Whipper" Layton on drums.