For vinyl collectors, there is always that “Holy Grail” that, one day, maybe, if I get really lucky, I’ll own it, this is my story about my search, location and ownership of such a record!

Backstory — I got into SRV in about 2008 and since then have been hooked. Gradually, I started collecting more and more, once the regular releases were out of the way, I started collecting bootlegs and so on. In 2011 I got my first record player, naturally plenty of Stevie Ray Vaughan & DT releases began to follow.

If you want to see my entire collection, hit up the below.

https://au.pinterest.com/davidclarkeau/stevie-ray-vaughan-collection/

Or for only the musical stuff -

Fast forward to 2013, while browsing Discogs I stumble across a title I’ve read about in a few of the SRV books I own, Dallas — A New Hi.

This is the very first known recording of Stevie in the studio, who, at the time, is six-teen-years-old and playing for a band called “Cast of Thousands”, they play 2 tracks on this compilation of local Dallas bands.

Cast of Thousands — Stevie is seated with Guitar

See below for the notes of this release.

Rare 1971 original 10-song compilation LP of unknown Dallas bands. Includes tracks by The Mint, Image, Stone Sypher, Blue Persuasion, and Cast Of Thousands. Cast of Thousands was a six-piece band started by Steve Tobolowsky (later an actor), who asked Steve Ray Vaughan to join his band. They perform two tracks on this LP, with Stevie credited as “Steve Vaughan — Guitar”. Also included is a rare 24" x 18" poster insert which has photos of each of the bands. The Cast Of Thousands photo is at the top left and shows Stevie seated in the center playing his guitar. This is Stevie Ray Vaughan’s first appearance on record, when he was just 15 years old.

Stephen Tobolowsky (also a member of Cast of Thousands) himself re-tells this in a way no one else can, have a listen to the clip below. It also features “Red, White & Blue” at the end, see if you can pick when Stevie dials it up to 11. Dang!