Music doc 'Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues' out March 21

There's a new and quite extraordinary music documentary debuting March 21, when "Brothers in Blues," a film detailing the music careers of Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, becomes available to rent via streaming platforms or video on demand.

The film is being released by Freestyle Digital Media, the video side of Byron Allen's Allen Media Group. Jimmie Vaughan is the most prominent voice on the documentary, and Stevie Ray's big brother is a fascinating and articulate source. The film was produced and narrated by Austin writer Kirby Warnock, whose gruff voice and obvious love of the music adds authenticity.

Some of the other guests interviewed for the documentary include Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Z.Z. Top's Billy Gibbons and record producer Nile Rodgers, and their segments are all riveting.

It is fascinating to see the two Vaughan brothers growing up in the Oak Cliffs neighborhood of Dallas, where Jimmie broke his collarbone on his first day of football practice. His dad bought a cheap guitar to occupy his son during his recovery, and with The Beatles in full sway, young Jimmie was soon playing sock hops with his teenage buddies.

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Jimmie's first real band was a teenage trio dubbed The Pendulums, and their dads took turns driving them to gigs. Before long, Jimmie got a chance to join the college-aged band The Chessmen, and was making enough money to drop out of high school.

Jimmie tells a great anecdote of The Chessmen opening for Jimi Hendrix, when Hendrix had just broken his wah-wah pedal, and so struck a deal to buy Jimmie's. Soon Jimmie would move to Austin, meet up with a harmonica player named Kim Wilson, and start a band called The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

All during Jimmie's progress, kid brother Stevie Ray had idolized his brother and tried to emulate him. After years of devoted practice, Stevie Ray soon burst on the scene as a protean guitarist in his own right. Before long, Stevie also moved to Austin, and the two brothers were leading their respective bands on Sunday and Monday nights at the tiny Rome Inn.

Legendary record executive John Hammond discovered Stevie Ray, and his rapid rise to stardom ensued. While Jimmie had gravitated to more of a blues sound, Stevie Ray veered more toward a rock interpretation, heavily influenced by bluesmen like Albert King, but perhaps even more so by Hendrix.

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But eventually Stevie's drug and alcohol problems were becoming too much, and with some advice from the recently-sober Clapton, he went to rehab. How many of us knew that, post-rehab, Stevie Ray went home to Dallas and lived with his mom in their small childhood home? It is details like that which make this documentary so enthralling and, of course, heartbreaking when Stevie Ray dies in a helicopter crash at the height of his career.

Jimmie went home and hibernated for two years after that, but he's rebounded with his own Tilt-A-Whirl Band since, and continues to be one of the most incredibly talented contemporary bluesmen. The film is a must for blues fans, and music fans in general should love it too.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: 'Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues' documentary on tap