Who headed the Double Trouble band?

Stevie Ray Vaughan headed Double Trouble, the Austin, Texas, blues-rock band that became his principal backing group. Vaughan was the band’s guitarist, lead vocalist, and frontman, while its best-known rhythm section featured drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon.

The group grew out of Vaughan’s earlier Triple Threat Revue in the late 1970s. After lineup changes, Vaughan and his fellow musicians adopted the name Double Trouble, borrowed from an Otis Rush song. The band later became widely billed as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, making Vaughan’s leadership central to its public identity.

Double Trouble broke through with the album Texas Flood in 1983, followed by Couldn’t Stand the Weather and Soul to Soul. Their tight blues arrangements and Vaughan’s fiery guitar playing helped revive mainstream interest in electric blues during the 1980s. Keyboardist Reese Wynans joined the core lineup in 1985.

The question sometimes causes confusion because Double Trouble was also the name of a band rather than Vaughan’s solo alias. Vaughan led the group, but Layton, Shannon, and later Wynans were essential collaborators in its sound and success.