Jimmie Vaughan Roams His Home in the Blues
Jimmie Vaughan has put lot of miles on his odometer since leaving the Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1990. But he really hasn’t covered a lot of territory. Although he’ll take an occasional side trip into country or early rock and roll, Vaughan’s map is still the blues. After recording Family Style with brother Stevie Ray before leaving the band in 1990, Jimmie Vaughan stopped playing shortly after Stevie Ray was killed later that year. Encouraged by Eric Clapton, who tapped him to open 16 shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Vaughan recorded his first solo album, Strange Pleasures, in 1994.
Since then he’s put out a series of solo releases honoring his favorites in blues, R&B, and country. He’s been recording and touring with his band Tilt-a-Whirl, often featuring former T-Birds vocalist Lou Ann Barton.
Vaughan’s latest, Baby, Please Come Home, features members of that band as well as a cadre of players who have supported Vaughan in the studio and onstage for decades.
Vaughan’s sound never changes — it’s that same deep-fried Texas soul and twang that’s become his trademark. But he doesn’t rely on fancy gear or vintage axes to get the job done. He says he likes Fender guitars okay, but can do without all the hoo-ha over pre-owned guitars. “I love Leo Fender,” he told Tony McLain in a 1986 interview. “I just don’t like the idea of payin’ a lotta money for these old ones, that somebody else beat up. I have several old ones, but I’d rather spend the money on my shoes.”
But nobody can accuse Vaughan of shoe gazing. His playing makes player and audience alike pick up their feet and move to the hypnotizing rhythms. Even while shuffling along on Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s “Midnight Hour,” Vaughan keeps the groove greasy and fluid, slinky and funky with clangy bursts of Texas twang tossed in.
Vaughan said that one of the reasons he left the Thunderbirds was to explore new ways to express himself, including singing, which he left to Kim Wilson while in the Birds. Vaughan has turned into a vintage-sounding bluesman, with a slightly hoarse, smoky delivery perfectly suited to his bar band/roadhouse material.
But Vaughan’s guitar does most of the talking on Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What’s Wrong,” Vaughan and company punching up Reed’s original a bit with the help of Mike Flanigin’s Hammond organ swelling churchily behind him.
Richard Berry’s “Be My Lovely Dovey” is shuffly doo-wop featuring a twangy female chorus consisting of iconic fiddler Johnny Gimble’s granddaughter Emily and Doyle Bramhall’s daughter Georgia that sounds like the lonestar celestial choir of Barton with Angela Strehli and Marcia Ball on 1990’s Dreams Come True.
Fats Domino’s “So Glad” gets smoothed out considerably, with the choppy knee-liftin’ back beat of the original ironed out into a smooth surface to glide along on.
The title cut is vintage Vaughn, shoveling up bucketloads of industrial clang as he slashes his way through the scrapyard, cranking out ironclad riffs and laying down steel rails for the shuffle to glide smoothly along.
Vaughan’s journey continues, guided by voices from the past who inspire him to interpret and preserve their legacy with style and class.