Artist: Jimmie Vaughan
Album: Baby, Please Come Home
Label: Last Music Company
Release Date: 05.17.2019
Stevie Vaughan took the blues to wild places naturally, but Jimmie rarely strayed from the real deal over the ensuing 56 years. Now, Vaughan proves he’s in the league of gentlemen he’s always called his heroes. Effortless talent and unwavering commitment electrify every neat beat on Baby, Please Come Home. Cut in various sessions last year, the whole of it plays like a sparkling time capsule, opened up with keen awareness, and radiating big joy. The eleven songs presented are some of Vaughan’s personal favorites, all differing in both nature and origin, but moving together like a crazy day’s weather.
Lloyd Price’s “Baby, Please Come Home” blows the lid off it all in a similar fashion to the way “Wait on Time” did on the very first—very important—Fabulous Thunderbirds album 40 years ago. With senses of both urgency and delight, the tune just plain rocks. Vaughan co-founded the T-Birds with Kim Wilson, and when Wilson’s in your band, there’s no reason to sing, so Vaughan only took up vocalizing some 20 years ago. His high, scratchy tenor—you can hear the family style—has stood the test of time, real passion intact. Listen to T-Bone Walker’s slow, sultry “I’m Still In Love With You.” Vaughan convinces in voice nearly as profoundly as by guitar. Nearly.
Whether being delicate, or letting loose on the strings, he pierces the air with 100% individuality, and supple ease. His licks in Richard Berry’s finger-snappin’ “Be My Lovey Dovey” also show how he loves twang just as much as sharp sting. Two of the songs were cut live; the fireworks stoked by a small crowd’s absolute thrill. These are some of the best players you’ll hear, playing timeless music. Don’t miss this take on the blues by Jimmie Vaughan and his band, all hot and bothered as they are, and ready to lift spirits on command.
Also, don’t miss the fascinating biography, Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan, to be published this coming August. Authors Alan Paul and Andy Aledort bring to vibrant life the remarkably musical household the Vaughan brothers grew up in. We find how at age 12, Jimmie Vaughan’s sudden infatuation with the guitar and blues music dramatically shaped the course of each of their lives.
—Tom Clarke
Be the first to comment!