For Jimmie Vaughan, his Fender Stratocaster electric guitar has always been his ride of choice to get to that new place. He started playing young, and when the blues of Freddie King and Frankie Lee Sims crawled deep inside his young soul, it would stay there forever. As he started playing in Dallas as a teenager, there was never even another choice. “If I didn't do this, there wasn't any other plan. But even as a kid I knew I loved music, and particularly the blues.”
As the '70s quickly geared up and early band Storm lead to the formation of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, it looked like the sky was the limit. And it was for 15 years, until it wasn't anymore. It was time for a change, and as someone who trusted himself more than any other, Jimmie Vaughan started a true solo career, including taking over vocals with his band. The albums kept coming, touring took him around the world again, and Jimmie Vaughan’s heart was full. Except for that one thing he could not get enough of: the Hammond organ. It was a sound he’d always been drawn to, back to the ‘60s and organists like Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith, Bill Doggett, Jack McDuff and Big John Patton.
Years later, Jimmie stopped into a club in Austin to hear Mike Flanigin and Barry “Frosty” Smith play. “When I heard Mike Flanigin and Frosty play, it made me want to get back into that organ trio sound that I loved from the 60’s. Mike was smokin’ on the B3. He had studied with John Patton and loved all the same great music.” Frosty and Vaughan were born on the same day, brothers of the Equinox on March 20, and had the same rules for how songs needed to work. The drummer’s first band in the Bay Area in the ‘60s was an organ trio, then to play later with Lee Michaels and many hit makers before coming into the Austin scene. Soon after, when Jimmie wasn’t on the road, he began sitting in with them, and it became the “cool” thing to catch in Austin.
So with Smith and Flanigin, the Jimmie Vaughan Trio was born. And when it moved into C-Boy’s a few years ago for frolicking Friday-Saturday night stands it really did appear the circle was complete.
The only thing missing, as the trio was driving audiences wild weekend after weekend, was an album. And the only kind of album that made any sense at all was one recorded live at C-Boy's. That was where the action was, where the sweat hit the floor and the floor swayed as one under the band and the dancers. This was Austin, where live music is no small thing, and this was Jimmie Vaughan, surely the city's musical hometown hero going all the way back to 1970.
For Jimmie Vaughan, his Fender Stratocaster electric guitar has always been his ride of choice to get to that new place. He started playing young, and when the blues of Freddie King and Frankie Lee Sims crawled deep inside his young soul, it would stay there forever. As he started playing in Dallas as a teenager, there was never even another choice. “If I didn't do this, there wasn't any other plan. But even as a kid I knew I loved music, and particularly the blues.”
As the '70s quickly geared up and early band Storm lead to the formation of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, it looked like the sky was the limit. And it was for 15 years, until it wasn't anymore. It was time for a change, and as someone who trusted himself more than any other, Jimmie Vaughan started a true solo career, including taking over vocals with his band. The albums kept coming, touring took him around the world again, and Jimmie Vaughan’s heart was full. Except for that one thing he could not get enough of: the Hammond organ. It was a sound he’d always been drawn to, back to the ‘60s and organists like Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith, Bill Doggett, Jack McDuff and Big John Patton.
Years later, Jimmie stopped into a club in Austin to hear Mike Flanigin and Barry “Frosty” Smith play. “When I heard Mike Flanigin and Frosty play, it made me want to get back into that organ trio sound that I loved from the 60’s. Mike was smokin’ on the B3. He had studied with John Patton and loved all the same great music.” Frosty and Vaughan were born on the same day, brothers of the Equinox on March 20, and had the same rules for how songs needed to work. The drummer’s first band in the Bay Area in the ‘60s was an organ trio, then to play later with Lee Michaels and many hit makers before coming into the Austin scene. Soon after, when Jimmie wasn’t on the road, he began sitting in with them, and it became the “cool” thing to catch in Austin.
So with Smith and Flanigin, the Jimmie Vaughan Trio was born. And when it moved into C-Boy’s a few years ago for frolicking Friday-Saturday night stands it really did appear the circle was complete.
The only thing missing, as the trio was driving audiences wild weekend after weekend, was an album. And the only kind of album that made any sense at all was one recorded live at C-Boy's. That was where the action was, where the sweat hit the floor and the floor swayed as one under the band and the dancers. This was Austin, where live music is no small thing, and this was Jimmie Vaughan, surely the city's musical hometown hero going all the way back to 1970.
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By the time "Cleo's Mood" closes this Live at C-Boy's CD, the Jimmie Vaughan Trio have effortlessly transported themselves and their listeners to another space and time, at once comfortable and enlivening, not to mention intoxicating in the best of all possible ways. 4 out of 5 Stars. ~ All About Jazz
On his trio's new live album, the Fab T-Birds' cofounding guitarist delivers some of his finest playing in years. ~ Guitar World
