Texas Platters

Live billed as the Mike Flanigin Trio featuring Jimmie Vaughan, the locals' recorded debut flips the original Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist to star billing over the local organist-to-the-stars (Billy Gibbons, Gary Clark Jr., Steve Miller). What's in the grooves, however, documents an instrumental three-way tie to the finish line preserving the final evidence of late drummer Barry "Frosty" Smith's percussive genius. This smoky, late-night organ date successfully conjures genre masters Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, and like those scratchy thrift store finds, this trio reinterprets familiar tunes instrumentally while seeking new dynamic turf. The Dovells' "You Can't Sit Down" evokes Vaughan's T-birds heyday, Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby" is refit as a rhumba rocker, and the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" lessens its Merseybeat for more shuffle. No one overplays, bowing instead to atmosphere, sweat, and funk.