Jimmie Vaughan
Do You Get the Blues? (Artemis)Kind of a stupid question, don’t you think? We all get the blues every now and then, but Jimmie Vaughan gets them. Just listen to any one of this album’s myriad guitar solos, each a piercing, note-by-note soliloquy of sadness and release. Do You Get the Blues? does indeed concern loss, but it’s more the loss of self-control and rational thinking brought on by a love affair rather than the loss of the affair itself, the thematic thread connecting stand-outs such as “Power of Love,” “Let Me In,” and “Robbin’ Me Blind.” Aided by myriad guests (James Cotton, Roscoe Beck, Herman Green’s sexy flute), but mostly Bill Willis’ calfskin B-3 and George Rains’ steady-as-she-goes drumming, each song imparts its own smoky wisdom, whether the 2am jazz-club vibe of instrumentals “Dirty Girl” and “Slow Dance Blues” or the gritty, slide guitar-driven “The Deep End.” Double Trouble and Lou Ann Barton appear for another savory trip through Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “In the Middle of the Night,” and the family style rings throughout “Without You,” written by Jimmie’s son Tyrone, who doubles on rhythm guitar. No overblown guitar-flogging histrionics here, just steady, soulful blues as a means of understanding the mysterious ways of the human heart — or trying to, at least. Nice work, Mr. V.
This article appears in November 23 • 2001.