The Vaughan Brothers’ Blues-Guitar Legacy : *** 1/2 THE VAUGHAN BROTHERS “Family Style” : <i> Epic</i> : <i> Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five stars (a classic).</i>

Not the in-yer-face, six-string razor whip-out! one might expect from the first collaborative record by these two Texas guitar-slingin’ siblings, but a warm, kinda kicked-back, decidedly non-competitive, just-dropped-in-to-pick-’n’-grin-after-dinner session.

This triumph of feel over content extends to the songwriting, although the Stax-track soul ballad for universal brotherhood (“Tick Tock”) and the James Brown funk vamp (“Baboom/Mama Said”) are surprising pleasures.

Fronting a skintight rhythm section (with occasional keyboards, horns and backing vocals added for color), Stevie Ray handles most of the vocals--older brother Jimmie takes two (a first)--but it’s the three instrumentals that really put the peppers in the potluck.

The Lonnie Mack-inspired “D/FW,” the swirling, guitar-as-organ, move ‘n’ groove “Hillbillies From Outerspace” and especially the live-in-the-studio, passing-one-guitar-between-’em, first-take blues “Brothers” that ends this combination platter are nuthin’ but fine, fine, superfine, respectively.

Vaguely melancholic, too, mostly because it’s hard not to think about Stevie Ray’s recent death in a helicopter crash, making the prospect of the flashy fretgrinder and his arguably more bluesicianly bro’ doing it live! an impossibility.