O.C. POP MUSIC REVIEW : A Different Brand of Fabulous

The four years since his last tour have been trying ones for Jimmie Vaughan. In 1990 the guitarist made the chancy move of leaving the Fabulous Thunderbirds, after 15 years of hard touring through which the Texas blues-roots band finally had achieved a comfortable level of success. Vaughan’s monstrously motivating rhythm playing and incisive leads had defined the group’s sound.

He left the group behind to record the “Family Style” album with his brother Stevie Ray Vaughan. When Stevie Ray died in a helicopter crash weeks before the album’s release, Jimmie retreated from the public eye, spending time with his family and managing Stevie Ray’s estate.

It may be that his current sound has been shaped more by his travails and his time away from the music world than by all the years he spent in the thick of performing. A number of new things were evident in his show at the Coach House Thursday night, the most obvious being that Vaughan now sings and, at center stage, does a lot more soloing.

His band, meanwhile, is an unusual lineup: There’s no bass, just organ, piano, drums and three male backup singers. The sound is part old (reminding of great ‘50s R&B; and gospel) part new, and very right.

But there also is a deeper difference now. With the T-Birds, Vaughan always played like there was no tomorrow, snapping out solos with a bracing immediacy, and his rhythm work was so compelling you knew that if you weren’t up dancing, you never would. He was no less immediate Thursday, but the music also carried the sense that there is a tomorrow and it’s worth hanging in to see it.

Some of that attitude was put across in lyrics that were unabashedly spiritual, but it also infused the music itself. For all the buzz and sting of Vaughan’s solos, there also was a peaceful quality washing through them like late afternoon sunlight.

Sporting black slacks and a black shirt embroidered in white, his ever-sharp ducktailed pompadour in place, Vaughan came onstage to welcoming applause, turned up his battered white Stratocaster and plowed into the instrumental “Tilt A Whirl.” As throughout most of the evening, he didn’t use a pick, instead coaxing meaty tones from his strings with an odd approach to finger-picking, his digits flicking at the strings as if they were tiddlywinks.

He has an encyclopedic command of blues styles, with Freddy King being the most obvious influence, though there were touches Thursday of Guitar Slim, Lonnie Mack and a host of others and a stunning evocation of B.B. King with one slow blues instrumental. Yet even during such emulations, Vaughan’s style was distinct; his phrases expressed as much personality as any speech. Even the spaces between his notes said more than most guitarists ever manage.

His voice isn’t as distinctive a tool. He has a limited range, and an innate cool made him sound at times like a more soulful Steve Miller. But it certainly got the job done, putting emotion and feeling into the lyrics.

Aside from the three young singers (Reginald Brisbon, Dennis King and Calvin Burns), Vaughan’s band members are all vets so seasoned that none would have to flash his ID to get a senior citizen discount, but boy can they ever groove. George Rains proved a rock-solid drummer. Organist Bill Willis did remarkable double duty, fleshing out the songs with churchy fills with his right hand while pumping out the bass lines with his left.

Though Denny Freeman has spent most of his long career as a guitarist--having been a mentor to the young Jimmie Vaughan--he was splendid on piano, and proved a solid foil for Vaughan when he did strap on a guitar for “White Boots” and “D/FW.” (The group was joined for one number, “Flamenco Dancer,” by--appropriately enough--flamenco guitarist Rene Martinez).

Most of the songs came from Vaughan’s current “Strange Pleasure” album, with four songs from “Family Style” and a couple of covers, the standout being Vaughan’s version of the 5 Royales’ sultry “I Like It Like That” from 1953.

Vaughan’s “Just Like Putty” was a stylistic nod to the 5 Royales, both in terms of its rich, inviting harmony vocals and Vaughan’s stinging guitar phrases which brought to mind the Royales’ Lowman Pauling. With those smooth vocals behind it, the guitar lines seemed like a snake moving on satin sheets.

Another standout was “Two Wings,” written by Vaughan with Mac (Dr. John) Rebennack. Even more than on the “Strange Pleasure” album, the song was given a celebratory gospel liftoff with the voices, organ and guitar locking in an irresistible rhythm.

Vaughan played acoustic guitar on two numbers, the quirkily harmonized, Leo Kottke-like instrumental “Strange Pleasure” and “Six Strings Down,” a song about his brother’s death. Instead of expressing sorrow, the song posits that Stevie Ray is jamming in heaven with all the departed blues greats. It’s the same theme approached years ago by the mawkish ‘70s hit “Rock and Roll Heaven” but Vaughan, with the three singers closed in behind him, made the song sincere, heartfelt and upward spiraling.

After playing “(Everybody’s Got) Sweet Soul Vibe” Vaughan tried to dismiss the song by saying, “that’s a little song we do just so you’ll think we’re sensitive.” If that’s their ploy, it worked: The song is a soothing expression of redemption, of the potential beauty lying in every person.

Between that and the soaring encore of “Tick Tock” from “Family Style”--a song of the “Love Train” school about making a better world for children--Vaughan indeed did come off as a sensitive guy, and a deeper talent than one might have guessed, even in his most fabulous of Fabulous Thunderbirds days.