To play the blues is to know the blues and to know the blues means you must reinvent yourself with, well, the blues.
All the time.
This has worked nicely for Jimmie Vaughan. At 69 years old, the Austin, Texas-born guitarist and brother to another music standout, Stevie Ray, has been performing for more than 50 years. He has four Grammys under his belt and managed to morph into one of the more revered guitarists in the world.
Vaughan will be in good company, then, when he takes the stage Saturday, April 6 at Garden Jam Music Festival at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Lukas Nelson, Los Lobos, Lucie Silvas, and Buddy Guy are among the talent appearing at the popular rock-blues-jazz-country event, which makes up one part of Vaughan’s vibrant touring tapestry this year.
“What’s not to like? I get to play everyday and it’s wonderful,” Vaughan says of his creative life. His new album, Baby, Please Come Home, which drops in May, is a new addition to that. It’s a bold and welcoming turn for Vaughan, whose other six albums grounded him in a Blues world always eager for more.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JIMMIE VAUGHAN ON FACEBOOK
“I pretended as if I were recording 45s like the old days,” he says of the album’s style. “I only had to come up two or three at a time and that way and I didn’t have the pressure of having to come up with 15 new songs together. I did it for fun.”
The creative result smacks of music you might have loved hearing played on a jukebox. The work features Vaughan’s team: George Rains, Billy Pitman, Ronnie James, Mike Flanigan, Doug James, Greg Piccolo, Al Gomez, Kaz Kazonoff, T. Jarred Bonata, John Mills, and Randy Zimmerman. Guest vocalists Georgia Bramhall and Emily Gimble are also in the mix.
But no two works are the same and Vaughan is adamant that he has to keep evolving.
“I try to think that I am an artist,” he says of his creative process, “meaning that I have a canvas and some paint. “We’re talking philosophy here … but I just pretend that I am going to paint a picture and ask myself what do I want to see. That way, it feels like art instead of a job. I really don’t have a ‘job.’ I play guitars for fun.”
When asked about how he found a way to stand out, early on, he says he imagined that he was in a room with some of his favorite musicians.
“I thought if we had a roundy-round, and it came to me, what was I going to do,” he adds. “I can be influenced by these musicians and appreciate them but I can’t copy them.”
Actually performing live takes things to a whole new level, however.
“You come in and out of consciousness about how self-aware you are,” he explains.
As for America’s — and even his own — fascination with the blues, Vaughan is candid.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JIMMIE VAUGHAN ON FACEBOOK
“It’s a 100 percent American, on the spot, and expressive,” he says with assurance. “Listen, I’ve been playing guitar since I was 12 years old. I cannot imagine not being a musician. I don’t know what I’d do. It’s been my whole life and I depend on it. It’s my therapy, my church, my parent. It’s everything to me.”
Jimmie Vaughan performs at Garden Jam Music Festival at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, April 5–6. Jimmie Vaughan performs April 6. For tickets and additional information, call 800-999-1595 or visit gardenjammusicfestival.com.