This beautiful box set hit the streets on September 17^th. This five-disc career retrospective is chock-full of great music, a few surprises and some interesting choices. It is accompanied by a wonderful 200 plus page, hard bound book, with text written by both Bill Bentley and Vaughan himself. It also contains lots of photos as well as discographic information. This package is a wonderful way to celebrate Jimmie Vaughan’s 70^th trip around the sun.

This celebration will no doubt be somewhat dampened by the recent revelations of Vaughan’s contributions to Trump’s “stop the steal” campaign. Additionally, Vaughan is currently on tour with long-time friend Eric Clapton who is an anti-vaccination advocate. Clapton's offensive racial comments are a well-documented matter of record.

I am not going to pull the cancel culture card out of my ball cap for the simple reason that Vaughan has kept his personal views on these matters…personal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I suppose it would be healthy for me to recognize that not everyone’s views will always align with mine. However, for those who choose to turn their back on the music of Jimmie Vaughan, I completely understand.

I have been an avid fan of Jimmie’s music since I first heard him perform live with the Fabulous Thunderbirds shortly after I moved to Texas in 1981. I have followed the twists and turns of his long and, at times, somewhat disjointed musical career, which never strayed too far from the blues. He is universally revered among musicians in the blues community. Vaughan is a guitar player’s guitar player. He has developed into a fine vocalist and always leads bands of the highest caliber. He has always been a favorite here at the JUNCTION.

Disc One of The Jimmie Vaughan Story opens where most of us heard Vaughan for the first time, as the guitarist for the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Here 27 previously released studio cuts are pulled from all points in the Vaughan era T-Birds years. This band was heads and tails above any of the young and mostly white blues practitioners in that “blue wave” era. Interestingly enough, these tracks are not arranged chronologically, but with the sensitivity of a true fan. The entire box set was conceived and compiled by Malcom Mills.

Disc One also sets a tone of generosity by featuring many of the artists with whom Jimmie worked through the years. Most of the tunes on the first disc feature the vocals and harp work of the Fabulous Thunderbirds co-founder Kim Wilson. It is Wilson who wrote many of the T-Birds original songs heard here in The Jimmie Vaughan Story. He is featured prominently.

Disc Two starts out with a series of live T-Birds recordings, many of which up to this point have been previously unissued. These include numbers that hadn’t been issued in any form. Earl King’s Come On is one of these and a highlight from the 1979 live sessions recorded at Antones. The Roomful of Blues horns play on many of these live tracks. Greg Piccolo and Doug James were part of this like-minded ensemble from New England and have played alongside Vaughan at various stages of his career.

Disc Two has Vaughan moving to a sideman role with duets with two of his idols Jimmie Rogers and Albert Collins. He is also featured on songs from fellow Austin transplants Lou Ann Barton and Bill Carter. We will hear more from Barton later in the box. Bill Carter’s song, Willie The Wimp, from his album is one he co-wrote with his wife and writing partner Ruth Ellsworth. The pair also wrote Why Get Up from the T-Birds breakthrough fifth album, Tuff Enough, which also appears in this box.  

Disc Two is where you will find two Jimmie Vaughan penned numbers which appear on the now iconic Family Style album that he recorded with his younger brother Stevie Ray Vaughan. The tune Good Texan marks the first vocal appearance by Jimmie in this box.

Disc Three opens with the sound of one of Jimmie’s vintage Chevrolets with Denny Freeman putting the pedal to the medal before he does the same to his guitar. Vaughan plays a six-string bass on the instrumental song Led Sled. This tune originally appeared on Freemen’s long out of print album Blues Cruise.  It might have been nice to hear one of the two songs that Vaughan played pedal steel on that great album to go along with the unreleased live T-Birds song Harbor Lights on Disc Two in which Vaughan plays the pedal steel.

From here The Jimmie Vaughan Story steers to tracks from his first two solo albums, Strange Pleasure and Out There, along with a couple of tracks from movie sounds tracks and songs from the Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan album and an uninteresting cameo on the 1996 Bo Diddly release A Man Amongst Men. Disc Three has its moments obviously, but is the least interesting of the five discs offered here.

Everything picks up considerably on Disc Four starting with Vaughan resuming his sideman duties as guest guitarist on John Lee Hooker’s remake of his tune Boom Boom which was the title track of the Boogie King’s 1992 album. From there a great choice to include, from Lazy Lester’s 2001 album Blues Stop Knocking, the tune Bread Maker Baby. It's then on to two great selections from Vaughan’s Do You Get The Blues release, The Deep End featuring James Cotton on harp and Jimmie on slide guitar followed by the Bill Willis penned instrumental Dirty Girl. Dirty Girl features the great Bill Willis on the B3 along with longtime Vaughan drummer, George Rains. Rains is a great shuffle drummer. He is a left hander who is as hard hitting as he is elegant. These three musicians swing hard.

Disc Five wraps things up nicely with more duets and includes tunes with everybody from Billy Gibbons, Little Milton to Bonnie Raitt among others. Perhaps the highlight might be previously unreleased tracks from his pre-T-Bird days and his band, the now legendary Storm.

I suppose my favorite recordings of Vaughan’s career might be with his own Tilt-A Whirl Band. Those songs are scattered all over Disc Five as well. A highlight for me would be Lou Ann Barton singing in front of Jimmie and the band during a live performance at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles a few years back. I was privileged to be part of the small audience that night. The band knocked it out of the park that evening as they do all over The Jimmie Vaughan Story.

The album ends on a very strong note, as it closes with two numbers from Vaughan’s most recent album 2019’s Baby Please Come Home. While much of this box set naturally focuses on Vaughan’s prodigious prowess on guitar, these last two songs demonstrate the maturity and musicality he has developed on the ultimate musical instrument, the human voice.

For fans of Vaughan’s music, like me, this is a must have musical document. The deluxe edition has all kinds of fan related items but for me the five-disc music box is where it’s at.

One of the greatest practitioners of vintage cool, including blues, rhythm & blues, as well as very early rock & roll is Jimmie Vaughan. The Jimmie Vaughan Story is a testament to this fact. I just wish the Trump chapter in the Jimmie Vaughan story didn’t exist.

- David Mac