The Fabulous Thunderbird’s 1979 debut album, their self-titled release, which everyone referred to as Girls Go Wild and some years later was officially designated as such, may have been the first shot fired in what was to become the biggest blues boom in history. It was also the record that changed my life forever.

As people play some Facebook game called, ‘Ten Albums in Ten Days’ where folks discuss what were the albums that had an impact on them, I thought I’d let you in a pretty poorly kept secret, this album was the one that did it for me. 

The fact is, it remains one of the great blues albums, not only of this period but of all time. As time moves on and I hear this record with three more decades of listening to blues music under my belt, Girls Go Wild gets even better.

It was the record that had me turning off the radio and canceling my subscription to Rolling Stone. I left the world of commercial music behind for good, never to return. Even though this was the 80’s, I didn’t want my MTV.  I didn’t know it at the time, but it became the perfect training regimen for becoming the chief cook and bottle washer at BLUES JUNCTION.

Much of this has to do with timing and location. I had just taken a job with a publishing company in Dallas, Texas, in 1981. Otherwise, this native of Southern California might have discovered the Hollywood Fats Band’s one and only album, which was also released in 1979…who knows. The fact remains that blues music was very regionalized back in those days, which explains a lot.

What many consider the biggest resurgence in blues music as it relates to popular culture and taste took place over a two-decade span. In the 1980’s, and especially in the 1990’s, the blues had a resurgence despite the blues society scourge which suddenly tried to get in on the action.  

A combination of factors led to this unlikely phenomenon. Vintage American music became semi-popular for a time and what a time it was. It had percolated during the 80’s and by the time Wild Bill Clinton became President of the United States in 1993, it was on brother. Peace was breaking out all over the world. The U.S. balanced its books and operated in the black, while prosperity reigned.

Great American musical traditions were a place to turn for folks who had grown weary of rock, which had been devolving for the past decade or so. Soul became disco and even punk rock had predictably worn very thin, very fast. It morphed into new wave music, which seemed to incorporate the worst features of every genre. Synthesized techno-beats made music sound like you were standing inside of a manufacturing plant of some sort. Real organic music with a dynamic verve caught on for a time and the world turned to the blues. Folks of all races embraced music that was originally played by and intended for African-American consumption.   

It was also a time when the record industry was thriving. People were converting their vinyl record libraries to CDs. Every major record company had a subsidiary blues imprint. Indy labels thrived and prospered as well. This, of course was years before streaming services tapped into the human instinct to steal.  

From my very limited perspective at the time, this album was a godsend. I had already began exploring the world of blues and had a handful of blues LPs in my library. These selections were the basic starter kit of any blues collection; B.B. King Live at the Regal and a few greatest hits packages by the Chicago blues giants, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf. I had the single platter greatest hits of both Big Joe Turner and Bobby “Blue” Bland. I, of course, had a bunch of those blues compilations that you could pick up on the cheap. There may have been others as well, but this music all seemed somewhat historical in nature. In a sense I suppose it was and still is, however that never bothered me and it sure beat the hell out of Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran or Phil Collins.

Then along comes The Fabulous Thunderbirds. These guys were all just a few years older than me and when you are in your twenties, who cares about that anyway. They played this vintage music as if they invented the stuff.

The blues lived inside every single note that was played and especially the ones that weren’t played in The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ music. They attacked this music with a reverence, but not with kid gloves. This wasn’t some archival music presented for college course credits, but music that was just plain fun. You didn’t need to have to have a degree in ethno-musicology to enjoy their music. In fact, several underground rock radio stations around the country were playing T-Bird songs and didn’t even acknowledge that it was blues. The DJs who were doing this didn’t know about blues and if they did, they didn’t care. After all good music is just that…good music and there was something extremely hip about the T-Birds.

It seemed absolutely unlikely that four white men in their mid-twenties could tap into the blues with such authority, authenticity and swagger. The Fabulous Thunderbirds would demonstrate just how much fun blues music can be without sacrificing what made the music so great in the first place.

The T-Birds line-up consisted of drummer Mike Buck and bassist Keith Ferguson. These two had already been avid record collectors and many of the obscure covers of Gulf Coast area blues musicians the band played came by way of these two kindred spirits.

The band’s guitarist was Jimmie Vaughan. By the time that Girls Go Wild was released, he already had an astonishing blues vocabulary. In a state full of guitar slingers there wasn’t anybody who could touch Jimmie Vaughan. This wasn’t even open to debate. Vaughan seemed to know exactly where and how much guitar to lay down on each track. His natural rhythmic sensibilities, to go along with the right tone and texture he selected for each number, remain simply mind boggling as one listens to Girls Go Wild.  

The band’s singer and harmonica player Kim Wilson had a maturity in his singing style. His voice and delivery on the first four T-Bird albums starting with Girls Go Wild may be the best of his long career. Even then, he was the best blues harp player on the planet. Wilson would also write five of the eleven songs on Girls Go Wild.

However, it was the band’s choice of covers that would define the T-Birds and separate them from the other bands who would soon crowd into this new blues scene from coast to coast. In talking with Jimmie Vaughan about this aspect of the band’s sound a couple of years ago he said, “The other part of that equation was we didn’t want to be just another band doing all Chicago blues and Little Walter stuff. Don’t get me wrong, that stuff is great and Kim could play Little Walter really good, but we are from down here and we wanted to play music that came from this part of the country. We always thought it was good to be different.”

This is where you get songs like, Marked Deck by long time Dallas resident Mercy Baby, Alabama native Jerry “Boogie” McCain’s She’s Tuff, Li’l Milet and the Creole’s Rich Woman or Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native Slim Harpo’s Scratch My Back for instance. One might think, ‘Yeah, but every bar band in America does Scratch My Back.’ While this may be true now, this wasn’t the case back in 1979. We have the T-Birds version of this tune to thank (or to blame) for that.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds didn’t happen by accident. Their sound was not something that they stumbled upon by serendipity or luck. They developed this unique hybrid of obscure covers and original music at the Clifford Antone school. The famed nightclub owner, blues impresario and Port Arthur, Texas, native created a milieu in which blues music thrived in the otherwise county-western loving town of Austin in the 1970’s.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds were the house band at Clifford Antone’s eponymously named nightclub. In that capacity they opened for and backed virtually every blues man who traveled down to Austin, Texas. Word got out pretty quickly that there was a club that had this band that knew how to play the blues. They could play anything veteran blues artists would throw at them. If a particular musician had the resources to travel with their own band they would invariably invite Jimmie Vaughan and Kim Wilson to sit in with them. The T-Birds would hang out with these experienced blues masters who came from all over the country. They ate, drank, played cards, rolled dice and got high with the true legends of this music. Few musicians ever had such an opportunity to learn the subtleties and nuances of this often illusionary music directly from the giants who they so admired.

Girls Go Wild was followed up by 1980’s What’s The Word, 1981’s Butt Rockin’ and 1982’s T-Bird Rhythm, which all followed that same formula of a handful of original material with big helpings of obscure covers mostly from long forgotten Gulf Coast blues musicians. All four of these albums have stood the test of time and are now considered essential entries into any serious blues library.

While their fellow musicians and music critics held The Fabulous Thunderbirds in the highest regard, their albums didn’t sell particularly well. They would continue to perform steadily for the next four years without a recording contract.

In the meantime, an explosion of blues and roots-based artists began to emerge from coast to coast. However, it was right in Austin where a dynamic young guitar slinger would captivate audiences. Stevie Ray Vaughan would sign with Columbia Records' subsidiary Epic Records on the recommendation of famed talent scout, John Hammond. It would be Jimmie Vaughan’s younger brother Stevie who for many would come to symbolize this new blue wave that was sweeping the country. His 1983 Texas Flood was an instant hit. 

By the time the T-Birds got back into the recording studio they had their own big-time record deal and a big following of their own. Original songs continued to come from Wilson. A more polished slick sound helped to sell records to the general public, but confused long-time fans and even alienated others. Wilson’s Tough Enough was a big crossover hit.

The T-birds that I knew and loved still delivered the goods in their live performances, but never achieved that same mojo in the studio. For whatever reason the band all but abandoned that wonderful Gulf Coast sound that they had mined so successfully.

In 1990, Jimmie Vaughan left The Fabulous Thunderbirds for good. Both he and his brother were looking for a way to abandon their respective bands. The T-Birds had grown stale and Stevie’s Double Trouble had severe musical limitations. Their Family Style album turned out to be the only recording they would do together. After Stevie’s death, Jimmie took some time off before relaunching a successful solo career.

As for Kim Wilson, he has maintained The Fabulous Thunderbirds brand and continues to record and tour under that banner. He remains the only original member. The various personnel changes that have taken place through the intervening decades are simply too numerous to mention. From a musical standpoint The Fabulous Thunderbirds of recent years bears little resemblance to that original band.  

Drummer Mike Buck would be replaced on the T-Birds second album by Fran Christina who had played with the New England R&B institution Roomful of Blues. Buck still operates Antone’s Records in Austin and hosts his own radio show, which can be found in the Links section of this website.

Bassist Keith Ferguson left the band before their crossover success and was replaced by Preston Hubbard also of Roomful of Blues renown. Ferguson died on April 26, 1997, of liver failure at the age of 50.

As far as that blues boom of the 80’s and 90’s is concerned, it seems more and more like a distant memory. On September 11, 2001, terrorist activities set into motion a series of events where the collateral damage included the near death of America’s quintessential music, the blues.

We should never forget that the seeds of that blues revival were sown down on 6^th street in Austin, Texas, by a band who, through hundreds of sweaty nights, played the most audacious straight ahead blues I have ever heard. They would soon become the stuff of legend. Young people, like myself, fell hard for the blues. I loved it and yes, girls (and boys) went wild for The Fabulous Thunderbirds.  

-  David Mac

Editors Note: Both Jimmie Vaughan and Kim Wilson will be playing at the 2018 Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point, California, on May 18^th and 19^th. See our links page and the festival’s official website for all the details.