About Jimmie Vaughan

Jimmie Lawrence Vaughan Jr. is an American blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Texas. He is the older brother of the late, great Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was a founding member of the The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Several notable blues guitarists have had a significant influence on Vaughan's playing style, including the "Three Kings" and Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

Jimmie Vaughan was born on March 20, 1951, in Dallas County, Texas, United States, to parents Jimmie Lee Vaughan and Martha Jean Cook. Raised in Dallas, Texas, Vaughan attended L V. Stockard Junior High where on February 3, 1965, he first played before an audience in a group named The Pendulums, or the JSP's, along with Phil Campbell and Ronny Sterling. Vaughan moved to Austin in the late 1960s and began playing with such musicians as Paul Ray and WC Clark.

In 1969, Vaughan's group opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience in Fort Worth, Texas. It was at this show that Vaughan lent Jimi Hendrix his Vox Wah-wah pedal which Hendrix ended up breaking. In return, Hendrix gave Vaughan his own touring Wah-wah pedal.

Jimmie Vaughan developed his own easily recognized personal style. He formed the band The Fabulous Thunderbirds with lead singer and harpist Kim Wilson, bassist Keith Ferguson, and drummers Mike Buck and Fran Christina. . The band's first four albums, released between 1979 and 1983, are ranked among the most important 'white blues' recordings. These early albums did not sell well, so the band was left without a recording contract for a couple of years . During this time, Vaughan played lead guitar on fellow Texas blues musician Bill Carter's 1985 album, Stompin' Grounds, also playing Carter's most well-known song, "Willie The Wimp", which would be introduced a year later to Stevie Ray Vaughan and played on live albums.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds got a new contract in 1986, and made several albums with a more commercially popular sound and production style. Vaughan left the band in 1990, and made his only "duo album", Family Style, with his younger brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Before the album's release, Stevie Ray died in a helicopter crash along with three members of Eric Clapton's entourage in East Troy, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1990. The album was released a month after the accident. The artist listed on the album was "The Vaughan Brothers". The album was light, blues-influenced rock, with Jimmie Vaughan singing on several tracks.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jimmie Vaughan", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.