A conversation about the blues doesn’t last long before someone mentions the vast contribution to the genre that was plucked out by the Brothers Vaughan for several decades.

One of these blues legends, guitarist and singer Jimmie Vaughan, will bring his riffs and “The Story Tour” to Eagles Theatre in Wabash on Thursday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m.

The 70-year-old older brother of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan is still winning awards and jamming out decades after he began his prolific music career.

Bill Kelley, arts and entertainment program director for Eagles Theatre, said Vaughan is a “legend in the blues world,” and audiences can expect to hear some of the his brother’s classics, too.

“Not only is he the brother of the late, great blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, he was a founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds,” Kelley said. “Jimmie will take you through a musical journey, playing the Texas-based blues like no one else. Expect to hear songs by the Vaughan Brothers, his collaboration with his brother, Stevie, and some Fabulous T-birds tunes, too”

Honors Continue to Roll in

In 2021, Vaughan was named Artist of the Year and won Album of the Year for The Jimmie Vaughan Story at The Blues Lounge Radio Show Awards.

He said on Facebook that he was “truly honored,” and thanked everyone who voted for him.

The brothers’ impact on blues continues to be recognized in their home state.

A mural project in Deep Ellum, Texas, honored the Vaughans in what organizers called “Blues Alley.”

According the Vaughans’ official website, Blues Alley honors and brings to light the influence that those in the city of Dallas have had on the genre.

Others included in the Texas mural with the Vaughans include Freddie King, Blind Willie Johnson, and Robert Johnson.

Record Receives High Marks

The Jimmie Vaughan Story was released last year in the form of a limited edition collection.

The album, furnished as a box set, takes listeners back to the early days of Vaughan, featuring bands Storm through the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

The Jimmie Vaughan Story includes previously unreleased material, as well as collaborations with his brother on the 1990 album Family Style, which the duo released shortly before Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash.

According to his website, Jimmie Vaughan “built a world of blues from the only sound that completely captured him as a very young Texan. He is often seen as being in a party of one in this pursuit, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.”

A reporter for Texas Music said what “unifies” this album is Vaughan’s “rhythmic signature: pin-prick eighth notes right on the beat, a brusque downstroke to hammer on the one and a subtly delayed upstroke to make it swing, all soaked in a tone as thick and tasty as Texas barbecue sauce. Even when he plays a so-called ‘solo,’ every new note settles into the push-and-pull rhythm.”

Vaughan reflected on his music career through the lens of The Jimmie Vaughan Story.

“I was still a teenager, so I had a teenager voice, a little kid voice,” he told Goldmine Magazine. “I didn’t know what to do, so I just played guitar. You couldn’t tell on the guitar how old I was, because you couldn’t see me, right? This was all in my mind. There was always a singer, so I was happy to be the guitar player.

“And then, all of a sudden, when we went to do Family Style, the producer, Nile Rodgers, he looked at Stevie when we were having our first meeting, he said, ‘What songs do you want to sing?’ And Stevie said, ‘This one and this one.’ So then he looked at me and said, ‘What songs are you gonna sing?’ I was like, ‘Uhh …’

“It was either sing or go home was the feeling, and I sure didn’t want to go home!”