Do You Get the Blues?

Jimmie Vaughan is a master of mood, but not ostentatiously so; he's too slick for that. You think you're getting a slab of solid electric blues with Do You Get the Blues?--and as a matter of fact, you are--but this particular slab cuts all the way to the bone. It begins innocuously enough, with a relaxed instrumental piece set to a shuffle beat, until you realize the track's called "Dirty Girl." Then things slow down even more for "Out of the Shadows," and this one looks like a downer, but no, Vaughan addresses an upbeat subject here. Likewise, "Off the Deep End" ambles along amiably enough, but there's a current of tension underpinning the song, until we reach the line "And the water's fine." Here, the music relaxes, mirroring the lyrics. And so on, through a cover of "Power of Love" (with killer vocals from fellow Texan Lou Ann Barton), so that when "Without You" suits music to sentiment, it has even more impact. This subtlety is Vaughan's mastery at work. He does what you don't expect, contrasting music with subject matter, avoiding musical clichés like the plague, and doing all of it so offhandedly that you never realize what he's up to. Hence the flute on "Don't Let the Sun Set" is moving, as opposed to cheesy, while "In the Middle of the Night" has a sexy, swinging beat and heartbroken lyrics. True, Vaughan is a better musician than he is a lyricist, but he's good enough at the former that few are likely to complain. --Genevieve Williams