Jimmie Vaughan ’s Grammy winning album, Do You Get The Blues? is slated for a reissue by The Last Music Company July 25th in the run-up to the 25th Anniversary of its initial release. A first-issue Vinyl was previously released in 2021, on the occasion of Jimmie’s 70th birthday. Now, in 2025, the album, updated with his own liner notes, will be available in CD and digital formats.
At the time of its original release, Do You Get The Blues? marked the beginning of a new era for Jimmie. A new century had turned, and a new love in his life sparked off a period of intense creativity resulting in these recordings. At first the sun was shining on his album release date of September 11th, 2001—until it wasn’t. As he goes on to tell in his new album notes, unfortunately, despite expectations, the record, having been eclipsed by events, never really got the start it deserved.
“The release party was going to be in a club in Austin in 2001 actually on 9/11, so as you can imagine, the in-store and everything around it was cancelled. The album is really about meeting Robin and falling in love, feeling brand new, being able to see forward and all that. That’s what it’s about. Sometimes you might feel like it’s all over and then…there it is…”
Recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, and at Jimmie’s home in Austin, the album’s beating heart was his trio at the time—George Rains on Drums, Bill Willis on B3 Organ, and himself. There was no official bassist, though the album features many guest musicians and appearances, including James Cotton, Lou Ann Barton, Tyrone Vaughan, Double Trouble, and more.
“I met Bill Willis around 1989 right before recording my first solo album Strange Pleasure. He was playing B3 with Lavern Baker at Antone’s in a way that was very… well… he didn’t fool around. A lot of kids wanna play B3 like Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff and Jimmy McGriff, which I love. Bill had more of a Bill Doggett style and played bass pedals at the same time. He actually learned B3 by watching Bill Doggett. He was the house bassist at King Records, and he played bass with such great artists as The 5 Royales, Little Willie John, Freddie King among others. I told him that I loved the way he played and sure would like to record with him That was it. We recorded the whole album right after that and then every other record I made until he died. I really miss him.
George Rains was also someone I first ran into at Antone’s. He was originally from Fort Worth but had been in San Francisco playing with just about everyone out there. Clifford used to invite him up to play at the club a couple of times a year at the anniversary shows with all the great original blues guys from Chicago and Mississippi. The real guys. He had a sound and feel that was just… well here’s the difference. You hear a groove, and you can either jump on and ride it like a merry-go-round or you can fight it. You know how it is. No groove and you’re trying to fight for your place. You never get in your slot. But with George, it was like jumping the merry-go-round and just riding. He had the greatest groove that I’ve ever played with. When I started my own band, I just asked George. With him and Bill Willis, it was like having the Bill Doggett band behind me in my mind. So that’s what I pretended.”
The album sets the stage with “Dirty Girl” a quintessential blues trio instrumental, written by Bill Willis, and more than half the selections that follow, are written or co-written by Jimmie himself. For an album with a less than auspicious release date, “Do You Get The Blues?” would eventually win him a Grammy in the “Best Traditional Blues Album” category. It would be his fourth Grammy win, and cement his reputation with his first Grammy as a solo artist. Hal Horowitz of AllMusic.com wrote at the time, “…By forging an individual musical style, Jimmie Vaughan not only avoids all Stevie Ray comparisons, but has produced a remarkable album that truly sounds like no one else."
Jimmie followed Do You Get The Blues? with more Grammy-nominated albums, and over 40 years of touring. He is today, a bona-fide blues great.
Jimmie will tour the UK and Europe this summer around the album release date, and then will return home to join Bonnie Raitt as special guest on her tour in August and September, along with other solo dates across the US.
At the time of its original release, Do You Get The Blues? marked the beginning of a new era for Jimmie. A new century had turned, and a new love in his life sparked off a period of intense creativity resulting in these recordings. At first the sun was shining on his album release date of September 11th, 2001—until it wasn’t. As he goes on to tell in his new album notes, unfortunately, despite expectations, the record, having been eclipsed by events, never really got the start it deserved.
“The release party was going to be in a club in Austin in 2001 actually on 9/11, so as you can imagine, the in-store and everything around it was cancelled. The album is really about meeting Robin and falling in love, feeling brand new, being able to see forward and all that. That’s what it’s about. Sometimes you might feel like it’s all over and then…there it is…”
Recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, and at Jimmie’s home in Austin, the album’s beating heart was his trio at the time—George Rains on Drums, Bill Willis on B3 Organ, and himself. There was no official bassist, though the album features many guest musicians and appearances, including James Cotton, Lou Ann Barton, Tyrone Vaughan, Double Trouble, and more.
“I met Bill Willis around 1989 right before recording my first solo album Strange Pleasure. He was playing B3 with Lavern Baker at Antone’s in a way that was very… well… he didn’t fool around. A lot of kids wanna play B3 like Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff and Jimmy McGriff, which I love. Bill had more of a Bill Doggett style and played bass pedals at the same time. He actually learned B3 by watching Bill Doggett. He was the house bassist at King Records, and he played bass with such great artists as The 5 Royales, Little Willie John, Freddie King among others. I told him that I loved the way he played and sure would like to record with him That was it. We recorded the whole album right after that and then every other record I made until he died. I really miss him.
George Rains was also someone I first ran into at Antone’s. He was originally from Fort Worth but had been in San Francisco playing with just about everyone out there. Clifford used to invite him up to play at the club a couple of times a year at the anniversary shows with all the great original blues guys from Chicago and Mississippi. The real guys. He had a sound and feel that was just… well here’s the difference. You hear a groove, and you can either jump on and ride it like a merry-go-round or you can fight it. You know how it is. No groove and you’re trying to fight for your place. You never get in your slot. But with George, it was like jumping the merry-go-round and just riding. He had the greatest groove that I’ve ever played with. When I started my own band, I just asked George. With him and Bill Willis, it was like having the Bill Doggett band behind me in my mind. So that’s what I pretended.”
The album sets the stage with “Dirty Girl” a quintessential blues trio instrumental, written by Bill Willis, and more than half the selections that follow, are written or co-written by Jimmie himself. For an album with a less than auspicious release date, “Do You Get The Blues?” would eventually win him a Grammy in the “Best Traditional Blues Album” category. It would be his fourth Grammy win, and cement his reputation with his first Grammy as a solo artist. Hal Horowitz of AllMusic.com wrote at the time, “…By forging an individual musical style, Jimmie Vaughan not only avoids all Stevie Ray comparisons, but has produced a remarkable album that truly sounds like no one else."
Jimmie followed Do You Get The Blues? with more Grammy-nominated albums, and over 40 years of touring. He is today, a bona-fide blues great.
Jimmie will tour the UK and Europe this summer around the album release date, and then will return home to join Bonnie Raitt as special guest on her tour in August and September, along with other solo dates across the US.
For more information contact The Last Music Company.
