**** Jimmie Vaughan

OUT THERE

(Epic)

Texas blues guitarist/singer Jimmie Vaughan chronicles the spiritual and artistic journey he's been on since achieving sobriety and losing his little brother, Stevie Ray, in these ostensibly back-to-basics songs about women and automobiles. Vaughan recently told me that even when he settles down with his archtop acoustic to pinch out the crying, walking one-man blues "Little Son Big Son," it's an instrumental tribute to country bluesman Little Son Jackson, Sun Ra, the sun, the Son of God, the notion we're all sons of a "creator," and Vaughan's own place in the world as a son and father. Obviously this is the thinking of a man who's been taking the measure of life. He's also been tending his guitar craft. So he wraps Out There's fine songs in his best playing ever, bringing rich-toned exuberance to the familiar trappings of rippling blues and shuffle beats, soul grooves, and vocal arrangements that tap the celestial richness of the glory days of doo-wop. Those are Vaughan's musical first loves, and throughout this album, he keeps the faith.

-- Ted Drozdowski