|
Tyrone Vaughan
Talks about Family, Music, Setbacks and the Future Interview By Chris Lowery My interview with Tyrone Vaughan takes place over several months, from get togethers at Giddy Up's, Maria's Taco Express, Evangeline Cafe to Opal Devine's. This is Tyrone's most personal interview to date in his career. Very humbled and honored to do this piece. enFOCUS: What's been going on Tyrone? Seems
like we haven't heard from you in what seems like a couple of years. How's the
past year or so been for you?
Tyrone Vaughan: Well Chris? Past year was great, considering the fact I'm coming back from an elbow injury and chronic tendonitis. enFOCUS: I can't fathom you blowing out your tendons and not being able to play. Bet that was a bit tough for you. |
Jimmie and Tyrone Vaughan
PHOTO BY JOHN CARRICO
Tyrone Vaughan: Yeah it was! Blew out the tendons in my left arm; my bending hand. Guess I over did it playing heavy gauge strings. I mean heavy strings sound and feel amazing but I wasn't warming up, or at all, and I wasn't taking care of myself like I should and took my playing for granted. I basically had to quit playing for two years. Tell you it was a very humbling experience and I had to rehab and gradually relearn how to play guitar and switch over to lighter gauged strings. Let's just say I play a lot smarter know. All in my technique really.
enFOCUS: You have done well with it all and been playing around Austin lately, is that right?
Tyrone Vaughan: You bet! It's been great playing around locally and getting my chops back along with my endurance and building up my confidence to play more. Built up my strength in my forearms and gone from only playing an hour at a gig to playing now two and a half hours a night, sometimes 3 nights a week.
enFOCUS: Caught more than a few of your gigs since we first got together the end of May and just amazed! Took me off guard I suppose because of your two year hiatus.
Tyrone Vaughan: Well, I put my "TV and The Antennas" out there and we played thirty shows last year. Band and I put together what really was a roadhouse type set of half covers and half originals.
enFocus: What covers and what originals?
Tyrone Vaughan: We threw down "Thunderbird", "House is Rockin", "Come On", "DFW", "Born to Boogie"'. Chris? Really anything from Albert King's "I Wanna Get Funky" to ZZ Top's "TV Dinners". And we had a blast doin' it up!
enFOCUS: Lordy! Didn't you all indeed! I know Tyrone, ya'll had me hollering at Maria's Taco for some "TV DINNERS"! That was pretty slick and nasty. So, who's in "The Antennas" Tyrone?
Tyrone Vaughan: Jorge Castillo on guitar/vocals, Geno Stroia on bass and Ken Furr on drums. I sang and played lead.
enFOCUS: Got'cha! What originals were you all playing?
Tyrone Vaughan: We played "Guitar Son", "She wants the whole dang thing", "Shaboozy", "Junkie Me" and "Put that thang on it".
enFOCUS: Alright, been hearing a country influence in your sound when I caught you all at Giddy Ups on Manchaca, and you're playing songs like "Born to Boogie" and "T for Texas" sometimes.
Tyrone Vaughan: Glad you mentioned that. Well, those two songs in particular are balls to the walls ass kickers and they rock! I'm just playing blues over the top of it. We do "T for Texas" Lynard Skynard style and it just kicks butt! You know Chris, I recorded a country record back in 2010 which was a root adventure for me and a journey I'm very glad I took. My granddaddy, Mervin 'Pete' Crabtree, on my Moms side sang and played country influenced me to do so. It's hard to take the twang out of a Texas boy and I mixed a low end country vocal and the blues together. You know I was visiting Nashville and was seriously contemplating moving there to really harness that influence in with my style of playing and performing. My song ''Downtime" was on the charts and I had a seven piece country band backing me up. it was high energy stuff! We would play the entire album "Downtime" note for note, "House is a Rockin" and "Wrap it Up" with a fiddle, slide and harmonies. It was a force! Big time fun there Chris.
enFOCUS: You have done well with it all and been playing around Austin lately, is that right?
Tyrone Vaughan: You bet! It's been great playing around locally and getting my chops back along with my endurance and building up my confidence to play more. Built up my strength in my forearms and gone from only playing an hour at a gig to playing now two and a half hours a night, sometimes 3 nights a week.
enFOCUS: Caught more than a few of your gigs since we first got together the end of May and just amazed! Took me off guard I suppose because of your two year hiatus.
Tyrone Vaughan: Well, I put my "TV and The Antennas" out there and we played thirty shows last year. Band and I put together what really was a roadhouse type set of half covers and half originals.
enFocus: What covers and what originals?
Tyrone Vaughan: We threw down "Thunderbird", "House is Rockin", "Come On", "DFW", "Born to Boogie"'. Chris? Really anything from Albert King's "I Wanna Get Funky" to ZZ Top's "TV Dinners". And we had a blast doin' it up!
enFOCUS: Lordy! Didn't you all indeed! I know Tyrone, ya'll had me hollering at Maria's Taco for some "TV DINNERS"! That was pretty slick and nasty. So, who's in "The Antennas" Tyrone?
Tyrone Vaughan: Jorge Castillo on guitar/vocals, Geno Stroia on bass and Ken Furr on drums. I sang and played lead.
enFOCUS: Got'cha! What originals were you all playing?
Tyrone Vaughan: We played "Guitar Son", "She wants the whole dang thing", "Shaboozy", "Junkie Me" and "Put that thang on it".
enFOCUS: Alright, been hearing a country influence in your sound when I caught you all at Giddy Ups on Manchaca, and you're playing songs like "Born to Boogie" and "T for Texas" sometimes.
Tyrone Vaughan: Glad you mentioned that. Well, those two songs in particular are balls to the walls ass kickers and they rock! I'm just playing blues over the top of it. We do "T for Texas" Lynard Skynard style and it just kicks butt! You know Chris, I recorded a country record back in 2010 which was a root adventure for me and a journey I'm very glad I took. My granddaddy, Mervin 'Pete' Crabtree, on my Moms side sang and played country influenced me to do so. It's hard to take the twang out of a Texas boy and I mixed a low end country vocal and the blues together. You know I was visiting Nashville and was seriously contemplating moving there to really harness that influence in with my style of playing and performing. My song ''Downtime" was on the charts and I had a seven piece country band backing me up. it was high energy stuff! We would play the entire album "Downtime" note for note, "House is a Rockin" and "Wrap it Up" with a fiddle, slide and harmonies. It was a force! Big time fun there Chris.
Royal Southern Brotherhood
enFOCUS: Well, so what happened to the country twist on things?
Tyrone Vaughan: Alright, well, I stopped touring the record and the album got picked up by a record label in Europe and that was that. I never made that move to Nashville and I regrouped right back home in Austin.
enFOCUS: What's been happening as of lately then? Looks like you've got a great deal of things going on.
Tyrone Vaughan: Sure do now! The Antennas" stopped playing in August, started to wood-shed more and focused on writing a few originals for my new EP out now on CD Baby called "Now and Then" which features three originals that represent the NOW and three covers that represent the THEN.
enFOCUS: Ok, that sounds pretty slick but how did you decide on the covers?
Tyrone Vaughan: Chris it wasn't easy let me tell you, but "Thunderbird", "DFW", and "Come On" are three of my all time favorites songs.
enFOCUS: The covers sound recorded live, am I right?
Tyrone Vaughan: Caught that huh? Good ear! Yeah, yeah they were. Those tracks were cut with "The Antennas" at Space Studios in Austin in front of a live audience of about 25 people and a Josh Knight production!
enFOCUS: Right on Right on, now tell us about the originals on the EP.
Tyrone Vaughan: Alright, I wrote "Goin' Home" and "A lil bit of Heaven" around the same time. "Goin' Home" was a song written out of necessity. Unfortunately, I was away from my family, loved ones and all, that I couldn't be with. "Goin' Home" is a soul song that's written from the heart Chris. The song reaches down deep and lets it all out! Where as the song "A lil bit of Heaven" is an up beat blues pop bop.
enFOCUS: Hmmm. Blues Pop Bop. Made that 'chit up, didn't you!
Tyrone Vaughan: Haa haa...I did. I wrote it for my beautiful wife of eight years now, thank the good Lord above. Amen! These tracks were cut at VMG Studios in Austin with AJ Vallejo.
enFOCUS: AJ's name keeps popping up with me lately with folks! Generous guy I hear.
Tyrone Vaughan: He is that. Good guy, that AJ!
enFOCUS: Was talking to you couple of months back, off the record, about you being inspired last year to write soul music again. Pretty much by the birth of your daughter.
Tyrone Vaughan: Yeah, Chris, when you have a child born, there are so many different emotions happening all at once and you are so joyful and exhausted all at the same time, but you can harness that creative energy and can write some amazing stuff.
enFOCUS: Now tell me about the video you just released and the "Still Raisin' Cain" CD.
Tyrone Vaughan: I shot a video for the first single off the new EP. "Goin' Home" is a intimate shot of just me and my guitar and is about performance and vibe! It's on YouTube and folks can check it out on www.TyroneVaughan.Net. And, "Still Raisin' Cain" is a tribute album dedicated to the life of Johhny Winter. That passing is still pretty fresh in everyone's heart that dug Johhny's music and his spirit so I felt compelled to do this.
enFOCUS: Tyrone, so tell me about your early influences and their lasting impressions that touched your soul.
Tyrone Vaughan: Well, Chris, Muddy Waters gave me a harmonica when I was a kid and Stevie came to my 5th Bday party with a harmony guitar wrapped in grocery paper bags. He also gave me a signed 45 of his band "The Cobras". It was ultra cool and I haven't been the same since. Then when I was 7 my uncle stopped by with a little Fender Music Master. He and Lou Ann Barton had gone in on it and bought if from a pawn shop. But Stevie was stoked cause of the small neck on the guitar and that I could get my hand around it easier. Chris, Stevie was a real "uncle" to me and was dead set on me playing guitar from the get go! So you can imagine where my inspiration to play music comes from. I'm going to restore the two guitars and pass them down to my son.
enFOCUS: Want to get a little personal with you so share with me something about your Mom Becky and your adopted father Gray.
Tyrone Vaughan: Tell you this Chris, that's where I got most of my schwag was from my Mom Becky and adopted father Gray Fullerton. Gray turned me on to Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and Mayhall's Bluesbreakers. At age 7, I was listening to Rocky Ericson's 13th Floor Elevators and the Yardbirds. At 10 I knew who Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown was and Gray took me and a friend to see Metallica with Cliff Burton on bass. My Mom had all the soul records from Al Green to Stevie Wonder...from Al Wilson to soul singer Tyrone Davis whom which she named me after. At age 10 I had already seen Bobby "Blue" Bland who was a friend of my Mom and Gray.
enFOCUS: When did that blues bug hit your soul Tyrone?
Tyrone Vaughan: Chris? I drove into the blues on my own after seeing Albert Colins 5 times, in my teens, and it changed my life. No one was a better performer than the "Ice Man". I listened to Buddy Guy, Jimmy Reed, Freddie King, BB king, Albert King, Tbone Walker, Muddy Waters and Magic Sam. Digested The Stones and Beatles and Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath. My high school buddies turned me on to punk and we would go see Bad Brains and Fishbone, Chilli Peepers and the Specials. Really heavily influenced by The Fabulous Thunderbird's and my uncle's Stevie stuff and I wanted to go to as many concerts as I could! All this lead up to me playing music and loving the music scene. For me I'm always a music fan first then a musician second. I love singer songwriters and nothing beats a killer band with real songs.
Also....before I forget, Clifford Antone gave me a lot of help and much needed confidence to tackle the industry and like many other Austin artist before me, he gave us a place to play!
enFOCUS: You're joining Cyril Neville's posse, RSB, The Royal Southern Brotherhood. How did that all come about?
Tyrone Vaughan: Yeah man, a mutual friend of Cyril's and I thought the two of us needed to get together and collaborate on some songs. Shortly there after Chris, I got a call from Cyril and we made a connection and started sending ideas back in forth by email. I had always loved Cyril's voice and I still think that he is one of the most dynamic performers on the planet! Anyhow, Cyril asked me to join RSB on stage in Houston, TX. Mike Zito and Devon Allman were still in the band and none of us really knew that I was actually auditioning for Allman's spot in the band. Turns out that Devon and Mike were on there way out of RSB to pursue their solo careers. Bart Walker was hired to take Zito's spot and the rest is history...It's me, Bart Walker on guitar, Yanrico Scott on drums, Charlie Wooten on bass and Cyril fronts the band. I love the diversity of music in this band. From Bayou rhythms to rock, funk, and soul.
enFOCUS: The band just recorded their 3rd studio album out in April on Ruf Records. How was that experience?
Tyrone Vaughan: Wow! We recorded at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. It was an amazing time and we made a fantastic record. I mean by the 1st week of 2015 we had a record in the can! I start touring in support of the new record in P.A., April 18th then off to Europe and back in time for Jazzfest in New Orleans! Also, look for the documentary of the making of the album in Muscle Shoals.
enFOCUS: Tyrone, we talked a lot off record, but one thing I want to see is to see you and Jimmie on stage together or possibly cut some tracks in the studio together.
Tyrone Vaughan: Chris, you and I got together a great deal face to face and got 'down and dirty' and to date, this has been the most personal interview in my career.
enFOCUS: I don't know what to say, just quite humbled to say the least...Thank you man, all my pleasure. Just here to help, serve and assist. Want this wish of mine to come true to see you two on stage. What can I do to make that happen, or what do you see the chance of you and Jimmie cutting loose...or do you want that to happen Tyrone?
Tyrone Vaughan: You know buddy, you never know what the stars will bring us, all I can say is I'm open to making things happen there. So yeah, I'm up for anything there for sure. You never know what tomorrow brings do you :)