The Baton Rouge Blues Festival and the Fabulous Thunderbirds seem made for each other.
Singer-harmonica player Kim Wilson—the T-Birds’ leader and co-founder—uses Louisiana blues and rhythm-and-blues as his template. His influences include Baton Rouge blues men Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Lightnin’ Slim and Buddy Guy. During his formative years, Wilson further schooled himself via blues from Memphis, Mississippi and Chicago.
Wilson and guitarist Jimmie Vaughan formed the Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1974. Launched from the exploding Austin music scene, the T-Birds became the house band at Antone’s Nightclub, a blues hot spot in the Texas capitol, where they often backed the stars who inspired them.
Wilson says he is forever grateful that he got to know Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Jimmy Reed, Earl King and many others earlier in life. After he picked up a harmonica at 17 in the small Southern California community of Goleta, Collins, Eddie Taylor, “Harmonica” Frank Floyd and more became his early mentors.
“I worked with all those guys before I could even play,” Wilson recalls. “I don’t know why they liked me, but they did.”
Pursing his fledgling music career, Wilson left southern California for Minneapolis and then Austin, where he encountered many more of his music heroes.
“Luckily, I came along early enough, when all these people, who were like gods to me, were still here for me to watch and perform with,” he says. “They were like my family. Muddy was my musical father. Such generous people. They’d been ripped off all their lives, but they still knew where they stood in the grand scheme of music.”
After learning from the best at Antone’s, the Fabulous Thunderbirds evolved into a real blues band. Even though playing the blues didn’t promise him a living, Wilson’s passion for the music stayed strong.
“I remember my management, back in the ’80s, saying, ‘Harmonica doesn’t sell,’” Wilson recalls. “But I needed this blues thing. I love it so much. And if I don’t have it, there’s no sense in me being in this business.”
Unlikely as it seemed, the Fabulous Thunderbirds roared into the pop market with their 1986 album, Tuff Enuff. The rock-oriented release features the Top 40 hits “Wrap It Up,” “Look At That” and “Tuff Enuff.”
“Tuff Enuff was a great coup for us,” Wilson says. “Because people told us over and over again, ‘You’re not going anywhere.’”
In 1989, three years after the success of Tuff Enuff, Vaughan, older brother of the blues-rock guitar star Stevie Ray Vaughan, left the Fabulous Thunderbirds. But Wilson, in addition to cutting his own solo albums, has kept the T-Birds on the road and in the studio.
Onstage these days, Wilson performs his T-Birds hits, but blues is still his true love.
“For me, Tuff Enuff was a good way to make some money,” he admits. “We loved it, but I don’t consider it a big part of my legacy.”
Now many decades into his career, Wilson says his legacy remains a work in progress. The 15th Fabulous Thunderbirds album, Strong Like That, appeared just last year.
“The Thunderbirds are a fantastic band now, with seasoned, great musicians who can play it all,” he says. “I can’t wait for the people of Baton Rouge to hear us.”
Clarke Gernon Jr., programming chair for the Blues Fest, says the band is a natural fit for the festival and perfect to close out the Saturday lineup.
“The Fabulous Thunderbirds and especially singer-harmonica man, Kim Wilson, have been students of the Swamp Blues since the early ’70s,” Gernon says. “So much of what they do has the spirit of Slim Harpo and Lazy Lester in it. With such a love for Baton Rouge’s heritage music, it will be a real thrill to see them play again in the town that has given them so much.”
In addition to his gigs with the T-Birds, Wilson is hoping to soon release another solo album, Blues and Boogie, featuring his renditions of classic blues tunes.
“I’m happy to be doing all the things that I want to do,” he says. “Not many people get to do that.”
Where to see them:
The Fabulous Thunderbirds play the Foundation Stage Saturday April 8 at 8:15 p.m.
This article was originally published in the April 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.
