Jimmie Vaughan PLAYS BLUES, BALLADS

Audio Mixer: Jared Tuten.Recording information: Top Hat Studios, Austin, TX; Wire Recording, Austin, TX.Photographer: Todd V. Wolfson.With the Fabulous Thunderbirds, guitarist Jimmie Vaughan became one of the architects of the '70s Austin blues scene. He was, and remains, a concise stringbender whose trebly, staccato solos service the song, never extending past their natural quitting point. The guitarist's solo albums maintained that approach and even refined it, letting a few notes do the talking where others in his frontman status might have tended toward a more spotlight-stealing attack. His supporting work backing Omar Kent Dykes on two sets of Jimmy Reed covers released in 2007 and 2009 further reinforced that style and this, his first solo set in nine years -- and only his fourth overall -- continues the trend. There is just one original, the hopped-up instrumental "Comin' and Goin'," but Vaughan has dug deep to excavate cool obscurities that fit his less aggressive but crackling