The Fabulous Thunderbirds' Kim Wilson

Story by Bill Kopp

The Fabulous Thunderbirds are nominally a blues band, but in the thirty-plus years since their founding by Kim Wilson and Jimmie Vaughan (the latter left for a solo career in 1989) they've melded a lot of styles into their music. The group rose to commercial prominence with MTV and radio hits "Tuff Enuff" and "Wrap It Up," (both 1986), but continue to be a popular concert draw.

After Vaughan left, Wilson led an oft-changing lineup (one that for a few years included ace guitarist Nick Curran, whose album Reform School Girls is reviewed here). The latest lineup has been together since 2008, and includes Wilson (vocals and harmonica), Johnny Moeller and Mike Keller on guitars, Randy Bermudes on bass, and Johnny's brother Jay on drums.

I had planned to meet up with the band just before they took the stage at the 2010 Bele Chere Festival in Asheville NC, but schedules being what they are, the band didn't have time before taking the stage. In the end, this worked to everyone's advantage. After Wilson and his bandmates worked the autograph line, they invited me into their tour bus (good thing, since it was a hot and humid July night) and we sat down for a post-show conversation.

Bill Kopp: For me, your music has always sort of transcended genres. It’s not strictly blues: there’s plenty of R&B, soul and rock in it. And it’s changed over time. Do you think those changes are a function of the changing lineups, or do they have to do with the sorts of songs you write?

Kim Wilson: I'm kinda going places that I want to go. I might not have been able to go those places with other lineups. This lineup affords me to go a lot of different places, a lot of different kinds of music. More than I've ever been able to do. The singing has become a little more important...the singing is everything. It's the whole thing. The harmonica is good, and you can create a lot of excitement with that, but without the songs and the singing...

It's all about females appreciating it. So you've got to be able to sing 'em up a little bit to get that. Otherwise [chuckles]...you've got problems.

Bill Kopp: Do you think you have been unfairly pigeonholed as a blues act?

Kim Wilson: Sometimes. When we try to do things now, you know, they put us right in that blues category. And they're able to do that because the blues category is so nebulous. People are having a hard time figuring out what blues is, because they've been exposed to so much stuff that isn't blues, [but] that's called blues. There's very few bands who are gonna be able to really play blues.

As much different stuff as we do, lots of times on blues festivals, we're the only people playing any blues!

Bill Kopp: Lots of jam bands and stuff...

Kim Wilson: Jam bands -- that's okay. As long as they don't call it blues. I think it's time for just music festivals. There's so few people playing blues now. What's cool about these roots festivals is that you get people like Mavis Staples, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Robert Cray, Los Lobos, some jazz people, some soul people. You really get the cream of all musics, and you kind of cut the fat off. Ad you get an opportunity, a special day with [artists] who are kinda just starting out.

There's a standard that you need to go by. You need to give the audience the top of what there is. And I'd like to think that we are one of those bands. But I think you've got to give people their money's worth. I think that after five in the afternoon, you really can't be messin' around. You know what I mean? Up 'til five, maybe.

Bill Kopp: "It's been a long day. Impress me!"

Kim Wilson: Right. What do they say? Win or go home. I mean, it's easy for me to talk like that now, because I just got finished playing in front of a great crowd. They were very receptive from the beginning. And that makes your job so easy. You just give 'em all you got, and you can relax. There's not ever a feeling of being frantic.

Bill Kopp: When they're looking at their watch and crossing their arms, you've got problems.

Kim Wilson: And that happens sometimes. But this is a concert pretty much in a perfect world, as far as a crowd goes.

Bill Kopp: It helps that [laughs] we all get fairly liquored up earlier in the evening.

On some level I kind of see you as a more modern version of John Mayall.

Kim Wilson: The way I've got people comin' in and out [of the band]?

Bill Kopp: Yes. You've got the vision. The way I see it, there's enough "space" in your vision. It's not like, 'you guys are gonna come in, and you're gonna play this note, and you're gonna play it this way." It's not that. It's wide open. And it's not just that you're the constant guy. It's more than that. Do you think the Mayall comparison is a fair one?

Kim Wilson: Sure. But there's a fair number of people you can say that about. Muddy Waters, for instance. There's a few bandleaders who have played a lot of different kinds of music that have had people come in and out of their bands. People like Duke Ellington and Count Basie had some unbelievable people.

Mayall, he helped out a lot of people. He gave a lot of people jobs, and pushed them on their way. He did a great thing. And he made people aware of blues music. He comes from my era. That was back in the sixties when we were kids. I've gotten to know John over the years. He's a great guy; he's always been very gracious, very complimentary. I have a lot — a lot — of respect for John Mayall.

Bill Kopp: It's hard to imagine: if we didn't have him, what we would have missed on. Some really talented people that might not have gotten that hand up.

Four-fifths of the current lineup has been together since 2007, and Mike Keller has been with you for two years. With all the gigs you’ve done, I imagine that you all got that whole unspoken musical communication thing down pretty quick.

Kim Wilson: We're finding some direction now. The whole Chicago blues thing with this band is not there; that's not what it really is. You can get some tastes of it, but it's more Bobby "Blue" Bland, Texas-type stuff, more guitar-oriented stuff. I'll pick up the harmonica maybe three, four songs in a night. And good ones, y'know? But I think it's really about all those different directions you can go, that you can show people.

I've actually thought about doing some more country...doing a country type of thing. I love George Jones, and I've thought about showing people what I can do as a country singer.

Bill Kopp: There are hints of that in your music. Country blues. It wouldn't be a left turn for you.

Kim Wilson: You know that song, "Do You Know Who I Am." That's very country sounding.

Bill Kopp: If you tweak the arrangement a little bit, it would be totally George Jones.

Kim Wilson: [laughs] I'd love to hear him do it!

Bill Kopp: That would be nice. It would probably pay some bills, too, wouldn't it?

Bill Kopp: How would you describe — what is it that you deliver with the Fabulous Thunderbirds that’s different than what you do with Kim Wilson’s Blues All-stars?

Kim Wilson: That's easy. [The Fabulous Thunderbirds] is just a hybrid of a lot of different things. It's Americana, it's all of those musics put together. Whereas the solo thing, that is straight Chicago stuff. We vary it a little with that thing, but this is really a lot of different musical genres.

It's a concept that I've had since I was a kid. It was out of necessity at first, 'cause I would have to play a lot of soul beats to get people up and dance. Then I could play some blues.

If you look at that first James Cotton record on Verve, that really kind of confirmed everything for me. He was really a huge inspiration in a lot of ways to me. Harmonica, of course. But he was a great singer. He was doing "Blues in My Sleep," he was doing "Knock on Wood," "Turn On Your Lovelight," "Don't Start Me Talkin'" by Sonny Boy Williamson. All these different musical things. So I said, "Yeah!"

[Our conversation turns to Stax artists; everybody's talking at once.]

Kim Wilson: That's when they were makin' records. A lot of texture was comin' out of these guys. And all they did, really, was turn on the tape recorder and play. Instead of something that's "produced." And that's what I want to get back to with the new thing. I've got this thing now that you have [a new CD of eleven songs, sold at shows -- ed.] and it's very close. But it's gonna change. I may re-cut the whole thing on analog.

Bill Kopp: That was my next question. So is or isn't this your new album?

Kim Wilson: It's supposed to be, but we weren't done with it. And we knew we weren't. But since we paid for it...

Bill Kopp: Yeah, what the hell. In the meantime, something is better than nothing.

Kim Wilson: A good example [of a sound I like] is the Black Keys. They're an interesting bunch, sonically. I saw 'em on Leno the other night, and I really enjoyed them. I thought, "There's some guys who've really picked up the essence of what music is." I like the guy's voice, and he was playing this way-cool Supro guitar. They're another band that's a hybrid: it's not blues, but it has the essence of all those things. You've got to know blues -- and a lot of other things -- to be able to play the way that they play. There are very few people who can do that and get away with it commercially. That's the kind of thing we've done in the past, and that's what we're really ready to do now. If this was 1985, we'd be in the Top 20. But there is no Top 20 any more.

Bill Kopp: I saw you guys -- sort of like that drunk guy in the autograph line was saying to you -- open for Double Trouble at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. It was the night before Stevie Ray went into rehab. He went into Peachford [Behavioral Health Systems].

Kim Wilson: Poor kid…

Bill Kopp: That was sort of the commercial apex for the band, but what you do now continues to be really interesting.

Kim Wilson: What we're doing now really has progressed to a point where people really allow me to sing. Which has never really happened until now. I mean, here I am, 59 fuckin' years old, and I'm just finally learnin' how.

This kind of music is all about being a journeyman musician. It takes your whole life to do what you need to do. There are a lot of people who are young, who have a lot of potential. You can see it coming, coming, coming, and then: where did it go? I think it's great to be at a certain age -- like me -- and get to the point where it's like a rebirth. Where you can stand yourself, the things that you do.

You're always experimenting with different techniques. You're always listening to the old records, trying to pick up the essence of the things. I've been listening to some Ray Charles lately, and other singers. I enjoy that stuff, and I'm learning. Always learning. The object is, maybe at this stage of my life, maybe I've busted my head through the basement of that peer group that I want to be in. Guys that I've revered all my life and have played with. And if I had done that when I was, maybe, 25, I'd be done.

Bill Kopp: But you might not have appreciated it at that age like you would now...

Kim Wilson: You gotta realize, when I was 25, I was like someone who was sixteen. It was another time. That whole extension of how kids grow up fast these days, it extended into my twenties and thirties. And it worked out okay for me. I'm havin' fun, I'm very excited about music, and I'm very excited about being good at it.

Bill Kopp: That comes through onstage.

Kim Wilson: No one can like you if you don't like yourself. And the bandstand might be the only place where you do like yourself!

Bill Kopp: Looking at your tour itinerary, it seems like you have a varied lineup of festivals and types of venues. Do you tweak the set depending on the gig?

Kim Wilson: Yes. I don't have a set list. I just call 'em off.

Bill Kopp: You guys don't go into a huddle between songs. That would be super-unprofessional: "Excuse us a moment while we discuss what our next song is going to be."

Kim Wilson: I just holler 'em out. But [chuckles] we've got a real problem with Johnny Moeller. I holler out the song to him, and he's goin', "What?!" And I'm thinking, "Can't this guy read my fuckin' lips?"

Bill Kopp: "Or my mind..."

Johnny Moeller: Everyone else does!

Kim Wilson: I'm doing all these signs to him [makes wild hand gestures]. And then he finally comes up to me, and I tell him.

Johnny Moeller: I think it pays to be as deaf as you are!

Kim Wilson [to the whole band]: Believe me: you'll all be wearin' fuckin' hearing aids by the time you're my age. I've got twenty years on the oldest of these bunch of guys. [laughs all around]

In This Section...