Kenny Vaughan is a great sideman — an accomplished guitarist with a subtly trenchant style. A well-traveled session player, Vaughan has gained fame as a member of Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives, and his new full-length
V is a sideman’s honorable solo effort. Without much of a voice, Vaughan eases his way through some unassuming originals and a handful of instrumentals. “The Things I Do” rocks along in a country-meets-Beatles power-pop vein — NRBQ should cover it. Elsewhere, the greasy “Don’t Leave Home Without Jesus” suggests Vaughan has been listening to The 5 Royales during off hours, while “Mysterium” is a pastiche of ’60s soundtrack music.
V is a half-hour that makes a case for the virtues of an ordinary man, his trusty Telecaster and his good woman, in that order — Vaughan even mentions women who garden in two songs. Maybe she’s got a Telecaster as well.
— Edd Hurt