Best known as a key sideman for legendary blues rock guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, keyboard player Reese Wynans was a revered session musician in Nashville and enjoyed a 50-year career backing stars including Carole King, Boz Scaggs and Joe Bonamassa, before finally releasing his debut solo album in 2019 at the age of 70.
Growing up in Sarasota, Florida Wynans was five when he and his six siblings all started taking piano lessons with their grandmother. He learned classical music before falling in love with rock & roll in his teens and becoming influenced by 1960s bands such as The Zombies, The Rolling Stones and The Rascals. He turned to the Hammond organ after hearing jazz star Jimmy Smith's hit 'Walk On the Wild Side' and majored in music at Florida State University before dropping out to play with a local jam band called The Second Coming in Jacksonville. Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley were also part of the group, but when they joined The Allman Brothers Band in 1969, Wynans hit the road playing in clubs across the South, settling in Austin and becoming a member of Jerry Jeff Walker's group.
He played with jazzy, prog-rockers Captain Beyond on their album 'Sufficiently Breathless' in 1973 and toured with Boz Scaggs, but really made his name when he joined Texas guitar hero Stevie Ray Vaughan's band Double Trouble in 1985 and played on records 'Soul II Soul' and 'In Step'. After Vaughan's death in 1990, Wynans found regular recording work in Nashville with country stars Trisha Yearwood and Hank Williams Jr. and toured with bluesmen Buddy Guy and Eli Cook, before building a strong friendship with blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa, joining his band for albums 'Different Shades of Blue' in 2014 and 'Redemption' in 2018. He was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of Double Trouble in 2015, before Bonamassa produced 70-year-old Wynans' first album 'Sweet Release' in 2019. Driven by the trademark sound of his Hammond B3 organ and vintage Leslie 142 amplifier, the album included Wynans reuniting with Double Trouble bandmates Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon on four Stevie Ray Vaughan songs, while Sam Moore provided funky, wailing vocals and Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Warren Haynes added the guitar. There were also contributions from Keb Mo, Vince Gill and Bonnie Bramlett, and Wynans took the big jamboree of blues rock and blue-eyed soul on tour opening for Bonamassa later in the year.
