Reese Wynans

Reese Wynans earned his primary reputation as a session keyboardist through collaborations with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe Bonamassa, yet he waited until 2019 to issue his first solo album, Sweet Release, after five decades in the music industry. Born in 1947 and raised in Sarasota, Florida, he started piano lessons in childhood alongside his six siblings, though only he developed a serious commitment to the instrument. The first concert he attended, at age thirteen, was a Jerry Lee Lewis show that "changed his life," prompting a strong affinity first for rock & roll and subsequently for the blues. Beyond piano he gained command of electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, the instrument most closely identified with his playing. Following college he worked with several local bands until his friend, guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt, invited him to join Second Coming in 1968; that ensemble, which included Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley, later developed into the Allman Brothers Band. Wynans was released from the group, but Duane Allman secured him a position with Boz Scaggs in San Francisco. During the 1970s he also performed with Captain Beyond, the Explosives, and Delbert McClinton before securing his highest-profile role yet in 1985 with Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, appearing on the albums Soul to Soul and In Step. After Vaughan’s death in 1990, Wynans worked with Joe Ely and Lee Roy Parnell, then relocated to Nashville in 1992, where he became a studio musician on hundreds of country and blues recordings by artists such as Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, John Mayall, and Buddy Guy. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 for his work with Double Trouble, he joined Joe Bonamassa’s touring band; the guitarist urged him to make a solo album, offering to produce it and release it on his own J&R Records label. Released in 2019 under the title Sweet Release (after the song by Scaggs), the album collected material Wynans had helped shape over the years and featured contributions from Sam Moore, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Warren Haynes, Vince Gill, and Keb’ Mo’.