Kim Wilson’s been playing harmonica and singing blues 42 years and he says he’s just hitting his stride.

His harp is featured in a recent major movie, his band lineup for the Fabulous Thunderbirds is the best in its history, and there is a new album (sort of).

The Fabulous Thunderbirds have the rare distinction of being a blues band with a couple of mainstream hits — “Tuff Enuff” and “Wrap it Up.”

“A lot of people who latched onto those songs had no idea I was really a blues guy,” Wilson said. “It was a real coup.”
“Wrap It Up” is really a soul song first recorded by Sam and Dave. “Tuff Enuff,” Wilson says, was a kind of a rocked-out production of something Bo Diddley might write. It was produced by Dave Edmunds who in the late 1970s and early ’80s had a penchant for hit songs.

“Success is a nebulous word,” Wilson said. “I feel more successful now then I’ve ever felt and ever did feel back then. Maybe it’s the kind of success like your mom and dad would like to see. My mom and dad hated my musical career until they saw me on Johnny Carson.”

The early Fabulous Thunderbirds had Jimmy Vaughan (Stevie Ray’s brother) on guitar and the two big hits, which opened plenty of doors for the band which has since pretty much focused on the blues. Wilson, after all, cut his teeth playing with Muddy Waters as the house band at Antone’s in Austin, Texas.

“Kim Wilson is the finest harp player to come along since Little Walter,” Sacramento blues player and radio DJ Mick Martin told Lake Tahoe Action, which asked the same question to rising harp star Jason Ricci. “He’s a very traditional player,” Ricci said. “He plays the harmonica in an old-school fashion. I have the utmost respect for Kim.”

Wilson agrees that he plays a traditional style, but with a singular bent.

“You have so many influences,” Wilson said. “Of course Little Walter was a great influence. But so was James Cotton and George “Harmonica” Smith, Big Walter, Rice Miller (aka Sonny Boy Williamson II), Billy Boy Arnold, Snooky Pryor, Lazy Lester, Junior Parker. All these people have had a big influence on me. They were the originators of the music.

“After a while all those influences meld together and spits out of you. All those guys did write the book but there’s no reason why you can’t write your own page in that book. Muddy Waters didn’t tell me to give up. Muddy Waters told me, ‘You better handle this for me because I’m not going to be around here.’ And all that stuff really stuck.”

Wilson played the harp for the Little Walter character in “Cadillac Records,” a film about the Chicago blues label Chess Records. He said he copied Little Walter’s solos, but harmonica experts could tell it was Wilson’s sound.

Some people were critical of the story line taken in “Cadillac Records,” especially the part about there being only one Chess brother and that he slept with Etta James.

“They took a little creative license in the story to put some butts in seats but it was still a pretty entertaining movie, and that story will never be told in a major motion picture probably ever again,” Wilson said. “Maybe a documentary will happen but there’s not enough on the guy, Little Walter, especially. He was a pretty mysterious guy. There’s not a lot of video of him.”
The Fabulous Thunderbirds lineup has had one change since its last Tahoe appearance in 2007, with Mike Keller replacing one of the guitarists, Kirk Fletcher (now a solo artist and member of the Mannish Boys).

“Mike Keller’s really versatile,” Wilson said. “He’s very young and one of the top guys already.”

Johnny Moeller also plays guitar, his brother Jay is on drums and Randy Burmudes is on bass.

“Johnny is really good with arrangements and he’s a great soloist,” Wilson said. “All these guys are always trying to improve themselves. They are at the point in their careers where you really start to become somebody — your early to late 30s. It really takes that long to be comfortable in your own skin musically. It’s great to watch them. The rhythm section, as well. Randy is one of the world’s great musicians. Jay is another one of those guys who just keeps developing. It’s awesome. This is the best group across the board that I’ve had.”

The Fabulous Thunderbirds last album was released in 2005. However, studio sessions last month produced a CD which will be available at Saturday’s show at the Crystal Bay Club.

“We’re going to add and subtract from it,” Wilson said. “It’s a good thing to pick this up now because it’s a one-of-a-kind item. It hasn’t officially been released.”