Neferteri Shepherd

Since he burst from the blues clubs of Louisiana onto the global music scene with 1995’s breakthrough first album, Ledbetter Heights, followed by his career defining second album, Trouble Is… in 1997, Kenny Wayne Shepherd has twisted classic cuts into bold new shapes each night on the stage. The Trouble Is… tracks have always been on the move, never settling into museum pieces.

First off, Kenny Wayne Shepherd was 33 years old at the release of this album, so he’s not a kid playing hot guitar anymore, he’s a grown man doing it. And he does play a hot lead guitar – that, in a nutshell, is what he does. But over the years he’s also learned that the blues isn’t just about blazing lead licks, it’s also about letting the song say its say – and on Live! In Chicago he does that. This is a concert full of songs and not just a bunch of guitar leads broken up by someone singing for a bit. Shepherd is also fully aware of the history of the blues and he honors some of his heroes here by playing with blues legends like Hubert Sumlin, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Bryan Lee and Buddy Flett and he doesn’t step all over them with his guitar playing – he supports them. The concert grew out of the tour Shepherd put together in support of 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads project, a DVD/CD documentary that featured Shepherd traveling around the country on a ten day trip interviewing and playing with icons from the blues world, including the surviving members of Muddy Waters' and Howlin' Wolf's bands, making this show, recorded at the House of Blues in Chicago, a kind of culmination.

Five years separate Live On and its successor, The Place You're In, and the time allowed Kenny Wayne Shepherd to grow as both an artist and as an individual. He's not only writing the majority of his material, he's singing most of it as well. His guitar playing has become more nuanced, and he's moved squarely into the world of album rock from his blues-rock background. Even the cover and publicity photos reflect the difference, showing a darker, decidedly grown-up Kenny Wayne Shepherd. In addition, the producer/mixing team of Jerry Harrison and Tom Lord-Alge (who did both Live On and Trouble Is) has been replaced by Marti Frederiksen and Andy Wallace, who give the album a more muscular sound. This album is tailor-made for rock radio with its big guitar sounds and recycled classic rock riffs, and Shepherd sounds very comfortable in this setting.

The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band will be releasing their first ever live concert video in 10 years this winter. 'Straight To You: Live' will be released on 27th November via Provogue. Their only other live output, the ’Live! In Chicago’ album was released a decade ago and got itself a Grammy nomination along the way, but this time around for 2020, you get to watch the band in its full glory as well as listen…

Musicians who decided to set their emotions free and to explore everything that is fascinating. Progressive, world music, acoustic music, trance, rock, blues. Ethereal forms, uncommon rhythm figures and harmonic solutions. Rock anthems and protest songs. The band absorbs everything that surrounds it. Restrictions and procrastination do not have the right to vote. There is passion, wildness and adrenaline. Rich instrumentation, constant work on the sound, numerous experiments and a group of talented people who record and work with the band on both musical and visual projects – all this allows Lion Shepherd to develop its own unique style and image. The band is in constant motion, becoming a bigger and bigger challenge even for its most faithful listeners.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd arrived on the scene as a blues guitar hero at 18 to an overload of media hoopla and pressure. At 40, he has evolved from the blues-guitar-slinger ghetto and become a mature musician whose wide-angle vision embraces American roots music – blues, rock, country, and soul/R&B – as an inseparable whole. While it's true that most of his albums have charted, his last two, Goin’ Home and Lay It on Down, have done better than all the others, placing well inside the Top 40. The Traveler is a direct aesthetic follow-up to Lay It on Down. Co-produced once more with Marshall Altman, it utilizes the same band (including uber-drummer Chris Layton and singer Noah Hunt). Recorded in Los Angeles over ten days, it offers eight new originals and two excellent covers.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd arrived on the scene as a blues guitar hero at 18 to an overload of media hoopla and pressure. At 40, he has evolved from the blues-guitar-slinger ghetto and become a mature musician whose wide-angle vision embraces American roots music – blues, rock, country, and soul/R&B – as an inseparable whole. While it's true that most of his albums have charted, his last two, Goin’ Home and Lay It on Down, have done better than all the others, placing well inside the Top 40. The Traveler is a direct aesthetic follow-up to Lay It on Down. Co-produced once more with Marshall Altman, it utilizes the same band (including uber-drummer Chris Layton and singer Noah Hunt). Recorded in Los Angeles over ten days, it offers eight new originals and two excellent covers.