When Kenny Wayne Shepherd first made a name for himself as a young buck blues-rock guitar player, he was known as the kid, the embodiment of the legacy Stevie Ray Vaughan had left behind. Although Shepherd grew up quickly in the spotlight, he was always seen as the kid. Now at 37, Shepherd has long since been a man but he has never given up the kid’s wonderment of going back to the music that first enchanted him. On his latest album, appropriately titled Goin’ Home, Shepherd went back even further. Recording at Blade Studios in his birthplace of Shreveport, Louisiana, he has found an inspirational wealth of music inside and outside of his blues soul.
“When I was a kid I was met with a lot of resistance trying to play the blues,” Shepherd told me during our first interview in 2010. “Cause a lot people are skeptical about kids playing the blues and what do they know. But it’s good because I feel like I’ve reached a point in my career that I’ve been doing this long enough now, people have accepted me now as a part of the music and blues community and they take me seriously. Age isn’t so much a factor anymore but people still think I’m really, really young, which I think that’s great (laughs). I can be young forever (laughs).”
The new album features numerous homegrown blues treasures by such legends as BB King, Bo Diddley, Albert King and SRV brought to new life by Shepherd and special guests such as Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr, Kim Wilson, Robert Randolph, the Rebirth Brass Band and Warren Haynes. “I grew up listening to a lot of ZZ Top, a lot of Jimi Hendrix and stuff like that and I feel like that rock influence tends to find it’s way a little more into the music that I make than into the music that Stevie made,” Shepherd admitted. But the roots of his musical notes never stray too far from the source. “I would think that if you got really serious about playing blues music that at some point you would go a little bit further back and learn about the other artists that played ahead of those people [SRV, Hendrix] and find outwhere their influences came from.”
Appearing in concert last month in Biloxi, Mississippi, Shepherd and his incredible band – Noah Hunt on vocals, Chris Layton on drums, Tony Franklin on bass and Riley Osbourn on the keys – simmered through some blues nuggets past and present. With an interesting short introductory film about the making of his current album leading things off, Shepherd’s heart was visibly on his sleeve. From a spine-tingling “Heat Of The Sun” off his 2011 album How I Go, to his version of Iggy Pop’s “Search & Destroy” from the album he recorded with Stephen Stills, aka The Rides, to BB King’s “You Done Lost A Good Thing Now,” off Goin’ Home, it was a night, like many others on this tour, of rip-roaring blues the rock & roll way. Adding the remarkable Franklin to his band has been a masterful move on Shepherd’s part and Osbourn has become a beacon of light, injecting a spirit into his playing like never before. Both have added gusto to an already alive band.
Prior to the concert, Glide had a chance to talk with Shepherd about his latest endeavors while looking back at a few memories from his past. And if you know anything about Shepherd, then you know all conversations end with his love of cars.
You always seem to be on the road. How do you keep your shows exciting and fresh?
Well, for me, I try and change the set-list up so that we’re never playing the exact same thing every single night. And even if we did play the same set-list several nights in a row, then what we play on stage, like when I play guitar solos or my keyboard player plays his solos or whatever, we never approach those exactly the same way. So I always try something different, especially when you put out a new record it gives you a lot of new material to play live, which is a new experience for the band as well.
How many of the new songs are you playing in your set?
Well, I don’t have the set in front of me because it’s all subject to change on a daily basis but we’re playing a pretty good portion of it. I would say at least five or six songs from the new record and that’s a pretty significant selection of songs from the new record.
Are you changing any of the songs up from the recorded versions?
Right now, they are pretty close to their recorded versions but the more that we play them the more that things have the ability to progress and kind of morph into a different live version.
You recorded Goin’ Home in Shreveport so you actually went back home.
Yeah, it was like going back to our musical roots and also going back to my literal roots, where I grew up. The point was that when I was listening to these songs and choosing the material for this record, it brought me back to my childhood where all of this kind of began, when I first heard these songs. So I felt like the most appropriate place to record the record would be in my hometown.
How long did it take?
Well, the initial recording session was eleven days and we pretty much did almost the whole record in eleven days. Then there was just a little bit of additional work that was needed after that but I finished it up like two months later. I had some touring and shows and things to do so I put it on hold for a little while and then came back to it and finished it up.
Did you send the music back and forth with your guest musicians or did they actually come to you?
I went to them. That was the only part of this process that wasn’t done the old fashioned way. It was like impossible to try and even consider getting those guys all together during the same week in Louisiana to do some recording on a song. It was way more convenient to try and do it that way.
How did you know which special guest was going to play on which song?
Well, I chose the songs. Once each person agreed to do a song then I started looking at the ones we had recorded and try to make a decision on which ones I thought they would sound the best on. For the most part, you know, these are all friends of mine and I’m pretty familiar with their styles of playing and their talents and stuff, so it wasn’t that hard to figure out which ones I thought would be the most suited to feature them.
What was the first song that you knew you wanted on this album?
Well, to be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure. But I do remember that one of the very first songs that I knew that I wanted to record for this album was the BB King song, “You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now,” the slow blues song cause not since my first album had we recorded a slow blues song on one of my records. We did “Shame, Shame, Shame” on the first album and I knew that was something that my fans really wanted to hear so it’s one of my favorite BB King songs. That was definitely one of the first, if not THE first, song that was on the list.
Speaking of BB King, you have talked so much about the American blues that influenced you but what about some of the British blues players like Peter Green.
We recorded that song “Oh Well” on the third album and that was Fleetwood Mac’s song from the Peter Green era. I think Peter Green and Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page and people like that, certainly. I grew up listening to all of those guys’ music and their influences are somewhere in there as well.
When you’re covering so many old blues songs, was there one in particular that was the hardest for you to learn on guitar?
Naw (laughs). Not really. I mean, I grew up listening to these songs so I was pretty familiar with them. This is the music I grew up on so I’m intimately familiar with all of it.
What was THE song that literally changed your life when you heard it?
Well, I can’t attribute anything to a certain song. I would probably say that the concert that changed my life was either when I met Stevie Ray when I was seven years old for the first time or even before that when I went and saw Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker when I was just a little kid. That particular show introduced me to live blues music and I’ve been a fan and loved blues music as far back as I can remember. And then seeing Stevie when I was so young was a life-altering experience for me because I’d never seen anybody play music that way. It was so much fire and passion playing the guitar like that. From that day forward, all I wanted to do was play with that kind of intensity.
Is the story true that you got your earliest guitar with green stamps?
Yes except it wasn’t a real electric guitar. It was a like a toy acoustic guitar with nylon strings. You could actually play it but it wasn’t like a real, real guitar. My very first electric guitar was a Yamaha guitar that my parents bought me for Christmas. I still have it.
Has it helped that your parents have been so supportive of you from the beginning?
I think so but they were skeptical at first because the likelihood of being successful in this industry is pretty slim. Compare the amount of people who are successful to the people who want to be successful. It’s kind of like gambling. My family wanted me to like, you know, they wouldn’t let me drop out of high school to pursue my career in music so I had to play shows on the weekend and I had to go to school till I graduated high school, before I could really go out on the road full time. But they certainly have supported me but I think going into it, they were a little bit skeptical.
Do you find that the way you play guitar is changing as you’re getting older?
It’s certainly developed. I mean, if it didn’t things would be kind of boring. You want things to progress and you want things to develop over time and I certainly believe that my playing is developing. I can tell just in my approach that I’m a little more laid back now. It’s like when I was young, you want to show the world everything you can do, every trick you’ve got. As you kind of grow up and mature and establish yourself, it’s not so important anymore to show everybody everything you can do all the time. They kind of know. So it’s more or less for me about playing the right notes at the right time instead of a bunch of notes.
What do you think was the most important lesson you learned early on about being a professional musician?
When people ask me, do you have any advice for other musicians, really it’s I found out that playing with human beings instead of just playing in your living room or in your bedroom can make a huge difference in your ability and if you want to be in a band, that’s what you need to be doing, getting that experience. That really separates the men from the boys.
What was it like working with Stephen Stills in The Rides?
I’ve grown up, since I was a kid, meeting famous people and playing with lots of famous people, so when I met Stephen he was just Stephen Stills. These musicians and famous people are still just people. They’re human beings. I mean, they’re legends and Stephen Stills is an American legend, one of the greatest American songwriters of all time and he’s extraordinary but I don’t get star-struck much around people for whatever reason. I think maybe because I’ve been around it for so long.
Do you think you are going to work some more with him and do another Rides album?
Yeah, we’re planning on doing another record, probably in December of this year and then doing another tour next year.
You also have Tony Franklin playing with you. What do you think he adds to your band?
He’s good and he’s got a good pocket, you know. He’s definitely got a different style. He comes from a slightly different background than we do cause he didn’t really grow up playing blues music but he took right into the band and it’s good to have him out here.
You’re singing more. Has it finally become really comfortable having your voice as the focal point, especially live?
Yeah, it certainly has become more comfortable but there are still some songs that I don’t necessarily want to be responsible for singing, you know. But I think that’s with any artist. You just have to know the limits of your instrument and not everybody can sing every song great. The best part about my band is that I have Noah there and he’s a fantastic singer and I can just let him sing all night long if I want and I can just sit back and play guitar. Or I can jump up and sing as many songs as I want to whenever I want to. So it’s really like the best scenario for me.
What still excites you about playing music?
All of it. Just getting out there and the fans and their reaction and not knowing exactly what’s going to go down every night cause we try and keep it fresh and have an improvisational type approach to the music. So all of it excites me.
When you started getting success with your first couple of albums, what was your first big indulgence? Was it a car?
Oh yeah, when I signed my record deal I bought my first car, which was like a Chevy S10 Blazer and that was a big deal for me cause I’m a car guy. I love cars as much as I love guitars. I was too young, like sixteen years old, so it wasn’t like I could go buy a sports car. My parents could still tell me what I could and couldn’t do so I ended up getting an SUV (laughs).
What was your dream car when you were a teenager?
My dream car for the longest time was a 1969 Dodge Charger and I finally got one back in 2003 and 2004. I bought one that I had for a short amount of time and then in 2004, I built one that was like a modern version of the General Lee from The Dukes Of Hazard. That was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid.
What else do you have in your collection?
Right now, as far as classic cars go, I have a 1969 Charger, a 1972 Charger, a 1975 Duster, a 1964 Dodge 330, a 1970 Barracuda convertible, a 1974 Dodge Ram Charger convertible pick-up truck and a 1950 Ford 2-door Business Coupe.
That’s a lot of money you’ve spent on cars
Well, you know (laughs) I love cars. I say sometimes it’s a tossup between the cars and the guitars as to what I love the most, what I’m most passionate about, besides being a father.
Have you ever talked to Jeff Beck about his cars?
No, I haven’t but most guitar guys are car guys as well. It just kind of goes hand-in-hand.
What are your upcoming plans for this year?
We’re doing a lot of headlining shows. We’re doing a tour with Los Lonely Boys in July and August and then we’re going to do some more of the Experience Hendrix tour. Then we go back to Europe. When I come back from Europe we’re going to go into the studio with the Rides and make another album with that band.
Do you ever stop, Kenny?
We stay pretty busy, yeah, that’s for sure (laughs)
Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough and Marc Lacatell.
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