[rating=6.00]
Eight albums into his decorated blues rock career, guitar virtuoso Kenny Wayne Shepherd is ready for a change. He is no longer the fresh-faced six-string gunslinger dropping jaws with his fretboard mastery. With Lay It On Down, Shepherd and the band deliver roots rock that is mostly devoid of the flare that once characterized their sound while still drawing heavily on the same influences. At times in the past, some of the band’s songs seemed designed as vehicles for Shepherd to show off on the guitar. Here the emphasis is placed on the song itself, in most cases streamlined tracks trimmed of all the fat.
After a decade of wowing fans with his guitar, Shepherd took a gamble in 2004 by making major stylistic shifts with The Place You’re In, eschewing the blues and southern rock for more of an alt-rock sound in addition to taking over on lead vocals for the first time. The album was a flop, disappointing fans with its dull songs and Shepherd’s monotone, emotionless singing. After that disaster, Shepherd retreated to familiar territory over the next three albums, playing standard blues songs and going back to what worked in the past.
The stylistic shift with Lay It On Down is much more subtle. There is far less soloing and fewer memorable guitar riffs, but the album’s sound is firmly rooted in the blues, classic rock, and Americana. Shepherd has grown tremendously as a vocalist over the years. His singing was the weakest part The Place You’re In, but since then, Shepherd’s voice has matured, adding more range and depth of emotion. His expression on the title track is particularly impressive, singing with an edge of sorrow on the acoustic ballad. Even so, Shepherd is smart to hand six of the ten tracks over to longtime singer Noah Hunt, whose gruff, soulful croon takes the songs to the next level.
Though Shepherd is an adequate songwriter, there are more than a few lyrical clichés and other cringe-worthy moments, such as rhyming “yeah, that’s what’s up” with “baby, I’m down for love.” Perhaps the worst lyrical moment is Hunt singing “makes me want to ooh ooh ooh with you” in the otherwise catchy “Nothing But the Night.”
One of Lay It On Down’s greatest strengths is its diversity. For all of Shepherd’s technical prowess, most of his discography sounds quite similar. This album is the band’s most eclectic to date. “Diamonds and Gold,” with its horn section and strutting groove, has a strong R&B influence. A strong rock & roll riff powers songs like album opener “Baby Got Gone,” while ballads like “Hard Lesson Learned” showcase the band’s softer and twangier side. On the latter song, swirling steel guitar surround Hunt as he sings of the brutal cycle of rekindling a bad relationship. “Here I am hanging by a thread, but there you are back in my head,” Hunt sings.
The funky grooves of “Nothing But the Night” make it one of the album’s standout tracks, despite the aforementioned lyrics. Shepherd’s restrained guitar licks and occasional organ flourishes perfectly accent the shaking propulsive beat. The brooding “Louisiana Rain” is another highlight. “Tired of feeling upside down, time to turn these wheels around, too much sun here anyway,” Hunt sings over Shepherd’s light shimmering electric and acoustic guitars.
Though Lay It On Down doesn’t have many standout guitar-hero moments, “Ride of Your Life” and “How Low Can You Go” both provide the vintage Kenny Wayne Shepherd experience. As a whole, the album is a fine experiment in expanding Shepherd’s style without straying too far from what the band does best. It may not live up to the excitement of Shepherd’s early guitar clinics like Trouble Is… or Live On, but it surpasses the predictable retreading of that territory over the last few albums.
