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It's almost endearing to see the photos inside this kid's album with people who could be his older brother, his father, and even his grandfather. Cute face, mischievous expression, and the guitar always with him.
But can you imagine a teenager who, instead of going to high school parties to have fun with peers (especially the opposite sex), goes around playing with old folks?!
Then you read, listen, and understand. The reason why in the early nineties, when everyone is trying to explore and invent new sounds, this boy plays the blues. But not even a "new" Blues, contaminated by other genres, just Blues, as if he jumps out from a dirty and smoky club of an era gone by. And here we are: if the demons of the Blues get you (as a child, no less), that's it, there's no remedy. In fact, you must be grateful and treat them well, trust the noble ones (those from Louisiana, in his case, are said to be fierce).
It's said that the boy's passion was ignited by his father's record collection and seeing a concert of Steve Ray Vaughan at seven years old.
We needed this boy and his album to wake up, in those years, the decrepit old guard and "naturally" confused rock. Stones and Van Halen were the first dinosaurs back then struck by Kenny Wayne and his album.
The references to his idol Steve Ray Vaughan (and therefore, by extension, to Hendrix) are more than evident, with more than a nod to ZZ Top, Black Crowes, and the immense Rory Gallagher in some harder tracks. His guitar, on this album, is a wonder: wild and unleashed, yet clean and professional, even too much for me. He manages, and will manage even more in the future, to blend blues with rock in its most diverse forms and thus reach a broader audience than just the naturally dwindling (meaning nearly all dead, to be clear) Delta Blues audience; things that only the great specific guitar heroes have achieved (Gallagher, Vaughan, Winter).
Today, after more than twenty years of career, a couple of platinum records, nominations, and awards won, the boy is a certainty. He has played with many greats, from Dylan to the Eagles, from the Rolling Stones to Aerosmith, from the Lynyrd to the Allman, Van Halen, and James Gang, and many more. Recently, he also created the "Rides" with Stephen Stills (yes, that one) and Barry Goldberg (Electric Flag).
And finally, Fender has dedicated a guitar to him, as only the greatest (by the way, the same as Hendrix and Vaughan).
All this success, however, does not seem to have changed (or not too much) Kenny and his desire to make his music. He has managed to unite critics and public, and it seems to me this doesn't happen often. Probably because he is genuine, still eager to tell the timeless stories of his music and contaminate it with related genres; because when he is on stage, he exudes energy and defiance, because he is simple and intense at the same time. Offstage, he is the opposite, shy and introverted with little desire to be in the spotlight other than when he's playing his guitar that shatters your soul.
As I write, it comes to mind that his peer is Joe Bonamassa, another huge talent born with blues in his veins. And it so happens that while, unfortunately, in those years we lost Rory and Stevie Ray, fate sent us these two boys.
It's not fate! It's the Blues that never leaves us alone; the demons provide for that.
And anyway, with all due respect to Bonamassa, I stick with Shepherd, (much) closer to me.
To immediately understand what it's about, if you want, listen to the title track. Six minutes of blues pandemonium with guitar, bass, and drums that are terrifying. Oh yes, I forgot, he always has a great band with him.
"Whoever doesn't love the Blues has a hole in their soul," was read on the wall of an old record store in Mississippi... because let's remember that almost everything we've listened to since then until today, without those lives, those pains, tragedies, passions turned into music, wouldn't exist.
Long live the Blues, long live the demons.
Happy listening.
Later he will make an album with great bluesmen ("10 Days Out: Blues From a The Backroads" or something like that), a 10-day documentary where he travels the country to play with the best blues artists. There is a "old", beautiful review by Hal on Debaser, unfortunately seen by very few.
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