Kenny Wayne Shepherd

“That’s the big payoff. To walk on stage every night and watch the fans sing along – it’s total fulfillment. It what playing music is all about …”

Kenny Wayne Shepherd on live performance



Early is his career, which occurred at an age before most of us had even entertained picking up a guitar, Kenny Wayne Shepherd was being called a ‘wunderkind of the blues’. He scored his first platinum album while still in high school and was all set to pick up the mantle as the next generation of blues players while still learning to drive. Veteran bluesmen were looking at the young Shepherd as the next biggest thing in the blues in the post-Stevie Ray Vaughn era. Flash forward a few years and the boy has become a man, a blues man with flashy skills and the impassioned heart of players twice his age.

Born on June 12th, 1977 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Shepherd is the son of a local radio personality, Ken Shepherd, who was also involved in concert promotion. As a result of his occupation, Ken Shepherd had an extensive record collection, which proved an invaluable source of inspiration for his son. His first ‘guitar’ (a plastic children toy) was purchased for him when was around 4 years old by his grandmother who bought them with S&H Green Stamps.

At the age of seven, Shepherd began to play an actual guitar with an incredible passion for a youngster after having met Stevie Ray Vaughn at one of his father’s events. His father introduced the pair and Vaughn allowed the youngster to sit on the side of the stage to watch the show. Shepherd has claimed in many interviews that he was ‘mesmerized’ by the encounter and having had the opportunity to watch Vaughn play. Despite the fact that he has never taken a formal lesson, Shepherd began to play a ‘cheap wanna be Stratocaster’ and by playing a lick over and over on a cassette deck, learning them one note at a time. His initial inspirations Muddy Waters, Albert Lee and, of course, Stevie Ray Vaughn.

At 13, he and his family went on vacation to New Orleans. There met veteran blues man, Bryan Lee. After much coaxing and persuading, Lee finally invited Shepherd onto stage during one of Lee’s performances. According to stories, Shepherd held his own on stage for hours and earned the respect of Lee and the attending audience. It was at this moment that Shepherd made the decision to pursue music as a career. He formed his own band and hit the touring circuit gaining both valuable experience and a fan base along the way. By using his father’s extensive connections and hand shake diplomacy within the music industry, he secured a solid record deal with Irving Azoff’s Giant Records in 1993. Shepherds first recording, Ledbetter Heights was released two years later and was a massive success. The disc sold 500,000 copies, which is an impressive number for any blues recording and unheard of for someone still in their teens.

Azoff was a true supporter of the young talent and is quoted as saying “He is truly a phenomenon. He plays like someone who has lived a lot longer than he has. You don’t learn what he has, it is given to you.”
His follow up disc, Touble Is, released in 1998, brought him a Grammy nomination despite the fact that many critics felt that the disc was simply a regurgitation of Ledbetter Heights. Even still, listening to the disc, it’s evident that Shepherd was honing his skills as a guitarist despite the lack of strong selling material on the second album. The band released Live On the following year to stronger reviews. There was a sense that Shepherd was trying to slide towards the middle of the road between blues-rock and a purer blues sense. After the release to the disc, Shepherd and company took to the road, finding them in the opening slot of Bob Dylan’s tour of the time.

It took five years for Shepherd to find his way back to the studio for the release of 2004’s The Place You’re In on Reprise Records. The Place You’re In was the first disc where Shepherd took the lead vocals (Noah Hunt supplied the vocals for the first three releases). During the time on the road between releases had allowed Shepherd to continue to mature as a guitarist and surprisingly as a songwriter and singer. The album was also a shift back more towards rock and a step back a bit from his pure blues roots.

But 2007’s 10 Days Out (Blues From The Backroads) brought Shepherd back square into the blues. The disc and accompanying DVD, were the result of Shepherd and former Double Trouble rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton with a film crew in tow, heading into the heartland of the blues, the Delta, to catch veteran blues performers on their home turf. Shepherd and his crew serve as a back up band to some of the most venerable blues players around and caught them bringing the blues on back porches, kitchens, living rooms and local bars. Some of the featured players were the likes of Cootie Stark, Neal Pattman, Henry Townsend, Etta Baker and Pinetop Perkins as well as members of both Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf’s bands. It’s a true treasure of blues history and to many music history buffs and blues fans, it may be the most important disc that Kenny Wayne Shepherd has delivered to date.

Live In Chicago, released in 2010, feels as if its 10 Days Out companion piece and in a sense, it is. Growing out of the 10 Days Out tour, Shepherd and crew recorded a concert in Chicago where they shared the stage with the likes of Hubert Sumlin, Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith, Bryan Lee and Buddy Flett. Like it’s predecessor, Shepherd is pleased to take side stage to the veterans along the way but throwing down with his own brand of the dusty blues he’s been working since he was a child.

His most recent work, How I Go, released this year, has paired Shepherd again with Noah Hunt and the same magic seems to have returned. The little blues boy who stunned and amazed with his licks and runs as precocious ‘wunderkind’ has grown into a bluesman. The kid who was inspired by the greats now serves his time as the one who does the inspiring. He has listened to and played next to some of the greats and he has learned. How I Go is evident of his skills, both with the fretboard as well as with a pen. In a September interview with Sirius/XM’s Ron Beninngton, Shepherd said, “It’s challenging, man, to write an authentic blues song nowadays. It’s challenging to write a new blues song that doesn’t sound contrived. But the goal, for any artist, is to try and write material that essentially sounds timeless. And people can enjoy it forever. I think we accomplished that on a lot of our material.”

And it continues, the blues go on. Every time it seems as if the music that practically birthed this thing we call Rock and Roll seems to have run it’s course; every time it appears to be headed for the back pages of the music history books, someone comes along to pick it up and keep pushing it forward. In this time, it’s Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Thanks Hunter60 for your article on Kenny Wayne. I saw him at the House of Blues in Anaheim, Ca. shortly after he made "Blues on the Back Road" what a great concert! He had with him some of the blues-men from the album. I remember Pinetop Perkins. I became a big fan of the blues and have been trying to learn to play them myself.

Thanks Cyberman. Saw himself years ago when he was still a kid and he blew me away! Great player. Good luck with your blues study. Fascinating genre of music and a lot of fun to play.