Shepherd rekindles blues for a new generation

Randy Matin

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 8:44 a.m.

The trouble with Kenny Wayne Shepherd is, at only 24 he's already scored two platinum albums. And along with the teenage ax men Jonny Lang and Allman Brothers' Derek Trucks, he has rekindled the blues for a whole new generation.

Touted as the blond baby-god of the Stratocaster, Shepherd scored big with the classic blues grooves on "Ledbetter Heights," released on Giant in 1996, and followed with "The Trouble Is ... Kenny Wayne Shepherd" earning two Grammy nominations along the way.

Pleased with the sound of his latest album, "Live On" produced by Jerry Harrison (who worked with the Talking Heads), Shepherd, with a hint of his native Shreveport, La., in his tones, says, "I think it sounds even better than the first two records. The drums are so live it's like you're in the room with them. And my new amp (a '64 Fender Vibe Reverb) just gets that sound. Hard to describe, but it's a real sweet sound that still has bite."

Themes for Shepherd, who writes or co-writes most of his material, have matured a bit since "Trouble Is," when he was more concerned with relationships. Songs such as "Slow Ride" told a seduction story about a girl, a guy and a car with clear innuendo in lyrical metaphor: "I won't lose my nerve/on those dangerous curves/when we get rolling." "True Lies" is a classic blues number about a woman who just can't get her story straight, and "Somehow, Somewhere, Someway" is an autobiographical lament for the girl left behind when her man (a travelling musician) has to hit the road.

But since that time Shepherd has married his sweetheart Melissa and says, "A lot of the material on my first couple of albums were inspired by this other girl I was dating for, like, five years. When we finally broke up, and I left her, I'd never been happier in my life," Shepherd says. "The new songs, too, are based on experiences that I've been through. I feel that is what people relate to most. A lot of bands sing about pink trees and purple skies, and all that crazy stuff. But I'm talking about life."

If it seems that, at his young age, Shepherd hasn't accumulated much life experience he's certainly gained the respect of his peers. Shepherd is on a two-month tour with Stevie Ray Vaughan's band Double Trouble and a new singer, Lizzie West, opening the show.

Before moving up to headlining status, Shepherd had opened for B.B. King has the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Aerosmith, Van Halen and Bob Dylan. And when Eric Johnson dropped out of the G3 tour a few years back, Shepherd took his place sharing the concert stage with world class string benders Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and King Crimson's Robert Fripp.

On the new record Shepherd is backed not only by his own band including Cincinnati-based singer Noah Hunt (ex-Uncle Six) and bass player Robby Emerson, but also with Double Trouble, Arion Salzar from Third Eye Blind and Les Claypool from Primus.

"There's a little mix and match going on," says Shepherd, who returns the favor on Double Trouble's latest album, adding his hot licks to the opening cut "Cry Sky."

Seeing Vaughan at age 7 was an eye-opener for Shepherd. His disc-jockey father, Ken Shepherd, now his manager, is a 25-year veteran of Shreveport radio who also promoted concerts in Shreveport, including one by Vaughan. At that show, as the heavily mythologized and exaggerated story goes, Vaughan plucked the young Shepherd from among the crowd, looked him dead center and then sat young Kenny onstage where he watched the remainder of the show.

Shepherd who now clams to be haunted by Vaughan, says he felt an immediate connection to Vaughan and his profession and began an aggressive campaign to get his parents to buy the budget model Yahama he started with.

At 13, Shepherd, who practiced by listening to Albert Collins, King and Muddy Waters, began jamming in clubs with older blues musicians until Irving Azoff signed him to a record deal in 1993.

"Ever since I can remember I felt like I was meant to play guitar. I can remember being 4 years old and I could single out every instrument in the band while listening to the radio. It doesn't seem like I was meant to do anything else. I couldn't really see myself flippin' burgers. It's a destiny-type thing," says Shepherd, who is working on material for his fourth album, "and everything points to me playing music."