OCEAN CITY – Platinum-selling blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd is playing the Ocean City Music Pier Monday, Aug. 22.
Shepherd burst on the scene in the 1990s as a teenage guitar phenom and has grown into one of the torch-bearers of blues music.
He spoke with the Sentinel between shows on his current tour.
This year you’ve been celebrating the 25th anniversary of your second record. What’s it been like revisiting a record you made when you were practically a kid?
SHEPHERD: “It’s been really cool, actually, because I’ve realized while doing interviews and playing these shows – for these anniversary shows we’re playing the whole album for the first time in a concert. We never played the whole album in a show before. So we got reacquainted with this stuff and the general consensus is this music is still 100 percent relevant, still sounds current, and just as good today as it was 25 years ago when we put it out. I feel like that’s a big accomplishment if you consider I was 18 or 19 when we put that record out. So I’m pretty proud of that, for sure.”
You grew up in Louisiana, where you can find a scene for just about any style of music. What are some of your earliest musical memories?
SHEPHERD: “Well, I grew up listening to all kinds of music, like you mentioned, and my dad was in radio so we went and saw every band and every concert that came through town – everybody from Conway Twitty and Hank Williams Jr. to James Brown to Stevie Ray Vaughan and ZZ Top and Aerosmith, Van Halen. You name it, we got to see it and what was amazing was I didn’t realize that I was soaking all of it up. When I was a kid I was absorbing all of that and it was all going to contribute to who I became as a professional musician myself.”
Of course, you ended up leaning into the blues. On your current tour you’ve gotten to play with Buddy Guy and Kingfish Ingram – an all-time great of the blues and a young phenom. It’s like three generations of the blues. It must be a blast.
SHEPHERD: “Yeah, it is. I’ve been trying to put together this blues festival tour for a couple years now; it’s been in the back of my mind as something I want to create to give people a chance to see the hottest talent that’s out there in blues. When I was a kid there was a blues tour going and I got to see B.B. King and Etta James, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Joe Cocker, Stevie Ray, and all these amazing people at this festival every year. Then I became a musician and I became a part of that tour as well with B.B. and there really hasn’t been anything like it since. So I’m really proud that we’ve gotten this thing off the ground; it’s our inaugural year – the Backwoods Blues Festival – and I think we have a killer lineup. I’m certainly looking forward to what the future holds for that brand.”
It goes to show that the blues always comes back around. Your career took off in the late ‘90s when pop-punk and boy bands owned the day. Do you think it’s just the timelessness of the blues?
SHEPHERD: “Yeah, I think so. Blues is real music, it’s authentic, it’s timeless, it’s not trapped in a certain era, and it has a fanbase of people who are lifelong fans. So that’s kind of the key to its longevity, people become lifelong fans.”
You mentioned that it has an authenticity to it. Do you find that that really taps into people?
SHEPHERD: “I think so. I think when pop music becomes really saturated, people kind of get tired of it and they look for something more real to sink their teeth into. People start looking around and they find their way back to blues music, or even just rock ’n’ roll, which isn’t really a mainstream genre now. So people go and find real bona fine rock music. It’s real music, you know?”
You got to play in a band with Stephen Stills. That’s something any musician would die for. What was it like working and writing with him?
SHEPHERD: “I’d known Stephen for a couple years prior to that. He wanted to have a blues band and create a little side project, and I was certainly interested in something like that. So he reached out to me and asked me if I had any interest and I said, ‘Yeah.’ So we started writing songs. We made two albums under a band name called The Rides and did three different tours, and it was just a blast. He’s one of the greatest songwriters and musicians of our time. To be able to spend that behind-the-scenes time with him and soak up a lot of his knowledge and experience – you can’t put a price on it.”
I understand you are a completely self-taught guitarist. Could you talk about how you did that and the challenges it comes with? There are always people who will swear that without theory you’re limited?
SHEPHERD: “Well, I think you are to a degree. If you know theory you know changes and transitions, things like that, ways to connect the music that I maybe wouldn’t be able to put together, or not so readily. But I tap into some raw emotion and feeling that I don’t think somebody who’s reading some charts on a piece of paper can tap into. So it kind of depends on what kind of music you want to make, where you want to come from musically. All of my heroes are self-taught so that’s the path I went down. It’s a tedious process but I think mastering any instrument is a long process, regardless.”
In photos I notice you mostly playing Strats and I’ve seen pictures with Jaguars. Are you a loyal Fender guy?
SHEPHERD: “I’m a Fender, but I’m a guitar player. So I play what’s appropriate for the song, what feels right and what sounds right. I have some great Les Pauls as well, but I have a couple of signature series Stratocastors I’ve put out over the years. So I certainly consider myself to be primarily a Fender guy but I play whatever is appropriate for the song.”
I read you have a new record coming out soon. What was it like making a record in the days of COVID?
SHEPHERD: “Well, we actually finished that record right before COVID happened. I’ve just been holding onto it. We put the finishing touches on it in February of 2020 and then in March they shut everything down. I’ve just been holding onto it, trying to wait for everything to get back to normal before we put the record out. It’ll probably come out the first half of next year.”
When you come to Ocean City, can people expect to hear some of the new stuff or is it going to be one of the ‘Trouble Is…’ shows? What can we expect?
SHEPHERD: “We’re going to be doing one of our regular shows. So there’ll be material from a variety of albums that we’ve put out over the years. I usually don’t play unreleased material, so the stuff that’s on the new record, we probably won’t start playing until around the time the album comes out.”
Do you have any other projects or collaborations that you’re excited about?
SHEPHERD: “We’re putting out a documentary film, I think towards the end of this year, about the making of the ‘Trouble is…’ record, and then a live concert. Also, there’s some music that relates to ‘Trouble Is…’ that we’ll be releasing as well. So we have a couple different projects this year, and then obviously the new record that’s coming next year. That’ll keep us really engaged with the fanbase and give us a lot to talk about, and a lot of reason to go out and play concerts. That’s what we really want to do.”
It sounds like you have a lot going on at once. Are you still writing all the time?
SHEPHERD: “Yeah. We’re actually talking about how once we’re done touring for the year, just going back and writing some new songs and maybe recording another record, and just staying ahead of the game.”
You’ve played with all-time greats, had platinum records, and had a 30-year successful career. What’s something you still strive for that keeps you motivated?
SHEPHERD: “I just always want to improve. I set goals and try to accomplish those. Then I also have a family, and my children and my wife are really important to me. I try to be a good father and a good husband, that’s really my daily goal.”
For ticket information, go online to ocnj.us/SummerConcertSeries
By KYLE McCRANE/Special to the Sentinel
