Speaker 1: In my top ten list of all time favorite songs.
Speaker 1: Blue and Black is part of that, and Kenny Wayne
Speaker 1: Shepherd is the artist behind it. He is going to
Speaker 1: be in the Springs this weekend for a show that
Speaker 1: looks like it is going to be an absolute barn burner. Kenny,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a big fan. I love blues music
Speaker 1: just across the board. Not all of my top ten
Speaker 1: songs are blue songs though, So you're in You're in
Speaker 1: rare company there with Sinead O'Connor and When in Rome
Speaker 1: and Bob Seeker. So what drew you because you've been
Speaker 1: you've been doing this a long time. You started as
Speaker 1: a very young guy. What drew you to this style
Speaker 1: of music in the first place.
Speaker 2: Well, my dad famously took me to my first concert
Speaker 2: when I was three years old, and that was Muddy
Speaker 2: Waters and John Lee Hoss.
Speaker 1: Oh get you started right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think anybody you know who would go see
Speaker 2: them for their first concert would probably wind up a
Speaker 2: lifelong blues fan. So, I mean there is that. And
Speaker 2: then you know, my dad worked at radio station. We
Speaker 2: went to every concert that came through. We got to
Speaker 2: meet the bands, and so I grew up around music
Speaker 2: and then you know, at age seven, I got to
Speaker 2: meet and see Stevie Rayvaughn play for the first time.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, And that's really what lit the fire in me.
Speaker 2: You know. I saw him play, and all I wanted
Speaker 2: to do was get my hands on our electric guitar
Speaker 2: and try and learn how to play with that passion
Speaker 2: that if he had, well.
Speaker 1: Mister accomplished. I'm just going to say that, I will ask, like,
Speaker 1: when did you actually start playing the guitar and what
Speaker 1: was that like for you? Were you kind of one
Speaker 1: of those kids that immediately became obsessed with it and
Speaker 1: spend all of your free time doing that. How did
Speaker 1: that work?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I was a kid that would come
Speaker 2: home from school and you know, when my friends were
Speaker 2: out doing whatever kids do, I was in the house
Speaker 2: for four or five six hours a day just playing
Speaker 2: guitar because it just it gave me focus and I
Speaker 2: just really enjoyed it. Even when I couldn't make it
Speaker 2: sound great, I was determined to learn how to do that,
Speaker 2: and so I got a lot of personal satisfaction out
Speaker 2: of it, and it was a lot of fun and
Speaker 2: it was a tedious process. I play by ear. I
Speaker 2: don't read music, you know, if I learned songs one
Speaker 2: note at a time, one core at a time. But
Speaker 2: it worked for me, and thankfully, you know, I've been
Speaker 2: able to make a career out of it, and quite
Speaker 2: a career it is.
Speaker 1: I listened to your new album that just recently came
Speaker 1: out today and it's outstanding as well. And I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you kind of about blues music in the
Speaker 1: United States because I got to a lot of shows,
Speaker 1: go to a lot of blues festivals, and for a
Speaker 1: genre that came out of the African American South, it
Speaker 1: is a lot of white people that are going to
Speaker 1: these shows. Now, you know, is this has the entire audience?
Speaker 1: Is the entire audience mostly white folks? Not to make
Speaker 1: this a racist thing, I just think that that's an
Speaker 1: interesting development.
Speaker 2: Well yes, I mean for the most part, I guess
Speaker 2: it just depends on who the artist is that's playing
Speaker 2: and who they're coming to see. But you know, I
Speaker 2: think it definitely still receives support from you know, the
Speaker 2: African American community. But I mean, I think the biggest
Speaker 2: thing is, like with the British invasion, and you know,
Speaker 2: that went back in the sixties when a sixties and
Speaker 2: early seventies and early eighties even you know, when like
Speaker 2: the America had kind of moved on from blues music
Speaker 2: to other things, but the English were the ones that
Speaker 2: were really supporting the music. At that point. You had
Speaker 2: bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Air
Speaker 2: Clapp and and Jeff Beck and all these incredible legendary
Speaker 2: musicians that came out and then they were spreading the
Speaker 2: word about blues music and they turned on a really
Speaker 2: big white audience onto this music. And that's what's helped
Speaker 2: keep it, you know, growing and continuing to thrive. For sure.
Speaker 1: Do you play all over the world, and if so,
Speaker 1: how are you received, because this is a uniquely American
Speaker 1: form of music. How has that received overseas?
Speaker 2: People love it? I mean, there's an appetite for it,
Speaker 2: for sure, and so you know, we've definitely made it
Speaker 2: a point to go over and play for the people
Speaker 2: over in Europe. And you know, a couple of years
Speaker 2: back we went to India and played you know, blues
Speaker 2: music for people in India and South America. I mean,
Speaker 2: all around the world. There's definitely an audience for it.
Speaker 1: Who do you listen to when you are just like
Speaker 1: you know, cleaning your house or doing the lawn or
Speaker 1: whatever you do in your free time. Who are the artists,
Speaker 1: both new and old that you enjoy?
Speaker 3: Well, to be honest with you, right now, when if
Speaker 3: I'm listening to music around the house, I put on
Speaker 3: like nineteen forties music like Big Band, Oh yeah, Swayne
Speaker 3: Glenn Miller.
Speaker 2: Because yeah, the thing about it is is like that
Speaker 2: music is appropriate for any occasion. You can have a
Speaker 2: dinner party, you can just invite friends over, you can
Speaker 2: sit down with your wife or your significant other just
Speaker 2: to relax, I mean anything, your pool party, whatever it is,
Speaker 2: you've put that music on it. There's never a wrong
Speaker 2: time to hear that kind of music. So that's generally
Speaker 2: the background music that's going on in my house.
Speaker 1: So should we be expecting a clarinet to be added
Speaker 1: to the Kenny Way Shepherd experience anytime?
Speaker 2: There? You do have a horn section in the band. We've
Speaker 2: had a horn section for a couple of years now.
Speaker 1: Well, I've not seen the horn section. I've actually seen
Speaker 1: you a couple of times. Looking forward to seeing you again.
Speaker 1: But let's talk about this show on Sunday night. Because
Speaker 1: this is not just you. When I looked at this
Speaker 1: this morning, I was like, cow, how do they get
Speaker 1: all of you guys together to do this? Tell me
Speaker 1: about this tribute to Jimmy Hendrix.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's put on by the Experience Hendricks people,
Speaker 2: you know, the Official Hendricks organization, and so, you know,
Speaker 2: we were doing this for a while before COVID happened.
Speaker 2: It was a bi annual event and we did it
Speaker 2: every other year and an incredible lineup, and then it
Speaker 2: had about a five year break because of COVID and
Speaker 2: people getting back to work. So now we're back at
Speaker 2: it again and it's like an incredible lineup of amazing
Speaker 2: musicians that are all paying tribute to the great guitar
Speaker 2: player of all time. So it's all Jimmy Hendrix's music
Speaker 2: done by some of your favorite musicians. I mean, you
Speaker 2: got Zach Wilde, who's famous for being with Ozzie Osbourne
Speaker 2: for so many years. And you've got Eric Johnson, he's
Speaker 2: a guitar virtuo. So we got duezl Zappa, who's Frank
Speaker 2: Zappa's son, an incredible guitar player. Some of the shows,
Speaker 2: we had Taj Mahal, who's the blues legionship himself, and
Speaker 2: then we have Christine kingfish Ingram, who's a young up
Speaker 2: and comer in the blues, two time Grammy Award winner,
Speaker 2: and there's many, many more. But you know, it's a
Speaker 2: revolving door. And we start the show and artists come
Speaker 2: out and they do some songs, and then sometimes another
Speaker 2: artist will join that artist on stage, and then those
Speaker 2: guys step down, another artist comes up, and it's just
Speaker 2: one after another after another after another, and it's a
Speaker 2: lot of fun.
Speaker 1: How did you guys decide who gets to play?
Speaker 2: What? What'd you draw? Straws?
Speaker 1: What did that look like?
Speaker 2: You throw it out? Yeah, well, some of us have
Speaker 2: been doing this tour together for a while, so you know,
Speaker 2: my songs that I do, I've been doing them for
Speaker 2: many years now, so yeah, but yeah, you just kind
Speaker 2: of have to kind of pick from what's available. To
Speaker 2: be honest with you, if you're new to the tour,
Speaker 2: then you kind of have to choose from the songs
Speaker 2: that haven't already been taken.
Speaker 1: Do you do you haze people by telling them that
Speaker 1: they have to play like some really obscure song no
Speaker 1: one's heard of, and like that's your early shot chief.
Speaker 2: No, but I will tell you Aaron Johnson, he picks
Speaker 2: some obscure songs, and he also picks the most difficult
Speaker 2: Jimmy Hendrick songs, and he recreate some like note for note,
Speaker 2: which is really impressive. So there's no hazing. But you know,
Speaker 2: if you leave people creative minds generally will you know,
Speaker 2: they'll gravitate to what interests them. Is for some people
Speaker 2: it is doing the incredibly complicated stuff.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, how much of this
Speaker 1: is you playing like Jimmy Hendrix or how much is
Speaker 1: this of you sort of interpreting and putting your own
Speaker 1: spin on Jimmy Hendrix.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a little bit of all of it. But
Speaker 2: for me it's it's me doing, you know, my interpretation
Speaker 2: of his music. And for some artists it's film doing
Speaker 2: their their take on his music. And then for others
Speaker 2: like Eric Johnson, you know, he's playing that stuff note
Speaker 2: for note and he's working incredibly hard to like recreate
Speaker 2: them authentically, and de Weesel does the same thing. So
Speaker 2: it's a little bit of all of it.
Speaker 3: To be honest with you, what songs do you play?
Speaker 2: So currently I'm doing Gypsy Eyes and then we do
Speaker 2: a song called come On Part one, and then we
Speaker 2: do I Don't Live Today, which I recorded on my
Speaker 2: second album, Trouble Is. And then we do a medley
Speaker 2: of two of my favorite Hendrick songs, which one of
Speaker 2: them is boot Blues, and go into Boodh choud Slight Return,
Speaker 2: which is one of the most famous Hendrick songs.
Speaker 1: All right, now, somebody just sent our text line and said, Mandy,
Speaker 1: if you haven't mentioned it today, it's the birthday of
Speaker 1: Stevie ray Vaughn. Just saying so happy birthday, but you know,
Speaker 1: obviously posthumously. Kenny Wayne Shepherd super excited that you're coming
Speaker 1: to town. I hope you enjoy your stay and have
Speaker 1: a great show. And it's just been a real pleasure
Speaker 1: talking to you. I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. All right.
Speaker 1: That is Kenny Wayne Shephard. You can see him Sunday night.
Speaker 1: I put a link on my blog to where you
Speaker 1: can buy tickets. It is the pikes Peak Center down
Speaker 1: in the Springs and the lineup looks crazy, so check
Speaker 1: it out.