Interview: Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s hard to believe that when Kenny Wayne Shepherd released his debut album “Ledbetter Heights” in 1996, he was an 18-year-old guitarist on the cusp of rejiggering the blues zeitgeist. Fast forward three decades, and the now-48-year-old musician is not only preparing to hit the road to commemorate this milestone anniversary, but is set to release an entirely re-recorded track-by-track version of those songs in May.

When asked what he remembers about those heady times, Shepherd admits it was the newness of the entire enterprise.

“I remember it was a lot of first-time experiences,” he recalled in a mid-February interview. “It was my first time making a whole project for a record company. It was my first time writing songs like that. It was a lot of first-time experiences, and I was very much a sponge, figuring out how all this stuff works. The biggest thing I remember was when it was done -- handing over the album to the record company. You put all this work into this record, and then you give it to these people, and it’s out of your hands at this point. Then you’re like, ‘Okay, we’ll see what happens.’ And you really don’t know what to expect.”

He added, “It could have gone either way. Obviously, it went very well for us. But it could easily have been a situation where nobody cared, and you had no control over that. You just put the record out, hope for the best, and hope that what you did [excites] people.”

What did happen was that the Shreveport, LA native blew up. Not only did his debut chart gold that same year (eventually going platinum by 2004), but it also spent 20 weeks topping “Billboard” magazine’s blues charts. Shepherd even landed up just behind B.B. King and Eric Clapton in “Guitar World” magazine’s list of blues guitarists. It all turned into a pretty steep learning curve for the young string-bender, who also had to deal with losing original vocalist Corey Sterling’s services after two years.

“I was living the dream, learning how things work in the studio,” he said. “[When it comes to Corey], let’s just say that it didn’t work out. We had a great tour. If you can imagine, a bunch of young people on their first national tour -- it was pretty crazy. It just seemed that the more success we had, the more negatively it affected Corey. By the end of that tour when we were getting ready to do the second album, it was just too much for him. We parted ways, and that’s when we found Noah (Hunt). We were kind of freaking out and didn’t know what was going to happen. But it ended up being a great blessing because now Noah has been with me and my band for 28 years.”

For the current tour, Shepherd plans to play two sets, but the final decision of how it will be delivered is still being hammered out.

“I don’t know if we’re going to take an intermission or if we’re going to blow through from one into the other,” he said. “We’re not just doing the ‘Ledbetter Heights’ album because that wouldn’t be enough music.”

In looking back at when Shepherd’s debut was released, Stevie Ray Vaughan had perished in a helicopter crash six years prior, and a number of up-and-coming guitarists, including Shepherd, Jonny Lang, Joe Bonamassa, and Eric Gales, were being posited as the blues guitar equivalent of being the “next Bob Dylan.” While some detractors tried to paint Shepherd as a Vaughan-wannabe at the time, the fact was the young axe wielder not only counted the late Texas guitarist as an influence, but personally knew him. When it came to those supposed criticisms, Shepherd did and continues to embrace the legacy of his mentor.

“At that time, it was a catch-22,” he said. “A lot of people saw the comparisons that were being made to me. Other artists made the decision to not want to engage in talking about Stevie Ray Vaughan because they didn’t want to get that comparison. To me, I felt like I couldn’t pretend that he didn’t inspire me the way that he did. It would have been doing him a disservice. He was literally responsible for lighting a fire inside of me to play guitar the way that I do. You’re going to hear the influence and continue to hear it to this day. I owe it to him. If it were not for Stevie Ray Vaughan, there would not be a Kenny Wayne Shepherd.”

Aside from the stylistic nuances he picked up from Vaughan, Shepherd shares the late guitar great’s reverence and appreciation for the blues icons that came before him. Last year saw Shepherd go into the studio with ageless vocalist Bobby Rush to cut the album “Young Fashioned Ways” followed by a tour. That outing earned the duo a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues recording. Buddy Guy won for “Ain’t Done With the Blues” in a category rounded out by Maria Muldaur (“One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey”), Keb’ Mo and Taj Mahal (“Room On the Porch”) and Charlie Musselwhite (“Look Out Highway”). Despite losing the Grammy, Shepherd was so thrilled by the experience and plans to record more new material with Rush that ideally will see its release by year’s end.

“That was a great record, and while we didn’t win, it was all good because it’s great to be nominated,” Shepherd said. “There was stiff competition this year, but it just goes to show that there’s still really great music being made in the genre. Bobby is incredible to watch. He’s 92 years old and he performs at such an incredibly high level. It’s really inspirational.”