thePULSEBack and Bluesier Than Ever with How I Go
Jillian Locke
On August 2nd, The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band released their sixth studio album, How I Go, on Roadrunner Records. They stormed the Hampton Beach Casino on the 26th, sharing Shepherd’s robust take on the heart and soul of his bluesy predecessors, melded with his own translation of the genre that has laid the foundation for every major form of music.
Said KWS during our interview, “I try not to listen to any current music when I’m recording albums, so as to make it as authentic and original as possible. I just listen to the music that I listened to when I was a kid ~ the old blues that got me fired up about music in the first place.” This time around, TKWSB paid homage to The Beatles (“Yer Blues”), Bessie Smith (“Backwater Blues”), and Albert King (“Oh, Pretty Woman”). “I always like to kind of dig deep into people’s catalogues and find songs that aren’t such an obvious pick.”
Shepherd dug deeper into his own lyrical content for this album title, as well. “Normally I just go with one of the song titles, but this time I decided to look within the songs and find a lyric. There were two songs ~ “Anywhere the Wind Blows,” and then “Round and Round;” they’re two different songs with the same line, and it wasn’t on purpose. It was a recurring thing, a kind of a statement for the young people ~ ‘This is how I go, this is how I roll, this is how I do things.’ This is how we do things.”
Other stand-out tracks include “Dark Side of Love” (a song that was actually recorded for a different album, never made the cut, and finally made its way onto this one), “Heat of the Sun” (a gripping, soulful slice whose gravitational force kicks into effect from the first second of the track with a howling, whining riff), and the first single, “Never Lookin’ Back,” an energetically-charged selection that ignites the ebb and flow of the album.
The album, as always, features Shepherd’s trusty band, including lead singer Noah Hunt, keyboardist Riley Osbourn, and double effort from Double Trouble ~ drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon. “Tommy’s a good friend of mine,” says Shepherd.
Tommy and Chris have been playing with me for many years. They’re the best rhythm section.”
Shepherd’s riffage honors and bows to the hymns crafted by the maestros before him, and forges forward into the future of blues. Check out www.kennywayneshepherd.net to choose which version of the album (there are three!) you want and to check out the video for Never Lookin’ Back!
