KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD: Lay It On Down (GUITAR HERO,Blues): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

At forty years old and after twenty-two years of career, Kenny Wayne Shepherd has never really come down from his pedestal that his elders and the American public set up for him with his first album "Ledbetter Heights" in 1995. Thanks to his angelic face perhaps, but above all to his exceptional guitar performance which made him the natural heir of Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose premature death traumatized a whole generation of blues rock aficionados. The young Kenny Wayne knew how to master this filiation with intelligence but quickly realized that his clear and pop vocals had nothing of blues. He was able to surround himself with a band that never strayed too far from his musical roots, and which still includes the faithful Noah Hunt on vocals and Chris Layton, ex-drummer of the Double Trouble, Stevie Ray's rhythm section.

New album of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, "Lay It On Down" combines modern production and blues atmospheres, alternating classic rock ('Baby Got Gone'), FM ballads ('Lay It On Down', 'Louisiana Rain') and typical blues tracks ('She's $$', 'Hard Lesson Learned', 'Down For Love'). Noah Hunt's soulful voice and Kenny Wayne's pop vocals share the moods and this eclecticism manages to keep your attention permanently. This musical syncretism takes all its value on the most original tracks that are the excellent 'Diamonds And Gold', a soul and rhythm and blues hit supported by a very groovy brass section, and 'Nothing But The Night' which subtly marries funk riffs and pop choruses.

By the way, "Lay It On Down" would be just another blues rock album, well composed but without much originality, if it wasn't an album of Kenny Wayne Shepherd. For the guitarist has never played as well as on this album. His flamboyant performance has matured and gained in fluidity. Each solo on each track of the album is a lesson in composition and blues feeling. Precise and always inspired, the American's playing, mastered and unabashed, far outshines his current peers' ones, even the most prominent, and makes this album an essential for any blues guitar fan.

Of course, some will criticize this opus for its too clean and polished production and its most radio friendly tracks. The fact remains that "Lay It On Down", an eclectic and well composed album, is a high quality blues rock opus and without any doubt Kenny Wayne Shepherd's best album until now. - Official website

KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD

LAY IT ON DOWN

MASCOT LABEL GROUP

GUITAR HERO