MIDLAND After celebrating the 25th anniversary of his second album “Trouble Is,” Kenny Wayne Shepherd and his band are looking to the future as they continue to create blues-infused rock n’ roll.
The blues artist will return to the Permian Basin this month with a concert at 7:30 p.m. July 23 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
Tickets can be purchased online at tinyurl.com/3apsvcfx.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Shepherd said in a phone interview. “It’s been a minute since we’ve been in the area. We have a great show going on right now. We just wrapped up the 25th anniversary of my second album, ‘Trouble Is’ and now we’ve started a new tour with a new set list. We’re doing songs from our latest album called ‘The Traveler’ and we’re also going back to our first album ‘Ledbetter Heights’ and doing several songs from that album. We’ve been playing this set for about a month and the response from fans has been strong. We’re having a good time.”
Shepherd burst from the blues clubs of Louisiana onto the global music scene with his 1995 breakthrough first album, “Ledbetter Heights.”
He followed it up with his second album “Trouble Is” in 1997.
Since then, Shepherd has released several studio albums and experienced significant commercial success as a blues artist.
While he can’t remember exactly when the last time he performed in the Permian Basin was, Shepherd has always enjoyed coming back to the Lone Star State to perform.
“We have a strong fan base across the state of Texas,” Shepherd said. “I spent a lot of my formative years playing in Texas. We’ve built a strong fan base in Texas. People in Texas love this kind of music and we love to come play here. We feed off the fans’ energy. We know that when we show up to play in Texas, we’ll get that energy from the fans and that inspires us to play even better.”
Shepherd was born in Shreveport, La. Where he graduated from Caddo Magnet High School.
He began playing on stage for the first time when he was 13 and put his band together at 15 and a year later, he signed his first record deal.
“It was when I signed that contract that I was hopeful that this is what I would do for the rest of my life,” Shepherd said.
Since then, he’s been nominated for five Grammys.
His band currently includes Noah Hunt on vocals and rhythm guitar and percussion as well as Chris Layton on drums, Kevin McCormick on bass and Joe Krown on keyboards.
It wasn’t until he noticed the upcoming anniversary of his standout album “Trouble Is” when he decided to do a re-recording of the album and releasing it as “Trouble is 25.”
“We did a new version of it,” Shepherd said. “We did a documentary, telling the story of the making of the original ‘Trouble Is’ album. We filmed the first show of the tour and put out a live DVD with that. We did a big package. This was a monumental record for this genre so we thought it was important that we didn’t just repackage the album.”
Shepherd talked about the success of the original “Trouble Is” album.
“We were right off the heels of the first album ‘Ledbetter Heights,’” Shepherd said. “That was my debut record. We didn’t know what to expect at the time. I was an unknown artist at the time. … we didn’t know how the people were going to respond but we put the first single out on that record and it shot up to No. 5 on the rock charts and the record sold half a million copies pretty fast. It went gold and went platinum. We had a lot of momentum in our second album, ‘Trouble Is.’ I kind of knew I was at a pivotal point in my career. I had to follow it up with a good record and let people know that I deserve to be here for the long term. We went in and did that record and came out with something that surpassed the success of the first album. It helped us build a foundation of fans. Those fans have been with us for almost 30 years.”
Since then, he and his band have followed it up with other albums including “Live On,” “The Place You’re In,” “10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads,” “How I Go,” “Goin’ Home,” “Lay it On Down” and “The Traveler.”
“The music that we do is blues-influenced,” Shepherd said. “But we’ve straddled the line between blues and rock n’ roll. Most of my influences are people along those lines such as B.B. King, Jimmy Hendrix, Freddy King, Eric Clapton. You can hear those influences in the music that we make.”
He says fans can expect a “high-energy, guitar-centric show” later this month.
“We go back and forth between blues and rock,” Shepherd said. “It’s straight up American music. We pride ourselves on our reputation of live performances. That’s what’s carried us all these years. We make great records but we put on better performances. That’s what’s made us a great touring act. We make albums so we can play for other people.”
If you go
- What: Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band.
- When: 7:30 p.m. July 23.
- Where: Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
- Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/3apsvcfx
