Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Kenny Wayne Shepherd (born Kenny Wayne Brobst, on June 12, 1977, Shreveport, Louisiana) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced a rare level of commercial success both as a blues artist and a young musician.

Biography

Shepherd graduated Caddo Magnet High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. The guitarist is "completely self taught", and does not read music. Growing up, Shepherd's father (Ken Shepherd) was a local radio personality and some-time concert promoter, and had a vast collection of music. Shepherd got his first "guitar" at the age of three or four, when his grandmother purchased a series of several plastic guitars for him with S&H Green Stamps, which Shepherd has said he would "go through like candy".

Shepherd stated in a 2010 interview that he began playing guitar in earnest at age seven, about six months after meeting and being "pretty mesmerized" by Stevie Ray Vaughan, in June 1984, at one of his father's promoted concerts. His self-taught method employed a process of learning one note at a time, playing and rewinding cassette tapes, utilizing "a cheap Yamaha wanna-be Stratocaster...made out of plywood, basically", learning Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Albert Lee licks from his father's vast music collection.

At the age of 13, Shepherd was invited on stage by the New Orleans bluesman Bryan Lee. After proving his abilities, he decided on music as a career. Demo tapes were made and a two-camera video was shot at Shepherd's first performance at the Red River Revel Arts Festival in Shreveport. It was this video performance that impressed Giant Records chief Irving Azoff enough to sign Shepherd to a multiple album record deal.

From 1995 on, Shepherd took six singles into the Top 10, and holds the record for the longest-running album on the Billboard Blues Charts with Trouble Is.... In 1996, Shepherd began a longtime collaboration with vocalist Noah Hunt, who provided the vocals for Shepherd's signature song, "Blue on Black". Shepherd has been nominated for five Grammy Awards, and has received two Billboard Music Awards and two Orville H. Gibson Awards.

In September 2008, Fender Musical Instruments Corp. released the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Signature Series Stratocaster, designed exclusively by Shepherd. Most recently, he developed a DVD–CD project, 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads. This documents Shepherd as he travels the country to jam with and interview the last of the authentic blues musicians. As they tour the backroads, Shepherd, with members of the Double Trouble Band, play with a host of blues greats including Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Bryan Lee, Buddy Flett (with whom he jams at Lead Belly's grave), B. B. King, blues harp master Jerry "Boogie" McCain, Cootie Stark, Neil Pattman, John Dee Holeman, Etta Baker, Henry Townsend with Honeyboy Edwards, and a concert session with the surviving members of Muddy Waters' and Howlin' Wolf's bands.

Personal life

Shepherd married actor Mel Gibson's oldest daughter, Hannah Gibson, on September 16, 2006, and they now have three children, a daughter born October 10, 2007, first son born in 2009, and a second son born March 12, 2011.

Live performances

• Shepherd made a trip of ten days in the U.S. to meet and play with his idols: B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Henry Townsend, Honeyboy Edwards, Cootie Stark, Neal Pattman, Etta Baker, Jerry "Boogie" McCain, Buddy Flett, Bryan Lee, John Dee Holeman, The Howlin' Wolf and the Muddy Waters Band.

• Shepherd and Bryan Lee appeared as the musical guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on February 14, 2007.

• On July 24, 2007, he opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Orange County Fair.

• He was the opening act for The Rolling Stones during a stint of their 1999 No Security tour.

• Shepherd performed some of his songs including a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" at the Dutch Mason Blues Festival in 2007 and 2009.

• Has also opened for Aerosmith, Bob Dylan, the Eagles (originally on the Hell Freezes Over Tour), and Van Halen.

• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon performance, Nov 2010 - Shepherd sat in with house band, playing the same white Stratocaster played by Jimi Hendrix during his historic performance at Woodstock.

Discography

Albums

1995 Ledbetter Heights

1997 Trouble Is...

1999 Live On

2004 The Place You're In

2007 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads

2010 Live! in Chicago

Singles

1995 "Deja Voodoo" - 9 Ledbetter Heights

1996 "Born With A Broken Heart" - 15 Ledbetter Heights

1996 "Aberdeen" - 23 Ledbetter Heights

1997 "Slow Ride" - 3 Trouble Is...

1998 "Somehow, Somewhere, Someway" - 3 Trouble Is...

1998 "Blue on Black"

1999 "Everything Is Broken" - 10 Trouble Is...

1999 "In 2 Deep" - 5 Live On

2000 "Was" - 9 Live On

2000 "Last Goodbye" - 14 Live On

2004 "Alive" - 13 The Place You're In

2005 "The Place You're In" - 30 The Place You're In

Posted in: Guitarists