..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page      The Desert Island      Copyright Notice
 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Kenny Wayne Shepherd: The Traveler

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Concord Records
Released: 2019.05.31
Time:
 46:14
Category: Blues/Rock
Producer(s): Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Marshall Altman
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.kennywayneshepherd.net
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2020
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Woman Like You (D.Altman/D.Myrick/K.W.Shepherd) - 4:19
[2] Long Time Running (M.Selby/K.W.Shepherd/T.Sillers) - 4:11
[3] I Want You (D.Altman/D.Myrick/K.W.Shepherd) - 6:29
[4] Tailwind (M.Selby/K.W.Shepherd/T.Sillers) - 4:01
[5] Gravity (M.Selby/K.W.Shepherd/T.Sillers) - 3:43
[6] We All Alright (D.Altman/D.Myrick/K.W.Shepherd) - 5:31
[7] Take It on Home (D.Altman/D.Myrick/K.W.Shepherd) - 4:35
[8] Mr. Soul (N.Young) - 3:46
[9] Better With Time (D.Altman/D.Myrick/K.W.Shepherd) - 3:55
[10] Turn to Stone (T.Trabandt/J.Walsh) - 5:44

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Kenny Wayne Shepherd - Guitar, Producer, Vocals

Marshall Altman - Keyboards, Percussion, Producer, Background Vocals
Joe Krown - Keyboards
Jim McGorman - Keyboards
Kevin McCormick - Bass
Chris Layton - Drums
Mark Pender - Trumpet
Joe Sublett - Saxophone
Noah Hunt - Vocals


Ken Shepherd - Executive Producer
Chris Steffen - Engineer
Angela Talley - Assistant Engineer
Shani Gandhi - Assistant Engineer
Chris Henry - Assistant Engineer
Eric "ET" Thorngren - Mixing
Bob Ludwig - Mastering
Michael J. Walter - Digital Editing
Mindy Bledsoe - Video Producer
Rob Senska - Video Producer
Kristin Forbes - Photography
Greg Logan - Photography
Joe McEwen - A&R
Tony Pro - Art Direction

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded at the:
Galt Line Music, Nashville, Tennessee
Neptune Valley, LA.
The Lair, Los Angeles, California



Kenny Wayne Shepherd arrived on the scene as a blues guitar hero at 18 to an overload of media hoopla and pressure. At 40, he has evolved from the blues-guitar-slinger ghetto and become a mature musician whose wide-angle vision embraces American roots music -- blues, rock, country, and soul/R&B -- as an inseparable whole. While it's true that most of his albums have charted, his last two, Goin’ Home and Lay It on Down, have done better than all the others, placing well inside the Top 40. The Traveler is a direct aesthetic follow-up to Lay It on Down. Co-produced once more with Marshall Altman, it utilizes the same band (including uber-drummer Chris Layton and singer Noah Hunt). Recorded in Los Angeles over ten days, it offers eight new originals and two excellent covers.



Shepherd takes a classic rock approach to blues, gritty old-school Southern funk and R&B, country and Americana. Opener "Woman Like You" is introduced by screaming organ, guitars, and horns. Hunt's vocal digs into gritty Southern funk in the vamp while the horns, arranged straight from the Muscle Shoals fakebook, soar to announce the choruses. While the guitar break is brief, it's dirty as hell. "Long Time Running" is dynamic, uproarious, blues-drenched soul with bleating horns and charging double-time drums, and Hunt's and Shepherd's voices are locked in the chorus as the track erupts with screaming lead guitar between verses. "Tailwind," co-written by Shepherd, Tia Sillers, and Mark Selby is a set highlight and a candidate for country radio with its strummed and layered acoustic guitar framing Hunt's vocal (which recalls Warren Zevon's in delivering a transcendent Americana melody kissed by tasteful horns and wrangling electric slide break. "Gravity" is a melodic pop love song with stunning harmonies and heartfelt lyrics. "We All Alright" is a crunchy rocker with a killer piano hook. Shepherd shares vocal responsibilities (on the chorus) with Hunt, who sings his ass off with Layton rocking harder than anywhere else on the set as the guitarist's fills scream in the margins. "Take It on Home" is a summery midtempo country rocker reminiscent of Marshall Tucker's "Can’t You See." Neil Young's "Mr. Soul" is delivered with rowdy aplomb, a smoking update with horns pushing Shepherd's guitar into the red. "Better with Time" is an excellent souls-blue stroll with glorious vocals. Shepherd's fills sound like a second lead vocalist. A read of Joe Walsh's "Turn to Stone" (modeled on the 1972 Barnstorm version) closes the set with a roar; the horns add more to the bottom end, leaving Shepherd's guitar wailing on stun. The Traveler continues Shepherd's trajectory of quality. The diversity in his musical approach, songwriting consistency, organic production, and passionate performances place it over and above anything else in his catalog to date.

Tom Jurek - AllMusic.com



The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band released Lay It On Down in 2017, which was voted Blues Rock Review’s top album of the year. Two years later, Kenny and the gang are back with The Traveler and they aren’t slowing down. Joined by Noah Hunt (vocals), Chris Layton (drums), Kevin McCormick (bass), and Jimmy McGorman and Joe Krown (keys), The Traveler is another top notch album from start to finish.

The upbeat “Woman Like You” opens up the album with Noah Hunt on lead vocals and features a horn section setting the tone. “Long Time Running” follows and the song “is someone expressing what it’s like to lead a complicated existence,” says Shepherd, and includes some scorching lead from Kenny. “I Want You” is a song filled with swagger and “Tailwind” goes in more of a southern rock direction with a bit of a county vibe.

“Gravity” was released as a single and has Kenny back on vocals and is about a complicated relationship with a lover. Kenny is really coming into his own as a vocalist and has credited Stephen Stills of The Rides for encouraging him to sing more. Those vocals are also showcased on “Better With Time.” Kenny and Noah trade off vocals on “We All Alright” while Shepherd is back on lead vocals for “Take It On Home,” a radio friendly song with southern rock flare.

The album features two covers. Noah handles vocals for Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul,” which again, features a horn section and Joe Walsh’s “Turn To Stone,” which closes the album out. “Turn To Stone” is the track where Kenny really stretches his wings on the guitar.

The Traveler is an all-killer no-filler album. It features all sorts of influences, but everything is done well. The Traveler has blues elements, but is a very song-oriented album. We all know Shepherd can shred, but the guitar is always serving the song. When listening to The Traveler it’s easy to tell Kenny and the Band weren’t trying to fit into any particular box, just make a great record and that’s what they’ve accomplished. The Traveler is another can’t miss album from the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band.

The Review: 9/10

Pete Francis - May 29th, 2019
Copyright © Blues Rock Review



The new release from the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band is perfectly titled as The Traveler truly brings its listener on a journey through the American South. Kenny has been serving up his take on the blues for nearly 25 years. A purist at heart, Shepherd has never shied away from expanding traditional blues to include modern elements and melodies. The Traveler continues that evolution by deftly moving between blues sub-genres to include rock, country, and soul.

There is a musical trail that can be traced through the American South that brings you from the swamp sounds of Louisiana to the Muscle Shoals-style horns of Alabama, the guitar soul of Memphis, and finally the country vibes of Nashville. Each of these are represented on The Traveler. The record kicks off with "A Woman Like You", a foot-stomping trip to the Louisiana bayou that showcases not only Shepherd's guitar but the amazing voice of longtime partner Noah Hunt.

Perhaps the biggest surprise on the record is the extensive use of horns. Tracks such as "I Want You" use an upfront horn section to punctuate Shepherd's guitar and show that even after all this time Shepherd and his band can still give the listener something new. Even with an expanded use of horns, don't think for a minute that Shepherd's guitar takes a back seat. The Memphis soul-infused "Better With Time" and hard rocking "Long Time Running" show that he is still one of the top players on the scene today.

The final stop of the journey is the country flavor Nashville. On their last release, 2017's Lay It on Down, the band showed a slight country side with the title track. That sound is revisited here with the beautiful "Tailwind" and taken even further with "Take It on Home", which could easily find a place as a Song of the Summer candidate on country radio.

Kenny and his band have always sprinkled in covers of traditional blues songs, but on The Traveler they made a few interesting choices. The first is a simply incendiary version of the Buffalo Springfield classic "Mr. Soul". In the hands of these incredible musicians, the song is turned into a heavy guitar driven rocker dripping with horns that bears only minimal resemblance to the original. The second cover, Joe Walsh's "Turn to Stone" closes the album. This is more of a straight cover that sees Hunt polishing some of the edges of Walsh's original vocal.

The core of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd band, Kenny on guitar and vocals, Noah Hunt on vocals and Chris "Whipper" Layton on drums stays the same and are joined by bassist Kevin McCormick and keyboardists Jimmy McGorman and Joe Krown. While the musicians have remained, there was a change behind the scenes. Shortly after the release of Lay It on Down Mark Selby, frequent co-writer on most of Shepherd's records over the years passed away. While The Traveler contains some of Selby's work it finds Shepherd collaborating with new writers to great success.

Jeff Gaudiosi - 11 Jun 2019
www.popmatters.com



Kenny Wayne Shepherd has been making records for nearly 25 years now and has gone from a teenage blues prodigy to a fully-developed songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader in that time. His latest effort, The Traveler, comes out May 31st, 2019 on Concord Records and proves that Shepherd has, indeed, traveled the distance between being a hot-handed guitarist in the blues world and becoming the big-picture-oriented musician responsible for this incredibly engaging band and album.

The Traveler is a cohesive and powerful “band” recording full of outstanding songs, great grooves, and the sound of talented musicians who are a perfect fit for each other. Shepherd still has guitar chops to burn but this record never tries to be a shred showcase. The group sound is clearly the focus and it makes all the difference.

Shepherd tracked The Traveler in Los Angeles when he and the band were on a break from their eternal touring schedule. Co-produced by Shepherd and Marshall Altman, the set includes some of the strongest songs he has ever recorded. The current KWS Band includes vocalist Noah Hunt, drummer Chris “Whipper” Layton (formerly of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble), bassist Kevin McCormick, and keyboardists Jimmy McGorman and Joe Krown, a top-flight assemblage of players who create an identifiable sound built on road miles shared and houses left rocked. All of this adds up to an eminently listenable record that is easily among the best releases of 2019 in any style.

Shepherd turns the heat on from the opening cut, “Woman Like You,” a strutting, hook-filled blues/rock tune with an extra-large infusion of soul from vocalist Hunt and the big beat of Chris Layton on the drums. Shepherd smokes on the guitar in between them but never overpowers the hip-shaking groove and well-written lyrics. In a better, vanished time, this would be a platinum-selling single heard blasting out of every car stereo in town all summer long.

“Long Time Running” is a straight-ahead driving rock song that takes the energy level even higher and features an extremely well-phrased guitar solo from Kenny Wayne in a spot where lesser minds would play like they were getting paid by the note.

“I Want You” brings the band back to the blues, giving Shepherd a chance to stretch out some over a sultry, heavy pocket. Kenny’s Stratocaster tones are full and defined on both lead and rhythm and he uses them to put his skills right out front, daring anyone to say he’s lost a step. “Tailwind” shifts the band into a more mellow gear in the cleanup spot, smoothing out the vibe with acoustic guitars and a more delicate, mid-tempo approach. The song also gives the album its title and puts Noah Hunt’s vocals at center stage. Hunt has an exceptional presence to his voice that’s more than big enough to compete with the heavyweights behind him and listening to him here will heal your spirit.

Shepherd includes two inspired covers on The Traveler to keep things unpredictable and pay tribute to music he loves. The first is a dangerous-sounding rendition of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul” that was inspired by performing the song at a benefit show with Springfield founders Stephen Stills and Neil Young. It’s all horns, vocals, and ripping guitars and will catch listeners by surprise on their first pass through the album. The record closes with a gritty reading of Joe Walsh’s “Turn to Stone,” a song Shepherd first performed at a fundraising concert honoring Walsh.

The best thing about The Traveler is that it’s only ten songs long and every one of them matters. The digital age has left us with too many 19-song albums that ultimately crush under the weight of their own filler. Shepherd opts for a more focused “all thrill no swill” mentality here and it makes the album go down like a bare-knuckle classic from guitar music’s two-sided glory days.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd has consistently done himself proud since first hitting the scene back in the day but The Traveler is a high-water mark by any metric you’d care to employ. These songs communicate the experiences of Shepherd’s life to date and show the world that time has taken no toll on his musical power.

Mike O’Cull
© 2020. Rock and Blues Muse
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!