Kenny Wayne, Live: Still the SRV Feel

Good Show…but Sorta Strange

I remember when the Kenny Wayne Shepherd buzz first started, this kid who idolized SRV and apparently wanted to sound just like him too. Even his name was similar (Kenny Wayne – Stevie Ray).

Then we lost SRV (we still miss you down here, man!), and we, or at least I, heard less about Kenny Wayne. The next thing I remember about Kenny Wayne was an interview in a guitar magazine a while back (years?) that talked about him lead-singing now and sounding different playing-wise.

Beyond that I didn’t know much. But I decided to go see him Friday night in Morristown, N.J. Overall I liked the show but found it a little odd…meaning different than what I expected, or maybe am used to.

First thing I noticed was that the crowd was “old.” I’m 43 (I believe Kenny Wayne is 32), and I’d say 75% of the people there were at least my age.  Not a big deal, but for some reason this was a surprise to me.

The second thing I noticed was those people were there to hear “blues in the vein of Stevie Ray Vaughan.” How do I know that? Well, to me, admittedly minimally “educated” in the blues, KWS’s leads sounded very SRV-ish – and his fans loved them! Plus, he mentioned SRV by name three times, and each time the crowd went nuts. Example: One time he was discussing his blues influences and mentioned, in this order, Albert Collins (polite applause), Jimi Hendrix (a little more applause) and SRV (huge roar from the audience).

I started to feel that those people were there to get their SRV fix via Kenny Wayne. That might be unfair, but if it isn’t there’s nothing wrong with that: Everyone seemed to be enjoying it.

The third thing I noticed – this was the strange part for me – was the almost total lack of interaction among the band members. I found this odd and off-putting.

The show is all about KWS, which I get. Even the lead singer, Noah Hunt, played second fiddle (figuratively) to Kenny. The drummer was off to stage right, as was the bass player. Looked like Kenny interacted with the drummer a couple times just for cues, never with the bass player that I noticed. The keyboard player was far off stage left. (I don’t think any of those guys were introduced, nor Noah, but I left with about 15 minutes left in the show – my son was tired and wanted to leave.) In the middle of the stage were KWS and Noah, with a line of three Fender combo amps behind them – not exactly a powerful set-up, but okay. But even KWS and Noah didn’t interact much.

Bottom line: Hardly any interpersonal energy on stage. Maybe this is normal for blues bands? Am I just too used to rock bands? I don’t know, but it definitely took away from the live show experience for me.

Sound and Tone

That leaves the music and KWS’s sound. The music, with which I was largely unfamiliar, was good. I liked all the tunes to one degree or another, so that was good. Kenny Wayne’s lead playing didn’t really set me on fire, but in fairness that’s not my favorite style of playing. I’m sure my playing wouldn’t set him on fire either!

Kenny Wayne’s sound was definitely the classic Strat-through-Fender-amp (Twin Reverb?) sound, and he played three different Strats through the setup: black with a white racing stripe, white, sunburst in open tuning. After a little research, it looks like KWS’s signature Strats (specs below) are available in exactly those colors. All had rosewood boards.

Whether the guitars were the same models or not, one thing that came through loud and clear for me was that the black/racing stripe Strat sounded the best. It sounded hotter in a good way, and also compressed, possibly through a Tube Screamer.

And Kenny definitely can play. Like I said, I’m not a big fan of that style but he has the classic blues vocabulary, plays clean and doesn’t stray into odd scales or whatever.

His band was good. Noah can sing and has a unique voice, though I think with some on-stage energy he could really blast into some tunes. The bass player, drummer and keyboard player (I think called “Reverend?”) were very good. So a good band, but again, no on-stage energy.

So that’s it: good music, good band, good playing. I guess that’s what I went there for, but I still wonder how much better it would’ve been if they were all out there trying to kick each other in the ass.

Notable

> From the Fender press release announcing KWS’s signature Strat: “The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Stratocaster is based on Shepherd’s own ’61 instrument and welds vintage style to modern features. Most distinctively, Shepherd’s new signature model boasts a blueswailing voice of its own thanks to its three custom-voiced Kenny Wayne Shepherd pickups. Other features include an alder-body, maple neck with 12″-radius rosewood fingerboard and 21 jumbo frets, vintage-style synchronized tremolo bridge with Graph Tech saddles and Fender vintage-style tuning machines.”

Category: Fender, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Live Shows, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Strat