Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

The St. Marys Blues Guild welcomes Kenny Wayne Shepherd to St. Marys and K.C. Geiger Park to headline the 2010 Riverside Bluesfest on Labor Day weekend.

Twenty years ago, New Orleans blues fixture Bryan Lee invited a 13-year-old guitarist from Shreveport, Louisiana to the stage to trade a few licks. Several hours later, the crowd and young Kenny Wayne Shepherd had reached the same conclusion: this kid needs to make the blues a career.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd was signed to a major label recording contract when he was sixteen. During his senior year of high school he recorded his first album, "Ledbetter Heights." The album hit No. 1 on the blues charts and sold half a million units in a few months - unheard-of success for blues recordings.

His follow-up CD repeated that success and then some. "Trouble Is..." repeated as a No. 1 blues album, and the single "Blue On Black" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in 1998.

At seven, Kenny was teaching himself Muddy Waters guitar licks from his father's record collection, At age 8, he watched a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert perched atop an amp. He is a self-taugh guitarist who learned from influences including Vaughan, Albert King, Robert Cray, Slash and Duane Allman.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd once promoted a nationwide guitar competition for all ages. 2007 Riverside Bluesfest performer Scotty Bratcher finished in second place, at the age of twelve.

A more ambitious project was in store for Kenny a few years later. "10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads" was released in 2007. This two-disc set (one CD and one DVD) catalogued a series of Kenny Wayne Shepherd's conversations and performances with southern blues greats, recorded over a period of ten days. The result is a collection of Delta and Piedmont blues songs that are wonderful entertainment in their own right, and an even more valuable documentation of some of the aging masters of the genre.

As poignant as it is to lose the original voices of the blues one by one, watching "10 Days Out" reassures us that the blues will endure, as long as there are young artists like Kenny Wayne Shepherd who respect its roots. "10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads" is highly recommended.

Word has it that a new Kenny Wayne Shepherd CD is due for release this summer - hopefully in time for the Riverside Bluesfest. Keep your fingers crossed that we will hear some brand-new music played along with all the KWS hits.

Joining Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the Riverside Bluesfest stage will be frontman Noah Hunt, Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton, Riley Osbourne on keys and Scott Nelson on bass.

The Kenny Wayne Shepherd band's ninety minutes on the Bluesfest stage will slip by too fast. This is a big deal for our park and our town. Don't miss it.
 

Discography:
Year	Title	Label
1995	Ledbetter Heights	Giant
1996	Deja Voodoo (single)	Giant
1997	Trouble Is...	Revolution
1999	Live On	Giant
2004	The Place You're In	WEA
2007	10 Days Out (Blues from the Backroads)	Reprise
2010	TBA	TBA

Artist merchandise will be available for purchase at the Riverside Bluesfest!