Kenny Wayne Shepherd was among the ’90s blues revival, where a generation of rock guitarists came out of the woodwork to use the 12-bar traditions and Clapton deep cuts as their stairway to update and honor the genre. They were born with a guitar in their hand and hair down to their shoulders.
And they were young.
The revival brought blues guitarists such as Derek Trucks at age 19 and Jonny Lang at 14. The first to appear was Shepherd, who got signed at 16, and has since lived on the blues charts with hits like “Blue on Black” off of his 1997 certified platinum album Trouble Is…. At 49, Shepherd re-recorded his debut album Ledbetter Heights (titled to honor Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter and a neighborhood in Shepherd’s Louisiana hometown), released in 1995, and is touring to honor its 30th anniversary.
He stops at McDonald Theatre Sept. 15, where he will perform Ledbetter Heights and a set of selections that span his career.
Ledbetter Heights is a rollicking blues album where timeless original pieces like “Deja Voodoo,” and covers such as Howlin’ Wolf’s “I’m Leaving You (Commit a Crime),” had it certified platinum.
But Shepherd, whose father, Ken Shepherd was a popular radio DJ and concert promoter, says he did not set out to get famous unlike many child stars. In fact, Shepherd says his father tried to warn him about the industry. “There was no big plan. I just started playing guitar because I felt I was drawn to the instrument,” he says.
“If anything, my dad was trying to talk me out of it because he didn’t want to see me get my hopes up and then fail, and he knew the odds were not stacked in your favor for success in the industry.”
He began playing at age 7, and says he didn’t realize the scope of his talent. “There were always people that were saying, ‘Wow, this is crazy. This kid can do that. He’s so young and blah blah blah.’” As a kid, “I didn’t understand what was so special about it,” he says. “I just didn’t think it was that unusual, but clearly it was.”
He recorded his first demo at age 14. A music executive got a hold of his cassette, and Shepherd says a rumor about “this kid in Louisiana started spreading through the industry.” He put his band together at 15 and recorded a live concert film, “and the next thing you know, every record company in the industry was knocking on the door,” he says.
He recorded Ledbetter Heights at 16, where he wrote or co-wrote all but four songs on the album. “I think it’s hard when you’re 16 years old to have any perspective of the magnitude of something like that.” He says, “I’ve never read a contract before, they use all this ridiculous language that’s impossible for normal people to decipher.”
His dad hired an attorney to help represent them, but for teenage Shepherd, “As long as I was getting the opportunity to play guitar, I was pretty happy, regardless of what would end up happening.”
He says his experience with child stardom was good, but “as a young artist, you have no leverage.” He says that, “30 years later, looking back, would I have preferred that the deal be different? Yes, absolutely.”
Now that he has children, he says he’s processed how “to be that young and performing on stage, and then making recordings and putting a band together, and then doing shows, and then signing a record deal at age 16, doing your first job before you’ve graduated high school, and then all the success,” he says, “that’s not normal.”
But he’s proud of the work that he did and what he has brought to Ledbetter Heights 30 years later. “You hear that hungry youth energy on the original. Now you hear what 30 years of experience brings to the table on the same song.”
He says with the new recordings, he’s exercised freedom, maturity and leverage on his music that he didn’t have when he was a teenager. “Riverside” is the only song he sang for his first three albums. “I’d always kind of heard it differently in my head, and this was the opportunity,” he says, to fulfill his artistic vision.
An Evening with the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band is 7 pm Tuesday, Sept. 15 at McDonald Theatre. Tickets start at $57.50 and are available at McDonaldTheatre.com.