In listening to Kenny Wayne Shepherd, one can tell just which musician had the most influence on this young blue player. The first time I heard him I knew Stevie Ray Vaughan, who he met at age seven, was somewhere in there. According to the Wikipedia article he’s completely self-taught, learning one note at a time from cassette tapes which he constantly rewound. He’s unable to read music.
Born in 1977, he got his first “guitar” at age three, a cheap plastic item his grandmother got with S & H green stamps. After meeting Vaughan, he got serious. To date, he’s recorded six studio albums and one live set. TROUBLE IS… was the first I picked up by him back in December of 1997. Oh, and he’s married to Mel Gibson’s oldest daughter, Hannah, and they have two sons and a daughter.
Blue on Black was one single you heard a lot on the radio back then.
Some other favorites include:
and a ballad:
