Melodic Mojo

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Traverses the Pop Side of the Blues

- Joe Bosso

THREE YEARS AFTER PAYING TRIBUTE TO BLUES heroes such as Muddy Waters, Magic Sam, Willie Dixon, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the three Kings (Albert, Freddie, and B.B.) on the deeply reverential album Goin’ Home, Kenny Wayne Shepherd is expanding his musical palette on his eighth studio record, Lay It On Down [Concord], with a host of all-original songs that encompass country, gospel, soul, and straight-ahead rock. But the modern-day Strat king swears that, no matter what style of music he’s playing, blues is always a key part of the foundation.

“I think if you’ve grown up playing the blues, and you’ve done this as long as I have, it’s impossible to extract that from your DNA,” says Shepherd.

But Shepherd did change things up a bit on Lay It On Down, and with an ear towards mainstream radio. Having worked primarily with Jerry Harrison since 1995, he sought out Nashville-based producer Marshall Altman, and he collaborated with a variety of Music City’s first-call tune smiths such as Brian Maher and Danny Myrick, along with the team of Mark Selby and Tia Sillers (who penned one of Shepherd’s first hits, “Blue on Black”).

“My overarching goal was to make a very contemporary record,” he says. “I wanted great songs and lyrics, killer melodies, and fantastic hooks.”