It’s been a great week if you love the blues in WNY. The Tedeschi Trucks band played Artpark in Lewiston this past Tuesday, and now it was Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s turn to rock Canalside in Buffalo on Thursday night. Even though it’s the blues, there is a big difference on how it’s played. Shepherd’s hard driven riff oriented blues was pure delight for an overflowing crowd who came out to hear Shepherd and his band deliver their bands type of blues music.
Taking the stage at 8pm, The band dove into “Never Lookin’ Back” off of 2011’s album “How I Go.” Vocalist Noah Hunt made a lot of eye contact and gestures towards the crowd and Shepherd moved about the stage and really kept the crowd involved right from the start. The band is still on tour in support of last years “Lay It Down.” They played a handful of tracks of that release (6 altogether). Hunt went back and forth singing acapella and playing both an acoustic and electric guitar. It’s been a few years since I saw Shepherd live so it was a pleasant surprise to see Chris Layton laying down the beats behind the kit. Layton, who is a much-revered drummer, is best known for playing with Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Noah’s has a great blues voice as it was powerful when it needed to be on songs like “Ride of Your Life” and “Heat of the Sun.” Also, he was able to scale it back with ease on the ballad “Hard Lesson Learned.” He worked in unison with Shepherd throughout the performance. There is a reason why the band is called KWS Band, and let’s not kid ourselves as Shepherd is still the main attraction. Shepherd still plays with the fiery passion as he did breaking through as an 18 year old in 1995 with his debut album “Ledbetter Heights.” Shepherd played to the song and wasn’t overly flashy. He even played a song that his other band The Brides covered in “Talk to Me Baby.” He also sang co lead on “Diamonds and Gold.” Shepherd played a Gibson Lucille that was very similar to B.B Kings guitar for the cover of King’s track “You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now.” He finished off the set with a magical rendition of Jimi Hendrix’ “Voodoo Child.” He surely demonstrated that he is still one of the most complete guitarists on the planet.
The nearly 2-hour set was a memorizing performance and one of the year’s best to date for the Canalside lineup.
Setlist:
Never Lookin’ Back
Ride of Your Life
True Lies
House is Rockin’ (Stevie Ray Vaughan cover)
Hard Lesson Learned
Baby Got Gone
Down for Love
Heat of the Sun
Talk to Me Baby (Elmore James cover)
Deja Voodoo
Born With a Boken Heart
Diamonds and Gold
Nothing But the Night
You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now (B.B. King cover)
Shotgun Blues
Encore:
Blue on Black
I’m a King Bee (Slim Harpo cover)
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) {The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover}
We would like to thank Paige Gress from Canalside for the credentials to cover the show.
