KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD: Dirt On My Diamonds Vol.1 (ROCK,Blues): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Kenny Wayne Shepherd seems to have found the magic formula for his own music with the excellent "The Traveler". More spontaneity in the compositions and a meticulous search for a sound that is both powerful and warm have enabled the American to find the perfect combination between the modernity of today's productions and the vintage color of the true blues sound. Four years after this major release, Kenny Wayne continues this work of precision with "Dirt On My Diamonds Vol. 1", an album that demonstrates just how old-fashioned the battle between old and new is, even when it comes to blues.

In this musical style, it seems that Kenny Wayne Shepherd has long since said it all. In fact, 'Ease My Mind' is the only pure blues track on this album, and it boasts the most perfect guitar sound for the style, one that would make any Stratocaster lover green with envy. But what interests Kenny Wayne Shepherd most will always be groove and big sound. And it's by relying on a brass section that has become increasingly present in his music since "Lay It On Down" that the guitarist finds here the material to develop his compositions towards atmospheres that are much more rhythm and blues than pure blues.

Of the eight tracks that make up "Dirt On My Diamonds Vol. 1", the five featuring horns ('Dirt On My Diamonds', 'Sweet & Low', 'Best Of Times', 'Man On A Mission', 'Bad Intentions') are examples of efficiency and feeling, where, as always, Kenny Wayne shares the microphone with the faithful Noah Hunt to imbue each track with an almost miraculous fluidity, such has been the complicity between the two singers over the years. Once again, Kenny Wayne Shepherd strikes hard with "Dirt On My Diamonds Vol. 1", both in his songwriting and in the way he distills his secret incandescent solos, always bearing in mind that a guitar solo should always serve the track for which it is composed, and not the other way round. The guitarist's work on the excellent cover of Elton John's 'Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting' is a perfect example.

"Dirt On My Diamonds Vol. 1" once again demonstrates Kenny Wayne Shepherd's songwriting talent. In the end, this album suffers from only one flaw: its very short length, which clearly leaves us wanting more, and obliges us to wait until the release of Volume 2. This is all the more frustrating given that, as the author admits, the latter has already been written. Unless it is radically different from volume 1, the reasons for splitting this album in two can only be mercantile... - Official website

KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD

DIRT ON MY DIAMONDS VOL.1

MASCOT LABEL GROUP

ROCK