Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Live On : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When Shreveport, Louisiana, native Kenny Wayne Shepherd gets into a swamp thing, look out. The former teen prodigy (he's now a seasoned twenty-two) has earned his guitar-hero rep as a tireless proponent of Stevie Ray Vaughan-style Texas roadhouse blues. But it was on muddy slide workouts like "Aberdeen," from his '95 debut, Ledbetter Heights, that Shepherd truly stood out from the crowd. Live On, his third album, boasts two such forays - the churning "Was" and the menacing "Every Time It Rains" - and both are monsters. Shepherd also shows tasteful restraint on the gospel-tinged title track and on the lovely ballad "Last Goodbye," which, thanks to Noah Hunt's workmanlike but soulful vocals, may well end up being the biggest Hootie and the Blowfish single ever. Elsewhere, it's back to the same old hot-shit-so-what Vaughan and Hendrix runs, with an occasional flashy nod and wail out to Eddie Van Halen or Jimmy Page, all executed with maximum proficiency and perfect tone but little hint of a truly unique style. (RS 826)
RICHARD SKANSE