Customer Reviews

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5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

I was getting so excited leading up to this release. I put in the first three albums again and listened to them a few more times. Each one was progressively better than the last, so I just *could not wait* to hear what would be next!

The day it came out, I didn't have enough money, so I had to content myself with looking at it in a store. "Hmm, just Kenny Wayne Shepherd," I thought, "Not KWS Band. Hope that's not a bad thing."

Ouch. Bad thing.

I did what others apparently did - double-checked to make sure the disc hadn't been mis-pressed. I could have sworn after the first three tracks that I wasn't listening to Kenny Wayne Shepherd, even though I could *occasionally, slightly* hear his guitar style. It's not just the absence of the fantastic Noah Hunt on vocals (always such a distinctive and wonderful part of the whole KWS Band sound), no, the musical style is different too. Gone are the blues, and I lament their absence. I never minded a good straightforward rock song or three on the KWSB albums; on the contrary, they blended in nicely and rounded out the whole listening experience. This album has a homogenous and sadly dull and unexciting sound overall. It hurts to write this review. I'm frequently a defender of stylistic changes that bands go through, but this one just falls flat, and I do believe KWS has come close to losing this once-enthusiastic fan.

A few years back the blues rock scene was smokin' with young and very talented guitarist like, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Mato Naji of Indigenous, they were all doing some great blues rock stuff and getting noticed everywhere. My question is where has all the blues gone? None of these guys play the blues any more, everyone wanted to call all three of these guys the next SRV, but Stevie Ray never sold out the blues he just kept re-inventing it, I still believe there is hope for Mato Naji to get back on the blues track, but I have given up on Jonny Lang and it looks like I can count KWS out as well. If it wasn't for the Blues all three of these cats would have never been discovered! If you want real blues rock then get you a Joe Bonamassa CD you won't be disappointed like I was with this CD. All I have to say to Kenny is remember where you came from!!!

The Bandit
www.banditbluesradio.com

Like so many artists before him who have tried jumping outside the box,Kenny Wayne Shepherd has failed to make a successful impact on this disc.Kenny Wayne grew up loving the blues,wanting to play the blues;this is not the blues.This is,as one reviewer put it,generic arena rock,but slightly better.Songs such as "Let Go" and "Believe" are what I would expect from Kenny.Songs like "Alive" and "Spanked" are songs I would expect from Lenny Kravitz(whom I cant stand by the way).The vocals and guitars are fine.The lyrics and style of music leave much to be desired.Like a return to previous form on his next album.Only diehard KWS fans should purchase this disc,otherwise check for the two songs I mentioned on ITunes and go with that along with his previous three discs.

First, the good news:

Rock and roll isn't dead, a prime example is on this CD. It's good rock, not my favorite, but acceptable.

Okay, the bad news:

This isn't the blues CD I was hoping for. You don't hear the fabulous KWS guitar as strongly as you have on his previous collections. Maybe if I forget it's Kenny Wayne, I'll like it better.

Definitely listen to the samples before you buy this. If you are set on a blues CD, you need to look elsewhere. If you're willing to listen to Kenny Wayne Shepherd no matter what he does, give this a fair listen, and then decide. I'm on my second play and it's 'growing on me' but I don't have that instant affection I have for Kenny's blues.

Rebecca Kyle, May 2008

Kenny Wayne Shepherd's newest release does in fact share many similarities to Lenny Kravitz as other reviews have pointed out. This is a dissapointment to some, including me. I like Lenny Kravitz and buy his CD's. I really liked Shepherd's earlier efforts because they didn't sound like anybody else. The new effort sounds typical. Some applaud Shepherd's stylistic shift as a mature growth. I disagree. I see this as an unfortunate turn away from the unique sound and energy that made him a guitar "allstar" in the first place. The music on this CD is solid, and the guitar work is supurb. After a few listens it does grow on you, but Kenny's vocals are not in the same league with his former vocalist, Noah Hunt. The two tracks that feature Hunt are the two most powerful moments on the record. I don't really like Kid Rock at all, but can live with one track. Also note that Shepherds two previous albums were by the Kenny Wayne Shepherd BAND. This one is by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. This could be considered a solo album. This is an important point. This is Shepherd more on his own, with guests. I believe Shepherd is more powerful in a band setting and hold out high hopes for the "Blues Project" due from him in the future. In short, I'm afraid Shepherd has underestimated the value of having talented musicians collaborating with him. Noah was a big part of what I liked about Trouble is... and Live On. Maybe the next Kravitz disc will sound like KWSB.

If your looking for what we heard on KWS first couple of recordings you wont find it on this CD. This recording finds
Kenny doing most of the singing in a more Heavy Metal style,
sounding a little like Lenny Kravites.I dont like the style
change, the guitar is ok in some of the songs, but the hooks
and the songs arent very good. Unlike Kenny's first couple of
CD's these song's wont grap you or stay with you and you wont want to hear them again and again.

What a huge letdown...after waiting all of these years for the new KWS we get a poorly done Lenny Kravitz wannabe albumn. Kenny should let Noah do the singing and let himself do the guitar work. Speaking of guitars, this albumn was sub-par for Kenny. I thought that maybe after all of these years he would have gotten much sharper with all of the practice time he has had. Maybe he was visiting with Mr. Brownstone a little too much...I don't know? When people are comparing KWS to SRV, expectations are VERY HIGH. This albumn is by far the worst one he has put out. The only bright spot I could see was the song Noah sang in. Kenny, clean up and go back to your roots...ELECTRIC BLUES!

Your Mother told you to never talk to strangers, and your Father told you to heed good advice! Well, other than "Shaq's, The King Of The World Blues Reviewer's" loyal fans, I may be a stranger to you, but if you value your time and money, and love the blues, you better take my advice! This CD stinks. Before you tune me out, you'd be smart to listen to me. I own Kenny's previous 3 CD's "Ledbetter Heights", "Trouble Is", and "Live On". Those were all really good, blues/rock, and Kenny was so young, that I thought wow! There is someone on the very close horizon, who had the "potential", (potential is the key word here!) to fill the large electric blues void left by Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc. (As the legendary Buddy Guy and a few others get older.) Well, we all come to a crossroads in our life, and if this CD was Kenny's crossroad, he surely took the wrong turn. Some people may not like this review, because the truth hurts! If you like the blues, don't buy this CD, it's awful. For the sake of the future of electric blues, I can only pray, that Kenny asks for directions on how to get back on the road to the electric blues. You, yes you! The person reading this review, can help by not buying this CD, or Kenny may falsely believe he isn't on a dead-end street, and that, my friends, would give me the blues!

As many others have pointed out, this album from Kenny Wayne Shepherd is basically generic arena rock. I have no problem with arena rock -- in fact, I quite enjoy a lot of it -- but I'm less forgiving of the generic quality much of this album has.

Who is at fault for the mediocrity of this album is hard to say, however, so I'm not going to automatically fault Shepherd for anything except maybe associating with the wrong crowd. What many people don't realize is that Kenny has always employed songwriters; he's an excellent guitarist, but not much of a songwriter. Check the writing credits on his older releases: I'm pretty sure every one of them has at least one writing credit given to someone not in his band. Taking that into consideration, I'm tempted to blame this album on the producer Marti Frederiksen.

The first half of this album is simply over-produced. The "wall of sound" approach to recording can be ok sometimes, but most of the time is just muddies the sound and removes all texture and action from the song, and the first four or five songs are no exception to this. With a guitarist as talented as Shepherd, you do him and yourself a disservice when you don't make every note he plays pop out of the soundscape at you. Thankfully the latter half of the record suffers less from this problem where some of the songs are really dynamic. It's just a shame we have to wait through half the record to hear those songs.

Vocally speaking Shepherd isn't awful, but he probably just hasn't found his voice yet. There's no doubt that the tracks featuring Noah Hunt as either lead of backup vocalist sound better than the tracks featuring only Shepherd of Frederisken. Shepherd occasionally sounds like Lenny Kravitz, who has an excellent arena rock voice, but I'd rather he find a Kenny Wayne Shepherd sound than sounding like someone else.

The biggest problem on this record behind the poor production values is that Shepherd often doesn't sound fresh or original. A couple of his solos sound just (or nearly just) like some of his solos on Live On. If you're going to change your style, don't recycle your solos! Even worse, the instrumental at the end sounded like a slew of other guitarists. The opening of the instrumental track sounded exactly like a Vivian Campbell riff, and then in rapid succession the track proceeds to remind me of three or four other songs played by someone else (the names of which I can't quite place yet).

Lastly I have to address the claims of "sell out". I typically shy away from such talk, but this situation actually got under my skin. Shepherd now has a trendy layered haircut, an earring, and dresses like a rock star. That doesn't bother me in itself, nor does the shift in style towards rock (which was always evident given Shepherd's influences). The irritating thing is that despite his change in style, and the songs on his record sounding like any other generic arena rock record, he had the balls to put a song on his record titled "Ain't selling out". It is, in fact, the inclusion of this song that makes him look like a sellout. Changing styles is acceptable, but changing to a more marketable image and sound while claiming otherwise just rings untrue. Frankly, I would almost be offended by it if I didn't know how much Shepherd relies on his producers and songwriters.

So in summary, I'll say that there are some listenable (and even good) songs on this album. Just don't buy it expecting anything original or memorable.

Obviously, the majority of reviewers for this album are fans of the blues, not fans of Kenny Wayne Shephard or good music in general. This is a great blues-inspired rock album. I could have done without the Kid Rock song, but everything else is totally solid. There is plenty of the soulful playing that made KWS a star, it's just that most of the songs are a little more upbeat. I like blues and rock, so I think this is a phenomenal album that steered KWS away from the rut into which he had been settling.