Customer Reviews

Trouble Is

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I think KWS has a wonderful gift of playing the blues with passion and intensity. No he is not Stevie Ray and how in the hell are you going to say he sucks because he isn't? And Stevie Ray is no John Petrucci or Al Dimeaola so I guess he sucks as well. Come on people, stop being such music snobs. I highly recommend it.

Interesting sound. Kind of a cross between Eric Clapton and Southern Rock. Great vocals. Good guitar work and fine backing musicians. Listen to the samples provided by Amazon to see if it is to your liking. I did and it was/is.

For young people coming from a rock/metal background it can be pretty hard to put on the breaks and start to dig the Blues. The closest a metal head may come to authentic blues is Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. For rock/punk fans they can start with The Black Keys and their Punk Blues revival but for metal heads it can be a hard transition. Kenny Wayne Shepherd gives them a transitory experience which they can then use to delve into the 60's R&B scene (The Yardbirds, John Mayall & The Bluesbrekaers/Eric Clapton, Savoy Brown, etc). And from there they can descend into the delights of Albert King, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, Otis Rush, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, etc.

Kenny sounds like a kid who has just discovered that people dig his guitar playing. His enthusiasm shines through the music. This is a cat who just loves to play. He loves to rock, he loves to boogie. And he also likes fireworks. His solo's are often relatively simple but come off sounding bigger and more impressive than are through the mastery of his bending, raking and shuffling.

I recommended any intermediate guitarist picking up some of his tab. Give some of his solo's a burl, they shouldnt be too hard to grasp and will provide you with some ideas of how effective the minor pentatonic can be. (Make sure once you have got him down pat you move on to Stevie Ray Vaughan for a real challenge). For anybody else who like to get into the blues but dont know where to start, Give this a go.

I was driving through Philadelphia about the time this CD was released. I turned on the radio and caught only the last minute of "Slow Ride" on WMMR. I just had to know what tune they'd just played. I pulled over and did something I never do -- called the DJ to ask what he'd just played. I immediately drove to the nearest music store and bought "Trouble Is". The point of this little story is that the music on this CD was so refreshing in it's hard hitting blues and rock, and so distictive, that it stands out from the clutter of Pearl Jam/Creed wannabees. The music reminds me of all the things I enjoyed about rock and blues in the late '60's and early '70's. And more importantly, though Kenny Wayne Sheperd was obviously influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughn, his sound is unique for this day and age. This album built upon the roots he established with "Ledbedder Heights", and is a worthwhile addition to anyone's music collection (provided you eschew the likes of Brittany and J Lo). Rock on.

This is a type of CD that you can just lean back and listen to. There is a little of evreything. Kenny has one of the best feels for playing "alive" music in stead of cookie cutter music. It is very hard to find radio stations that play this music and it is nice to have in a library to pull and enjoy.

Trouble Is starts the jam with a KWS original called called "Slow Ride" however this CD is anything but slow. Shepherd's lyrics and masterful guitarwork combined with Noah Hunt's powerfully articulate vocals deliver a passionately energetic blend of southern tinged rock and blues. Originals such as Slow Ride, Somehow Somewhere Someway, I Found Love and the popular Blue on Black prove the Shepherd/Hunt combination works extremely well. Also included are versions of Hendrix's "I Don't Live Today" and an excellent version of Dylan's "Everything is Broken".

My other favorites are "Long Gone" (which is reminiscent ofearly Rolling Stonesblended with the blues of Stevie Ray Vaughn), King's Highway and a well crafted ballad called I Found Love When I Found You.

Trouble Is... is the followup to Kenny Wayne Shepherd's killer debut Ledbetter Heights. While the band clearly sounds tighter and Shepherd's playing continues to impress, several tracks from the album's second half are mediocre making it an uneven followup.

The first seven tracks on this album are all top notch whether it's the blues of "(Long) Gone" and "Somehow, Somewhere, Someway", the driving rock of "Slow Ride", the boogie of "True Lies", or the excellent hit single "Blue On Black." The versions of Jimi Hendrix's "I Don't Live Today" and Bob Dylan's "Everything Is Broken" are also excellent, with the band truly making the Dylan track their own.

Then the album starts to drag with the bluesy "King's Highway" and the closing instrumental title track being the only decent tracks. The remaining tracks "I Found Love (When I Found You)", "Nothing To Do With Love", and "Chase The Rainbow" are unmemorable and lack a strong hook. If you removed these tracks, you can argue that it's as strong as Ledbetter Heights. Still it's worth checking out for tracks 1-7.

Kenny Wayne's Trouble Is is an aceptionally good album with alot of great blues/rock material. Their are alot of good songs no fill in's in my book! I have read alot of other reviwers on this album complaining "He's A Copy Of Stevie Ray Vaughan" that really pisses me off because this kid is giving his all in his style" he is by no means a copy. Does He Sound Like Stevie Ray Vaughan? Yes, but in his own style (in a good way). I really enjoyed True Lies, which has a sweet texian riff that you just cant beat. I also love his version of Jimi Hendrix's I Dont Live Today, wow a great performence for the king! If you want some acoustic songs their is a great acoustic song titled Blue On Black a really edgy track with alot of potenial. Otherwise the music their is defiently no TROUBLE with this album at all. I really have to put my hands down for this one! Please buy this album if you want great blues, great rock, great guitarist. WOW!

Man, can this kid play or what! I consider myself to be somewhat cultured when it come to the blues. I've seen the best of them live before and thought I would be disappointed seeing KWS, especially going to see him at a county fair in the middle of Nebraska but I'd have to say I was genuinely impressed. Not much for a stage show, but hey, I come to hear the music, not to see someone jump all over the stage. What you hear on the cd is what I heard in person, only better. Just a great live performance! Buy this cd! I know it quickly became one of my favorites!

Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a great guitarist, no doubt, and that's ultimately the appeal of his music. If you do not like guitar-based music, you'd do well to stay away from this CD. It's basically only for fans of guitar-heavy blues rock. On that level, it's a success. The songs are adequate, but mostly forgettable, and serve as little more than a backdrop for Shepherd's guitar. The lyrics are sometimes painfully derivative, and pretty uninteresting overall. However, the music is so good that the lyrics hardly matter. Vocalist Noah Hunt has a good voice, and sings with conviction but the words he sings just seem to be empty words. The songs about love and women just seem kind of phony coming from such young guys.

The best songs are Slow Ride, Blue On Black (a rock radio favorite), Chase The Rainbow and Somehow, Somewhere, Someway. The Hendrix cover I Don't Live Today is also fun.

Trouble Is... is a fine album for fans of blues-rock. If you like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and other bluesy guitarists, then I would recommend this CD as well as Kenny Wayne's debut, Ledbetter Heights.