Kenny
Wayne Shepherd Band
Lay It
On Down
Provogue
Lay It On Down is the eighth album by the Kenny
Wayne Shepherd Band, six of which hit No. 1 in the US Blues Chart ( from 1995-onwards). He is a fiercely ambitious artist, even after
awards and platinum album sales- “We’re still breaking new ground”, the modern
bluesman maintains. This ambition is
exemplified by the insistence on writing the greatest songs of his career for
this album, many of which were written in Nashville and the storytelling does
indeed strike the listener. Shepherd
himself insists that each song takes you on a different journey. Diamonds &
Gold, Nothing but The Night, Lay it All Down, Hard Lesson Learned and the
personal Louisiana Rain would all make strong singles in an expanding
repertoire and could win the band a deservedly wider audience.
Interwoven
with blues numbers for his long-standing fans, this album is going to be
huge. It’s the quality of the songcraft
that elevates this good album to a great one.
The title track Lay it On Down is a melodic song about the beauty you
see in someone that they can’t see themselves and crucially letting them know.
The sheer
satisfaction of listening to this album is astonishing. It makes you play it again to catch all the
textures on offer. It would be an
absolute certainty to pack for any road trip – I mused absent-mindedly, whilst
playing the CD merely on my commute to work.
NE
