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Kenny Wayne Shepherd and his group exploded
on the scene in the mid-'90s and garnered huge amounts of radio
airplay on commercial radio, which historically has not been a
solid home for blues and blues-rock music, with the exception
of Stevie Ray Vaughan in the mid-'80s.
Shepherd was born June 12, 1977, in Shreveport, LA. The Shreveport
native began playing at age seven, figuring out Muddy Waters licks
from his father's record collection (he has never taken a formal
lesson). At age 13, he was invited onstage by New Orleans bluesman
Brian Lee and held his own for several hours; thus proving himself,
he decided on music as a career. He formed his own band, which
featured lead vocalist Corey Sterling, gaining early exposure
through club dates and, later, radio conventions. Shepherd's father/manager
used his own contacts and pizzazz in the record business to help
land his son a major-label record deal with Irving Azoff's Giant
Records. Ledbetter Heights, his first album, was released two
years later in 1995. Ledbetter Heights was an immediate hit, selling
over 500,000 by early 1996. Most blues records never achieve that
level of commercial success, much less ones released by artists
that are still in their teens.
Although Shepherd — who has been influenced by (and has sometimes
played with) guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert King, Slash,
Robert Cray, and Duane Allman — is definitely a performer who
thrives in front of an audience, Ledbetter Heights is impressive
for its range of styles: acoustic blues, rockin' blues, Texas
blues, Louisiana blues. The only style that he doesn't tackle
is Chicago blues, owing to Shepherd's home base smack dab in the
middle of the Texas triangle. 1998's Trouble Is... earned a Grammy
nomination; Live On followed a year later. The Place You're In
was released on Reprise Records in 2004, the first album which
featured Shepherd doing the majority of the lead vocals (singer
Noah Hunt handled the lead vocals on the previous two albums).
This bio courtesy www.allmusic.com
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