More Top Picks Best Weighted Eye Masks For Light Sensitivity
player ready...
They’re picking up right where they left off.
When Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band stops in the Chicago area as part of its fall tour, the five-time Grammy nominated Shepherd and band members will be performing a set featuring music from the band’s most recent studio record, 2019’s “The Traveler.”
“We were in the middle of touring in support of that album when COVID happened and all the touring came to a halt,” Shepherd said. “Now that we’re slowly starting to ramp up touring and everybody’s kind of putting their toe in the water to see how it’s going to go … As we’re ramping up, we’re just trying to pick up where we left off, certainly musically and doing that set because it was a really great set of music and the band has a really great time playing it.”
The critically acclaimed Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band will perform twice in the suburbs, first at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Des Plaines Theatre in Des Plaines and at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles.
Along with the current tour, the band has several other projects in the works including new music and a silver anniversary celebration.
“Just as the lockdown started happening, we had just finished up almost two albums worth of new material, so we have a lot of new music on the horizon and several different projects on the horizon,” Shepherd said.
No release date has been set yet for the new music, which the band is finishing up in the studio. Shepherd said the band didn’t release the material during the quarantine because they wouldn’t have been able to tour in support of it.
Shepherd anticipates the new records will come out following the yearlong 25th anniversary celebration of “Trouble Is…,” the 1997 album which spent 104 weeks on the Billboard Blues chart and includes the hits “Blue on Black,” “Somehow, Somewhere, Someway,” “Slow Ride” and “Everything is Broken.”
For one night only, February 12, 2022, the band will perform the album in its entirety at The Strand Theatre in Shepherd’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana — the same place the album release party was held 25 years ago.
The concert, which benefits organizations assisting homeless families and victims of domestic violence, will be streamed and later in the year released on DVD/Blu-Ray.
“For the first time ever, we’re going to play the ‘Trouble Is …’ album from start to finish. Even when we put that album out, we never played the whole album from start to finish,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd did release a new song earlier this year though; a collaboration with award-winning artist Shamekia Copeland titled “Hit ‘Em Back.” Copeland penned the lyrics, and Shepherd wrote the music.
“There was a lot of stuff going on for a brief amount of time in the blues community. People trying to stir up divisiveness, people trying to stir up hate, people trying to point fingers where fingers shouldn’t necessarily be pointed. It’s kind of representative of a lot of what goes on in our world today, unfortunately,” Shepherd said.
“With everybody trying to attack one another and jump on somebody else instead of just look at and trying to keep their own side of the street clean.
“Shamekia, she’s a leader … And in my opinion, she’s the modern day queen of the blues. She puts her money where her mouth is, so to speak. She’s never been afraid to speak out when she feels like somebody needs to set the record straight …” he said. “The best thing you can do when you have people trying to divide is come together.
“And she felt like we could make a great song, with a great message of unity and love and stand together and let everybody know that no matter how much this small group of people wants to create divisiveness in our community, we actually stand united and nothing’s going to come between that. I though it was a great message and a good song that we all kind of pitched in on together and created.”
They were joined on the record by Tony Coleman from B.B. King’s band and pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph. Proceeds from the song benefit the Music Maker Relief Foundation, which helps musicians in a variety of ways including making sure they have the instruments they need to make their music to assisting them with medical bills and housing, Shepherd said.
“Some pretty talented individuals with long careers in our genre, come together to make music and let everybody know you roll with the punches and you just hit people back with love, basically,” he said. “How can you argue with that?”
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5
Where: Des Plaines Theatre, 1476 Miner St.
Tickets: $59-$89
More Top Picks Best Tens Unit Accessories For Pain Relief
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 6
Where: The Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St., St. Charles
Tickets: $59-$89
Information: 630-962-7000; oshows.com
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.