Product Description
KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD & BOBBY RUSH - YOUNG FASHIONED WAYS
COMING MARCH 21, 2025, RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY!
BOBBY RUSH AND KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD
Young Fashioned Ways
RAM Records/Deep Rush Records/Thirty Tigers
At 91 years young, Bobby Rush has seemingly accomplished everything. Rush is the foremost voice of Mississippi blues traditions. His first-hand accounts of the struggles to play his blues, to be accepted, and to survive against all odds as a Black artist are essential lessons to young and old alike and part of everything he sings or plays.
Since his earliest days, Kenny Wayne Shepherd has always honored the masters of the blues. In 2004, Shepherd traveled the back roads of the blues on the acclaimed CD/DVD, 10 Days Out, to introduce his legion of fans to the many elders who influenced him like B.B., Hubert Sumlin, Etta Baker, Gatemouth, Honeyboy, Henry Gray, Jerry McCain, and others. In 2008, it was Shepherd who inducted Sumlin into the Blues Hall Of Fame. In 2022, Shepherd began hosting his yearly Backroads Blues Festival in with Buddy Guy as the headliner; the following two years, it was headlined by Bobby Rush.
So it naturally makes perfect sense for these two sons of Louisiana to connect genetically to all shades of the blues.
The star here is Rush the vocalist, the harmonica player, and the blues griot spinning his deep South tales of drinkin’, lovin’, big legged women, and life. The co-star is Shepherd whose guitar sensibilities run so much deeper in the blues than just blues-rock. His measured approach is fully able to play and arrange exactly what perfectly fits Rush’s deep traditional attitudes.
The record opens with “Who Was That” a full band blast where Rush addresses this concern over the unidentified back door man. On “40 Acres (How Long),” the pair sits on the acoustic porch as Rush tells of growing up in a culture where all one worked for was 40 acres and a mule. “Hey Baby (What Are We Gonna Do)” strips Rush and Shepherd to Louisiana back porch-style electric harp and slide guitar as Rush voices his relationship confusions.
Meanwhile, “G String” (And not the guitar’s G string!!) is Bobby’s rappin’ advice packing items for a lover’s getaway over Shepherd’s Texas steel string acoustic. “You’re So Fine” electrifies Rush and Shepherd as they honor the Windy City blues of Walter and Elmore. In “Young Ways,” Rush addresses the classic aging realization that snow may be on the mountain, “but fire’s still in the hill.” Here, Shepherd’s evocative guitar jabs punctuate Rush’s senior citizen lament.
“Long Way From Home” has Rush updating the early blues songs about boll weevils search for their homes. Musically, it’s Shepherd’s pinpoint single strings playing off Charles Hodges’ piano. The CD appropriately ends with “What She Said,” another acoustic harp and guitar gem.
As a whole, the pair’s music illustrates the blues’ evolution – beginning as acoustic harp and guitar porch entertainment and then moving north to become South Side Chicago full ensemble electric. This record and tour will line up for many 2025 accolades.
– Art Tipaldi