Kenny Wayne Shepherd

In the organizer's words:

Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Blues magician with the funk in his blood
2025 on tour in Europe with current album "Dirt On My Diamonds Vol. 2", three shows in Germany in July

+ The Legendary: Bobby Rush

Presented by Rock Antenne

The American blues musician and guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, often ennobled by experts as the legitimate successor to blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughn, has a productive luxury problem: what to do when a complete second album of great material is lying around at the end of an album production? Quite simple: you keep it to yourself for the time being and let a few months pass after the album's release to try out new stylistic elements and soundscapes on the unused songs. Until you have finally created another exciting album that is so much more than just a rehash or a sequel with its authentic independence. This is exactly what Shepherd achieved with his work "Dirt On My Diamonds Vol 2", released in mid-September, with which he concludes his first dozen albums and at the same time very succinctly hints at what his fans can expect on the (at least) twelve studio albums to come: Music that always carries the DNA of classic US blues, but otherwise has little to do with traditional purism and finds it much more exciting to give the old uncle a fresh cell treatment through other genres and stylistic features. In this case, the 47-year-old Shepherd was drawn to the grooving world of laid-back funk and soulful soul, with all the infectious rolling beats, pumping bass lines and strikingly pointed horn sections - and he does so with a composure and aplomb as if he had never done anything else before.
Which is actually true: Because ever since Shepherd, the son of a well-known radio DJ and already so obsessed with blues music and his guitar as a young teenager that even stars such as Bryan Lee or the aforementioned guitar god Vaughn asked him on stage for a guest solo at concerts in Louisiana, rolled up the worldwide blues scene in 1995 with his debut album "Ledbetter Heights", which was an instant success, he too has been rolling on and on without a break. Always in the service of the sacred blues chords - just like his childhood idols Muddy Waters and Leadbelly - and yet always surprising, different and new. For the concerts on his European tour, this should apply even more than usual, he revealed: he has never been so excited to share the new songs with his audience live.
This is especially true for his show in Munich on July 11, 2025, because with 91-year-old Bobby Rush, he has not only invited a living legend of US music history on stage, but also the forefather of a blues that has learned to dance uninhibitedly through funk and soul elements.