[Americana Highways] Interview: Kenny Wayne Shepherd on Collaborating With Bobby Rush for “Young Fashioned Ways”

In March, Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd released their collaborative album titled Young Fashioned Ways. Its intentional multi-generational approach brought together multi-Grammy winning Blues artist Rush, who is 91 years old, and much younger, but well seasoned artist Shepherd, who is also a multi-Grammy nominated artist. The album includes new blues songs that the two wrote together, and also totally new takes on some of Rush’s previous work. The title track, for instance, is based on a Muddy Waters’ song, itself a take on a Willie Dixon original, but on the album retitled “Young Ways.”

While the tracks on Young Fashioned Ways were built around the simplicity of Rush and Shepherd working in a room together, almost totally spontaneously, some of the songs also work with a full band, including musicians Steve Potts (drums), Charles Hodges (keyboards and B-3), Darryl “DJ” Pruitt” (bass), Doug Wolverton (trumpet) and Charlie Di Puma (saxophone). In addition to collaborating on these songs, Rush and Shepherd also set off on a tour in April which will last through August where they play sets together capturing the ease and familiarity on an intimate gathering for audiences. I spoke to Kenny Wayne Shepherd about their approach to writing and recording these songs, the way that translates on stage, and about Shepherd’s life-long love of blues music, which has resulted in yet another project celebrating the blues and the work of blues artists.

Americana Highways: Tell me about playing together on this tour. I think that’s amazing that you’re going out together.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd: We just did some shows in Kansas City and Peoria, Illinois, and then we went home for three days, and then were gearing up again. It was awesome. It was the first time doing the show together, and we had rehearsed, and rehearsals went well, but you kind of have to see how it is when the audience is all there together. It was great. There was a lot of improvising and a lot of things happening on stage that didn’t happen in rehearsal, because Bobby’s a very spontaneous guy. It was a lot of fun.

AH: I knew that he is known for being very “live” when live!

KWS: Exactly! He has a great sense of humor, and he interacts with the audience. He was doing a whole lot of stuff. He never tells me things ahead, not even when we were making the record. [Laughs] He didn’t tell me about the songs that we were going to write, when I was asking him. It was the first time that I ever walked into the studio to make a record, and didn’t know a single song that was going to be on the record!

AH: Wow, that’s amazing too!

KWS: It was the same thing with rehearsal. A lot of times, when you rehearse, you do your best, but you’re not necessarily doing everything in rehearsal that you would do on stage. He kept saying, “I’m gonna go crazy, man! I’m gonna go crazy!” I said, “Okay,” but I didn’t know what that meant until a few days ago.

AH: That is wonderful. I also find that funny because the idea of making this album might mean that this felt a little for him, but based on what you’re saying, I see that it felt a little different for you, too! You’re the one having a new experience.

KWS: I like it because I like to make records in a very spontaneous way, but it’s still a very different approach. I definitely wanted this album to be something different for him, as an artist, and something different for me, as an artist, otherwise what’s the point? It’s a delicate balance because we wanted to do something new for each of us as an artist, but also not alienate who either of us is as an artist, and though that’s a tricky thing, I think we nailed that successfully on this record.

AH: So you didn’t know anything that you’d be doing on the album? Not even the Rush covers?

KWS: No. It all happened very naturally, though. It was literally that the album unfolded in front of us, moment by moment. When we did some of the songs that he’d previously recorded, I had no idea that those were songs off of other albums that he’d done. I think it was probably a good thing that he approached it that way, because if he had told me, then I would have gone and listened to the original versions. That would have influenced how I approached them, even from a production standpoint. As a producer, I was approaching them as if they were brand new songs, without any attachment to the original arrangements. That gave these songs a different and new life, rather than just being an updated version.

KWS: Oh, yes, and that was the whole experience throughout the record. I would start playing something, and he’d grab some lyrics that he’d written, and he’d start singing them. Every single time it worked, and it was the right thing. Then, we’d listen to the music that we’d recorded, and ask, “What does the music need? What is it asking for? Is it perfect the way that it is, or does it need something, and if so, what is that?” It was a discovery process the whole time.

AH: I can tell from listening to it that it feels like the audience is in the room. The texture is there, a feeling of being close to the instruments. Things have not been smoothed over and tucked in neatly. Was that something that you knew you wanted?

KWS: I think our initial idea was that Bobby and I both thought that we’d go into the studio and do a very stripped-down, almost acoustic, record. So that’s really how every song started. As the songs evolved, and I started hearing different instruments on different songs, the goal was to do what was going to make the song better, but not to lose that intimate sound and intimate vibe. That’s what we did.

That’s why the live show is set up the way that it is, too. In the concert, Bobby and I do an opening set and open the show together. And we have a very stripped-down version of my band up there to play the different instruments. In my opinion, we made it feel very intimate, and made it feel like we’re in the audience’s living room. We’re all just sitting around in a circle making music. We had captured that vibe on the record, and now we’re just trying to convey that in the concert setting.

AH: People don’t usually write or record in this way, these days, but when I hear the album, it sounds like these are songs that have been played on a street corner, or in a living room, by people who are just sitting together and playing because they want to play. They feel lived in.

KWS: Yes, I would agree with that. I think part of the reason for that is the way the songs were written. Every song started that way. It started with me and him just sitting in the room together, with a guitar, a harmonica, and microphone. That’s part of it, but the other part is that most people don’t make records like this anymore because everything is so planned out in advance. A lot of times when people make records, there’s somebody making demos on their laptop at home, and the demo actually ends up becoming a record. They start with an idea, build on that, e-mail it to people, and half the time, no one is playing the music in the same room together. But this album is two guys in a room together playing, and later on some other musicians.

That song “Young Fashioned Ways” is something that we really came up with on the spot! That’s one take, that’s it! That’s exactly how we played, with the guitar solo and anything. It just doesn’t get any more real than that.

AH: Something I was thinking about is how much sheer mileage the two of you have as live players, and that’s both of you. For Bobby, it must be almost like there’s no difference between him playing live and playing in a closed room. With you, the live side is so natural, so it seems like that barrier between a studio recording and a live performance must be very slim. So we get lived experience on this record.

KWS: We definitely make records so that we can play concerts, and I feel like that’s what we do best, the live performance. Most of our fans think that we sound better live than even on the records that we make, and that’s the goal. In today’s world, if you want to make a living through music, unless you’re a massive pop star, the way you’re going to be able to pay your bills and support your family is by playing concerts. I have tried to maintain who I am, and Bobby has certainly maintained who he is. That was the goal for this album, coming together and keeping who we are intact to make an album that’s new, and exciting, and elevates everything.

AH: I can tell from the way that you speak about him that you respect him a huge amount. Were you ever nervous about this, wondering how to approach things while making sure he was happy?

KWS: I wouldn’t say that I was concerned about it, but I was definitely aware of respecting him. I believe that he and I have a mutual respect for each other, and if you have mutual respect, there’s no friction. We both went into the studio, and into this endeavor with the idea that we wanted to challenge each other, musically, and push each other. We wanted to make something different that stands on its own. He exhibited a tremendous amount of faith and trust in me. We produced the record together, but I handled a lot of the production duties, and mixing and mastering it. A lot of times, he deferred to me, and was trusting me to make decisions, though I ran everything by him.

One of the things that’s so amazing about him is that, at his age, he doesn’t have to do anything that he doesn’t want to do. And what he wants to do, very clearly, is to continue to do new and different things, and to step outside the box. He doesn’t want to just be on autopilot. He wants to be the best version of himself that he can be, and that’s pretty inspirational to me.

AH: It’s pretty shocking as a decision that he’s making, in its own way. Everyone knows that a life in music is very hard and people don’t end up staying for years and years. But the fact that he has, and yet is still pushing himself creatively, really makes you reevaluate your assumptions. It makes you think, “Wow, music can be like that. It can be a force throughout your life.”

KWS: I just don’t know many people his age, if they are still doing it, who are like that. Or even with people decades younger than him, if you’ve put in a lot of years, you can just coast. They don’t really try anything different, and they don’t have to. But yet he wants to. It’s pretty impressive.

AH: I saw a quote from Bobby about this album, about how grateful he was that you wanted to work with him, because he wanted to do new things. It was such an emotional statement that made it clear: He’s bored and he wants to try something different. That is incredible, that life-long learning approach, like you’re never done learning.

KWS: Definitely.

AH: I think of your work as being very multi-genre. Your knowledge is really across the board. How do you feel about focusing just on blues sound for this album? Do you like switching it up like that?

KWS: Absolutely. I like doing things where I’m constantly switching things. I feel like that keeps it interesting for me, and it keeps it interesting for my fans. I think fans respect an artist who follows the inspiration wherever it might take them at that moment. Yes, I’m not just a blues player, I’m not just a rock player, I’m not just a guitar player. So I like to embrace that, and I like to show people that. But, throughout my career, a couple of different times I’ve done traditional blues projects. I did a blues cover album several years back, and was all traditional blues songs by artists who had influenced me growing up and learning how to play the guitar.

Even prior to that, we put out a documentary film and album combo that was called 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads, where we drove through the South. We loaded up two tour buses, and in one bus, we put recording gear and made it a mobile studio, and in the other one, we put a film crew. We went down through the South and met up with these incredible blues musicians, coming to them wherever they were in their own environments. We set up, on the spot, and made an album and a film of our experience doing that. Some people were household names, but there were also a lot of unsung heroes of the blues who never really broke into the mainstream, so it was a passion project for me, because of my love and appreciation for blues. blues is really what inspired me to pick up the guitar, and is the foundation of my sound.

Thanks very much for chatting with us, Kenny Wayne Shepherd!