Straight to You - LIVE

The calls have been coming for a long time explains Kenny Wayne Shepherd.  "People have been asking us to do a live concert video forever, for decades," he explains. "We've been working so much focussing on studio recordings. But I've been hearing the call from the fans for many years now," and, as live music has come to a standstill, the band wanted to give the fans a taste once again of that experience and this blistering set shows them in full force.

 

Tracks

WIth Straight To You - LIVE you get to watch the band in its full glory as well as listen. In the last 10 years the multi-platinum selling Shepherd has gone from strength to strength, winning countless awards, releasing four studio albums and touring the world over several times - from Brazil to Europe, India to Canada and US to Australia and beyond. 

The seven-piece band took the stage and immediately launched into their most-recent hit-single 'Woman Like You,' with the honey-soaked powerhouse voice of Noah Hunt blasting "I ain't looking for a one time girl" backed by the fiery fretwork of Shepherd. It's the first of four songs taken from the latest studio album, "'Woman Like You' is the perfect opening song for the show,“ Shepherd says. “You come out swinging, it sets the mood for the entire show. It's like, we're there to rock, and we mean business." 

"The whole intention of this set-list is that we come out with a lot of energy, get the crowd pumped up. We want to get them energised right off the bat." It slips into the soul-drenched blues of 'Long Time Running,' with Chris Layton's drums firing through the building horn section as Hunt and Shepherd lock-in on duel vocals, whilst blue and yellow lights spray the stage, catapulting you right to the front row of the audience. 

Talking about not being able to play live during the Covid19 pandemic he says; "I miss it. Live concert performances are the essence of what we do best. So, not having that in our life is yeah, this has been an eye-opening experience I think for all musicians. It's been a personal loss for every performer out there who does what we do. A lot of our lives have been spent pouring our heart and soul into that."

The release of 'Straight To You: Live' comes during a time when there is no live music and the world looks a very different place to 12 months previously, and as the seven-piece Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band bow out on a phenomenal finale of Jimi Hendrix's 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return),' they wave goodbye to the cheering Leverkusen crowd and it reignites that love of live music and the hope that is to come.