First off,
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
was 33 years old at the release of this album, so he's not a kid playing hot guitar anymore, he's a grown man doing it. And he does play a hot lead guitar -- that, in a nutshell, is what he does. But over the years he's also learned that the
blues
isn't just about blazing lead licks, it's also about letting the song say its say -- and on
Live! In Chicago
he does that. This is a concert full of songs and not just a bunch of guitar leads broken up by someone singing for a bit.
Shepherd
is also fully aware of the history of the
and he honors some of his heroes here by playing with
legends like
Hubert Sumlin
,
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
Bryan Lee
and
Buddy Flett
and he doesn't step all over them with his guitar playing -- he supports them. The concert grew out of the tour
put together in support of
10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads
project, a DVD/CD documentary that featured
traveling around the country on a ten day trip interviewing and playing with icons from the
world, including the surviving members of
Muddy Waters
' and
Howlin' Wolf
's bands, making this show, recorded at the
House of Blues
in Chicago, a kind of culmination. It's all crisp and sharp, full of fine keyboard work by
Riley Osbourn
and, of course, stinging guitar from
, but there's a lot of love and respect here, too. This isn't just about the blues -- it's about living to play it. The whole disc is really of a piece, but among the highlights are a jaunty version of
B.B. King
's
"Sell My Monkey,"
the
ballad
"Deju Voodoo,"
and the scorching take on
Slim Harpo
"I'm a King Bee"
which closes things out. This isn't a live album from some teenaged savant -- it's an album from a grown man proud and honored to be playing the
with some of his heroes. It also rocks. ~ Steve Leggett