Straight To You: Live 2LP (Color)

It has been a decade since the Grammy-nominated ‘Live in Chicago’ captured the ferocity of Kenny Wayne Shepherd and his band’s live performance. Since then the multi-platinum selling Shepherd has gone from strength to strength, releasing four studio albums and touring the world over several times - from Brazil to Europe, India to Canada and US to Australia and beyond. Now, The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band will be releasing their first live album in 10 years, ‘Straight To You: Live’.

The band was only a couple of weeks into ‘The Traveler World Tour’ when the Covid-19 pandemic broke, and the world came to a standstill. The show took place at the famous Leverkusen Jazzstage for the iconic German TV show, Rockpalast on November 25th, 2019. ‘The Traveler’ was released in May last year, giving the band their 8th US Billboard Blues #1 album, when they hit the road. “People have been asking us to do a live DVD forever,” explains Shepherd. “We’ve been focusing so much on studio recordings, but I’ve been hearing the call from the fans for many years now.” As live music has come to a standstill, the band wanted to give the fans a taste once again for that experience and this blistering set shows them in full force.

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. Taken from ‘The Traveler,’ it’s the first of four songs 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 setlist 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.

The release of ‘Straight To You: Live’ comes during a time when there is no live music and the world looks like a very different place compared to a year prior. 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.