Following on from last year’s Dirt On My Diamonds Vol 1, Kenny Wayne Shepherd delivers on the promise of Vol 2. I said of that last album, “This is a blues album of sheer quality from first note to last and is up there with his brilliant 2011 album, How I Go for well-balanced high-quality playing and singing with his original interpretation of this wonderful genre.” Many of the songs were written around the same time as Vol 1 and so compliment that album very well indeed. The format is similar too – seven new and one cover version make up the thirty-one minute running time.
It opens with the rocky and horny ‘I Got A Woman’ with some nifty lyrical wordsmithery and a beautifully played, structured solo. ‘The Middle’ is next and it contains one of the best (too short) wah-wah solos on record….say no more! The ballad that is ‘My Guitar is Crying’ has a slow jazz feel, with a coned trumpet adding depth to the background before KWS delivers another short guitar solo full of passion.
‘Long Way Down’ is heavy blues of the highest order and has horns and even a potential sing-a-long section. ‘Watch You Go’ is my current favourite with its heavy rolling blues riff and some great keyboard and horn backing that brings in blues tropes, reworks them and sounds (and is) brand new. The cover closing the album is a reworking of ZZ Top’s ’She Loves My Automobile’ where Kenny keeps faithful but adds a joyous keyboard and horn section ‘battle’ and a fabulous guitar solo.
This is a fun-filled exquisitely played set that cements KWS’s reputation as a songwriter that plays a mean guitar and never fails to entertain.
Dirt On My Diamonds Volume 2 is out now!
