During the early ‘70s, Chess Records hatched a plan whereby some of the label’s legacy artists (Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry) would be taken into the studio to re-record some of their old hits, backed by British rock and blues players (Steve Winwood, Rory Gallager, Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr). The thinking was that the grand old men, who weren’t moving many units at that point, would benefit from the presence of the youngsters and the fact that the blues were revered in Britain at that point in time. The series was christened The London Sessions, and most of the albums sold well.
A similar formula is at work on the recent release Young Fashioned Ways (the title taken from a Muddy Waters song), which unites (relative) youngster Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who is 47, and (definite) oldster Bobby Rush, who is 91. The duo will perform on Sunday, May 4, at the House of Blues.
Shepherd and Rush are both bona-fide blues heavyweights. Shepherd signed his first major-label recording contract when he was just 13 years old and since then has consistently reinforced his position as a virtuoso guitarist while earning five Grammy nominations. Rush has been recording since the late ‘60s, winning a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album three times, beginning in 2017 with Porcupine Meat.
Though there are some general similarities, it should be noted that the Shepherd-Rush collaboration came about in a much more natural and organic fashion than did the London Sessions records. “We had met before,” Shepherd says via Zoom. “And I obviously had been aware of his music for some time, because he’s been doing it longer than I’ve been alive. I’m a big blues fan, and he’s one of the originators. He’s one of the guys who helped mold the genre that inspired me to make the music that I make. And he’s from Louisiana. He grew up in the same part of [northern] Louisiana that I came from and my dad came from.”
Shepherd and Rush played together for the first time at the Backroads Blues Festival, a traveling show mounted by Shepherd which brings together blues artists of all stripes. “I like to have an artist come up and join me and my band, and so a couple of years ago, we asked Bobby to come and be our special guest,” Shepherd explains. “I had never played with him up to that point. I had seen him play, but we never played together.
“He walked on stage and blew everybody away. It was immediately apparent that we had some chemistry playing together. And chemistry is something that you can’t fake. You can’t manufacture it. It’s one of those things where it either exists or it doesn’t. So after we got done with the show, I walked up to him and said, ‘Dude, I think we need to make a record together.’ And he said, ‘I was thinking the same thing.’”
Shepherd and Rush produced the album themselves, and Shepherd says that he approached the project with the aim of creating a true collaboration while making sure that both he and Rush could still perform naturally. “The most important thing is that we maintain each other’s integrity. Because he’s worked his whole life to build his career and his reputation. So who am I to try and change that?
“And I think the same for myself. How do I make sure that I’m Kenny Wayne Shepherd but make sure that what I’m doing complements Bobby Rush as well? It was about Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Bobby Rush coming together and making an incredible blues record in the traditional vein, with some modern touches,” Shepherd says.
“It’s about communicating on a level that has nothing to do with age, has nothing to do with race. It has nothing to do with whether you’re a man or a woman. We’re communicating on a level outside of all of that.”
Young Fashioned Ways features a mix of songs that Shepherd and Rush composed together and some blues covers. The material is raw and genuine, so it comes as no surprise that the album’s production was largely traditional, harkening back to the great blues records of the past.
“We just did it the old-fashioned way. I wanted it to be as real as possible,” Shepherd says. “So that meant that we didn’t use any tricks in the computer. I didn’t tune a single vocal that he sang. Every single note that you hear him sing is exactly the way he sang it. Basically, we made a blues record the way blues records are supposed to be made.”
The fact that there is a 44-year age gap between Shepherd and Rush may make for a convenient PR hook, but Shepherd thinks that there is more to the collaboration than that. “I think that the story is, possibly, that we’re so many decades apart and so many generations apart, but at the end of the day, it’s a lesson about music,” Shepherd says.
“I’ve encountered this my whole life. I was a kid wanting to play blues music with people much older than me. And often times I got met with resistance or judgment, like, ‘What does this kid know about the blues?’ But if they just gave me a shot to play, the moment that you start playing music together, they know. And then it was like, ‘Oh, this kid’s the real deal.’ And it doesn’t matter at that point how old you are or where you come from or whatever. It’s about communicating on a level that has nothing to do with age, has nothing to do with race. It has nothing to do with whether you’re a man or a woman. We’re communicating on a level outside of all of that. And this album is just another perfect example.”
Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Bobby Rush will perform on Sunday, May 4, 8 p.m., at the House of Blues, 1204 Caroline. For more information, call 888-402-5837 or visit houseofblues.com. $35 – $99.50.
For more information on Kenny Wayne Shepherd, visit kennywayneshepherd.net.
For more information on Bobby Rush, visit bobbyrushbluesman.com.
