Cover photo © 2024 Laura Carbone

Shawn Kellerman is a man with serious respect for the blues. While a skilled, versatile guitar player and songwriter in his own right, Kellerman offers constant praise to the blues musicians who came before him and particularly the iconic frontmen who took him under their wing and trained him on the road.

Kellerman released Kell’s Kitchen (2024) on March 29, a significant return to the blues airways, and his first album since his 2009 release Blues Without a Home. He said the writing evolved since the last LP and he took over responsibilities on the production side giving him control and the ability to tweak the music when it didn’t sound just right. The album contained 12 originals and 2 covers, and Kellerman said he was proud to use more original material.

Following in the footsteps of his mentors Bobby Rush, Sherman Robertson, and Lucky Peterson, Kellerman does not play “straight blues” on Kell’s Kitchen. Kellerman said the record will not sound traditional but his roots– Mel Brown, Lucky Peterson, Albert King, Albert Collins– show through.

“You know, it’s still blues, like that’s the story of the song. Iit may be a little funky, but this is I’m a blues man,” Kellerman said. “I’m a blues guitar player. So there’s gonna be some different aspects on this record. It kind of goes a little rockier. There’s a soul groove.”

Kellerman said that Rush constantly tried a variety of styles but it was obvious that he was steeped in the blues – and even won 3 grammys for best blues album in recent years. Similarly, Kellerman said he hopes people enjoy the record and can hear that his roots are blues.

Starting in his teenage years with Mel Brown, Kellerman has almost constantly been on the road touring with a variety of blues bands for 30 years.

With so many years on the road, burnout seems only understandable. After a long 19 year stint, Kellerman took a small break, changing his mindset to allow himself to rest and gain energy. The joy of performing, however, has always propelled him.

“Because people love music. So it’s it when you do that that’s the joy. It’s a part of me. It is hard work and you just have to balance it – it’s all in moderation,” Kellerman said. “It’s hard but it’s rewarding. It’s fun because you’re pouring your heart out.”

For Kellerman, playing the blues onstage serves as an emotional release. Over the years, his love for the music and playing live has not subsided.

“It’s great to get up here. Play these grooves, sweat it all out. And because you’re improvising solos, it’s like you’re talking right? So you’re like getting your feelings out,” Kellerman said. “And it’s like, it’s so satisfying, right? So you just seem to do that and you get all your emotions out on stage. That’s how it is for me, so it’s very emotional. So after all these years I still love doing it.”

During his lifetime of touring, Kellerman has played in 46 countries. He appreciates how the music is received in different ways in Morocco and Central Europe and Russia. Kellerman’s band played with a Gnawa band in Africa who utilized a two chord sequence, percussion, and a singer who Kellerman said sounded like Donny Hathaway.

Kellerman said he is impressed that blues has endured outside of North America, it’s source, after so many years. While France largely became introduced to blues in the 1960’s, the fans still appreciate the music today.

Repeatedly, Kellerman attributes the blues player he is today to the band leaders that brought him on the road. Of immediate and early impact was Mel Brown – Kellerman joined Brown’s band as a teenager. Kellerman said that playing with someone of Brown’s caliber two to three times a week demanded excellence and that even after becoming a professional and leading his own groups, when he would return to play with Brown, it was a “super humbling experience.”

Bobby Rush and Lucky Peterson were no less talented or influential to Kellerman. All 3 humbled and inspired a young Kellerman.

“One thing about all these guys, their internal rhythm just exuded out of them. It’s just like, when you’re in their presence, it’s like some sort of perfection. So when you’re playing with them, their precision and time (exceeds) and you just want to feel that. You want to feel what’s coming off of them. When you’re jamming with them you want to try and be that good. It’s like, I gotta be better. I gotta be better. I have to try and be as proficient and as good as these people. It was just always, always a very humbling experience.”

With experience as a band member and a leader, Kellerman enjoys both roles, seeing advantages and drawbacks with both. As a front man, there is more pressure and anxiety on one side, Kellerman said, but on the other he enjoys being in touch with the community and interacting with the audience.

At 21, Otis Clay (another blues influence) told Kellerman he needed to learn from a strong leader like himself or Bobby Rush. Kellerman accepted the advice, playing with a collection of high powered bluesmen, including Bobby Rush, who he described as “definitely in control.”

Kellerman, capable of leading, learned how to shut it off – to “keep my mouth shut and do my job” to collaborate with others in a way he said a lot of musicians are unable to do.

Before touring the world, and before even gigging in his native Canada, Kellerman fell in love with the blues through his father’s record collection, which included 60’s rock, jazz, and blues. Freddie King, Luther Alison, and Johnny Winter were early favorites.

In the 70’s, Kellerman relished listening to Albert Collins and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown on Alligator records. As he said, it was the “music story book” of his childhood.

Kellerman’s strong relationship with his father had a deep basis in music and some of Shawn’s fondest memories were going to blues concerts in Toronto seeing names like Muddy Waters, and even once a triple bill of Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins.

Together, the father and son pair traveled to American music hubs like Memphis, Austin, and New Orleans. Blues cassettes were an integral part of road trips. On top of this, Kellerman’s father played piano as a weekend musician, and let a young Kellerman, at just 16 start to play guitar in Toronto clubs. The family was full of music indeed– even Kellerman’s stepmother sang in the clubs with them.

Kellerman’s father invited blues legends – like Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Jimmy Johnson – to come by the family’s home in Toronto when they toured Canada for a meal or to hang out. From their presence, Kellerman emerged humbled and inspired. The young guitarist even received lessons from the musicians.

“Jimmy Johnson really kind of gave me a real heads up and guitar lesson. Like you’re not doing it right,” Kellerman said. “He really showed me how to do it. It was cool to meet all these guys that were on the road from Chicago, Mississippi, Austin.”

While his guitar playing style has changed over the years (and he has memorized both the Little Walter and Tiny Grimes catalogs), a hard work ethic has remained consistent. A 1995 Freddie King video instilled a desire to give 100% to every performance.

“It was mind blowing. And I’m like, I will never give up on stage ever. Like it’s always give 100%,” Kellerman said. “And then being with Lucky Peterson.. your first note had to start at 150%. It was just right from beat one. Give it your all and no matter how you feel that day. When you hit the stage, there’s no excuses.”

For each of his major influences, Kellerman owns a guitar, in a large collection. Among the axes are a Telecaster for Albert Collins, a Flying V for Albert King, an Epiphone hollow body for Mel Brown, Little Milton, and B.B. King, a custom guitar from Nick Page, a Supro slide guitar from the 50’s, a vintage Gibson Melody Maker, and a Firebird.

On a road tour, Kellerman takes a minimum of 5 guitars, carefully picked for specific sounds.

“I just have a bunch of guitars and it’s fun. I love the different sounds. It’s weird because I get so connected to it,” Kellerman said. “It’s like if I don’t have the right sound I just can’t make my fingers function and that’s the wrong way, definitely the wrong way to think about it.”

In terms of his song-writing process, Kellerman said he typically starts with a melody or rhythm and later creates lyrics as he realizes what he wants to write about. “SKB” (Shawn Kellerman Band), the first track on the new album started out as a fun party song but grew to reflect on life on the road and the blues scene around the world.

Although he plays the blues, Kellerman (“a white guy from Canada”), has no misconceptions about living the blues, or the importance the Blues had for musicians experiencing systemic racism throughout the U.S. He said he also learned a lot by talking to the Black musicians who visited Toronto and who mentored him.

“It wasn’t just music for them. It was their life. And so I just feel connected to it. I’m gonna be honest, I feel connected to it musically, but I’ve respected the heritage of it. I have the utmost respect,” Kellerman said. “I will definitely get off stage if some someone else more deserving because of their own life experience (asks). I would hand it over to them in a second. But I appreciate the opportunity to play the music.”

Kellerman also said his father instilled a compassion in him in how to treat other people and cultures. Playing with Bobby Rush, Kellerman said he learned about life in the American South – Rush grew up in Louisiana and Arkansas in the 30’s and 40’s.

“It isn’t going to, obviously, not going to relate to me. So the way I relate to it is a little more musically,” Kellerman said. “ It’s obviously not my life, but I’ve tried to respect it as much as I can through how my dad taught me to treat other people.”

As the Blues strays from its roots – of the Mississippi Delta, Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, Piedmont, etc. – of an earlier time, Kellerman said he is unsure of where the genre is headed. For Kellerman, the power of the blues is to transform suffering and negative experiences into something joyful.

“They kind of blended all this negativity with positivity. You can feel the pain but it’s positive. It’s like, ‘wow, it’s so soulful. But I feel great at the end,’” Kellerman said. So they’ve taken this heartbreak and these life tragedies, even in the 30s and 40s. Then when it got to the more electric shows, it just seemed like we’re gonna try and get people dancing. I got a little bit of tragedy, but I’m trying to make a positive thing out of it.”

Kellerman said that some of the soul and feeling is being lost, unfortunately.

“So I hope to hopefully, like, maintain some of that,” Kellerman said. “Like, make sure there’s a lot of soul in it. Hopefully people come away with a positive feeling at the end.”

With lots of material built up over his years of touring, Kellerman plans to release another new full length album within a year.

Additionally, Kellerman said he wants to work with Eric Schenkman, the Spin Doctors guitarist on a recording project.

After working as a band member for Lucky Peterson for 8 years prior to COVID, Kellerman aims to build back his own name and tour extensively on Kell’s Kitchen.

To see his touring schedule and find a show near you, visit Shawn’s website at https://shawnkellerman.com/