Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne – Ooh Yeah!
Stony Plain Records
https://stonyplainrecords.com/
12 tracks
Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne celebrates his storied career with a great new release featuring all original songs. Eleven are brand new and pone is the new reworking of one of his prior songs. He delivers soulful, funky stuff while mixing boogie woogie, rock, country, gospel and sounds of the Crescent City into his blues. He’s assembled a great supporting cast on this album and it’s a wonderful musical ride. The songs vary from personal, intimate reflections to social commentary. There is something for everyone on this super album.
Kenny handles piano, keys and lead vocals. Drums are shared by Joey DiMarco, Bucky Burger, Ian McKeown, and Adam Warner. Bass duties are also shared; Nick Succi, James Rasmussen, and Jimmy Bowskill, who also adds some strings, guitar and banjo, are the bassists. James Anthony plays guitar. The Canadian horn section are Kaven Jalbert on tenor sax, Remi Cormie on trumpet and Mathieu Mousseau on baritone sax. Salena adds vocals and backing vocals.
Kenny begins with the title track, a jumping boogie woogie with a great stride and slick call and response. It gets the blood moving well as he and his cohorts lay out a wicked pace on this nice original track. He moves down home with some cool banjo support on “Whatcha Gonna Do Now?,” a commentary on how we’ve destroyed our planet. “Baby I’m Your Man” follows, the first appearance of the horn section as Wayne lays out a NOLA style tune for us as he swears allegiance to his woman. His piano work is well done and the musical support is excellent.
Up next is a NOLA inspired instrumental entitled “Sailing With The Sunset.” Piano with a fun percussion groove make this a lot of fun. “My Point Of View” follows, a song about working together to achieve solutions to problems. A little funky, a cool groove and more slick percussion along with a vibrant electric guitar solo and accompaniment help to sell this one. “Try It Out” is what Kenny calls country funk. He uses the banjo, a driving beat, his piano, horns and hand claps to make this both vibrant and unique.
“Wishing Well” is a rearranged and updated version of one of his older songs. A funky and soulful groove help this to flow along with some great guitar. Wayne and company rock out on “Honey Honey Honey” where the piano boogie is outstanding and the horns and guitar help deliver the goods. “Blacklist” is a song about a well-remembered list of relationship issues that destroyed a fictitious relationship. The keys are soulful, the vocals are sublime as Wayne sings of the woman who has spurned him.
Kenny’s wife Karen was placed in a facility to take care of her old age needs and he dedicates “I Wish Things We Different” to her. He sings of how he wishes that life had turned out differently from the sucker punch life dealt them. It’s a pretty and somber cut. Wayne delivers some exceptional southern soul on “It’s Pounding Down.” The rain coming down conjures up feelings of loneliness nd being separated from the one he loves. Another pretty and emotional piece. He concludes with “That Crazy Monkey,” a song celebrating his birth in the Chinese Zodiac year of the Monkey and how the old monkey tries to prove he could do what he used to do when he was young. His two monkey go and watch the old monkey make a fool of himself; luckily he survives.
Wayne delivers a dozen great originals here in his inimitable style. He varies and blends genres as he demonstrates the the skills that earned him many an award in his legendary career. It’s a great set of tunes delivered only as this master can. I loved the album and recommend it to all blues lovers!
