Kenny Wayne Shepherd – Ledbetter Heights – The 30th Anniversary Sessions
RAM Records – 2026
12 tracks; 65 minutes
It is thirty years since Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s debut album Ledbetter Heights, named after an African-American district of Kenny’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. Here he commemorates that debut by revisiting the record with his current band. The twelve tracks are identical and in the same order as in 1995, the overall playing time a few minutes longer, but it is best to judge this record on its own merits rather than carry out a comparison with the original; after all, apart from KWS himself, the personnel is entirely different; Kenny plays all the guitar parts and shares the vocals with Noah Hunt, keys come from Joe Krown or Reese Wynans, Kevin McCormick is on bass and Chris ‘Whipper’ Layton on drums. Kenny wrote eight of the twelve tunes, with several different collaborators.
“Born With A Broken Heart” is a solid blues-rocker with some references back to SRV, no doubt helped by the presence of two of Stevie’s one-time bandmates. The quiet keyboard opening of “Deja Voodoo” gives way to Kenny’s complex lead interventions, no surprise that this one is still in the band’s live set thirty years on! The band’s interpretation of Bukka White’s “Aberdeen” was always a personal favourite from the original album and it is good to hear that the band has retained the acoustic slide intro, complete with slightly distorted vocals to imitate a 78 original, before the band powers in after a minute or so to amp up the number in convincing style. “Shame, Shame, Shame” sounds like it should have been drawn from a 50’s bluesman but was in fact written by Kenny and his original rhythm guitarist, Joe Nadeau, as were two other tracks on this album; Kenny’s guitar work on this one is dazzling while the rhythm section is rock solid in support.
The jagged rhythms of “One Foot On The Path” find the protagonist unsure how the relationship will last as he is half way out the door while “Everybody Gets The Blues” takes us down to New Orleans with funky rhythms and strong piano work. The half way point on Ledbetter Heights is again marked by an instrumental entitled “While We Cry” which, as on the original album, is marked as a live performance and some audience noise can be heard in the background. This new version is two minutes longer than in 1995, but it is equally good, the gentle, Hendrix-influenced opening section building into a striking guitar feature, the keys in warm support throughout. Kenny presumably learned “I’m Leaving You (Commit A Crime)” from SRV’s version, where it was incorrectly credited to Howling Wolf when it was, in fact, a James Oden tune. Leaving all that aside, it’s a great version, Noah Hunt’s vocals particularly good.
“Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)” is a short snatch of rock and roll with pounding piano and “Riverside” is a Kevin Bowe song that evokes the Mississippi in a moody setting with Kenny on both resonator and electric guitars. “What’s Going Down” ups the pace a little, another great vocal from Noah as he asks: “Have you looked around my friend and really seen what’s goin’ down, take a look into the sky and lay your hand down upon the ground”. The title cut, “Ledbetter Heights”, is a fast-paced instrumental that closes the album with more evidence of KWS’s ability on the guitar, expertly driven by Chris’s strong drum patterns.
The original album was a remarkable debut by an eighteen year-old unknown; the anniversary edition shows exactly why there was such a buzz about KWS thirty years ago and why he remains at the top of the Blues-Rock world.
