Whenever our website comes across to one of those very rare and special records to be reviewed, featuring two masters of Blues-Rock and Blues respectively, like Guitar Maestro and singer-songwriter Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Harmonica Supremo and singer-songwriter Bobby Rush who, in their own rights, are considered undisputed masters of said genres, the trepidation and the excitement of getting to hear and write about such a special record goes two notches up, given the worldwide stature of the two American artists.
When the multi-Grammy Awards winner Bobby Rush and Grammy-nominated and multi-Billboard Music Awards winner Kenny Wayne Shepherd met back few years ago, the two artists clicked immediately, artistically speaking, despite the considerable age difference (Rush is 91, while Shepherd will be 48 later this year), because they felt they were speaking an identical music language.
After their initial meeting, it didn't take very long for Rush and Shepherd, when bumping into each other once again at the Backroads Blues Festival, to look at each other and agreeing, almost in unison, to make a record together as soon as their artistic schedules would allow that.
When in December 2023 Shepherd and Rush finally managed to clean their working diaries and get together at the Royal Studios in Memphis, they had no idea of what would then appear on the album's tracklist, because all that they had previously agreed for the record, it was only that it should reflect fundamentally the spontaneous combustion of their respective talents and creativity.
To Shepherd’s enormous surprise, Rush showed up in the studio with a full-to-the-brim satchel of lyrics, which, according to Shepherd, it would have been enough to record something like 10 records.
When Shepherd and Rush started recording, it felt very clear that the bond between both artists was so massive and instinctively powerful, as proven by the fabulous interplay between Rush and Shepherd present in the 10 songs included in the record, which both artists decided to call Young Fashioned Ways, taking perhaps the nod either from a Muddy Water classic or from one of the album's songs (Young Ways).
Young Fashioned Ways is, in many respects, a true Modern Time Masterpiece. The way in which both Shepherd and Rush were able to build such an impressive sonic bridge between the sound of the Blues of the plantations and the juke joints with a more contemporary one, with an effortless and natural flow, is incredibly effective and highly well executed from both artists. On one end, the listener can easily perceive, on many of the songs, a highly well executed old school type of Blues, performed in a semi-acoustic key and often delivered with the sole use of acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocals, while on the other end, some of the songs would follow a more contemporary sonic standard approach, which would incorporate Horn and Rhythm Sections, creating in this way a perfect balance between the tradition and history of the genre with a more modern one.
Curiously, while Shepherd has proven in many occasions to be an excellent singer, together with being the Guitar Maestro universally known he clearly is and a well accomplished songwriter, all the songs featured on the record have got Bobby Rush on vocal duties, something that, very likely, might have been as well another choice made right from the start from the two American music giants.
Rush is absolutely impeccable, vocally and on Harmonica on each of Young Fashioned Ways' numbers; together with new versions of four songs previously released and part of Rush's rich songbook, like 40 Acres (How Long), Uncle Esau, G String and Make Love To You, all delivered with such deep, powerful and impressive vocal strength, the Jackson, Mississippi-based artist shows to be still an unstoppable force of nature throughout the whole record, where nobody better than this formidable "young" 91-years-old could have been able to bring back the vibes and the mood of Original Blues in such incredible fashion, through Rush’s vocals and Harmonica sound.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who has grown up on bread and Blues as a young kid and loved the Blues all his life, knew exactly what was needed out of his enormous and multi-faceted talent to make Young Fashioned Ways sound so vibrant and exciting at the same time, by measuring to perfection the amount of guitar playing needed on each of the album's tracks, either on acoustic or electric, stylizing each track with effortless class and effervescent creativity. When someone like Shepherd receives the blessings of giants of Blues like James Brown and B.B. King at such an early stage of his career, there is no wonder why the Nashville-based guitarist and singer-songwriter was able to know so perfectly what was requested to deliver an album of this stature, a mission that he, like Rush, accomplished at the highest possible level.
Young Fashioned Ways is a record that should deservedly seat in every respectable music lover's CD rack, because it encapsules to perfection the essence of the Blues from its early days to current times. To our website, Rush and Shepherd’s extraordinary joint effort represents not only one of the best Blues records of the last two decades but also and hopefully, a well deserved chance to be a candidate to next year's Grammy Awards as best Blues Album of 2025. A truly remarkable, epic record.
Young Fashioned Ways is due to be released on March 21st and it is available to be purchased on both Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Official Website and Bobby Rush's Official Website
