Un-be-EFFIN-lievable: Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band - "I'm A King Bee" LIVE

[Amerigo Vespucci]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VCNV9c7Rnw

:toast:

[MilesColtrane]

1. Stratalicious!

[bluesbassman]

2. It all comes back to the Blues.

Glad "kids" like Kenny are keeping it going.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. A fellow guitarist went on a rant recently about the blues...

...how "that shit all sounds the same, it's boring."

The K.W.S. take on "King Bee" is a pure shot of testosterone / adrenaline...I've heard the song by Muddy Waters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2_zdgPYhJg&feature=related), the Rolling Stones (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcFKmMdbCss) and others and am very familiar with it.

But Shepherd and vocalist Noah Hunt seemed to say "You know what? Howzabout we just spank the everloving **** out of this one?"

And I hear a performance like that and it makes me want to get out the Les Paul and just start woodshedding.

I've probably heard more blues than the average music fan (except for blues scholars, most likely). And it doesn't matter. I hear the Shepherd track or Buddy's new album from last October, "Living Proof," and I get goosebumps all over again.

I played Savoy Brown's version of John Lee Hooker's "Don;t Turn Me From Your Door" earlier tonight. Guess what? GOOSEBUMPS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb5zHj86Tkk

It kills me that this friend of mine is a musician and has chosen to slam his mind shut on one of three uniquely "American" forms of music...Jazz and Country being the other two. If it weren't for the blues, there would have been no Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck...no Cream, no Yardbirds, no Jimi Hendrix...Buddy LOVES to tell the stories of a young Hendrix standing at the edge of the stage during his shows with a small movie camera, filming his "moves." My favorite Hendrix track of all time...Voodoo Chile...is nothing more than a high-voltage re-write of Muddy's "Rolling Stone."

Being a musician means embracing the music in your head and the music in your heart and no one else's opinion matters. There are people who "get" the blues, and there are people who will never "get" the blues.

Music should make people happy...that's a big incentive for being a musician, that our performances can bring joy to others...but there's a big difference between that and playing music "to please people." Whatever my level of talent is as a musician, I do consider myself to be humble and very appreciative if someone pays me a complement. But the way I please the people who hear me play...if I'm able to do that at all...is I please myself first, and let the chips fall where they may.

That's why Clapton bailed on the Yardbirds when they were poised to be HUGE and went to play with Mayall, who may be "the Godfather of British Blues" NOW, but in 1966...ESPECIALLY in the eyes of the American record-buying public...was a NOBODY outside of London's "blues underground."

Clapton didn't care. He was a musician. And Mayall's stock-in-trade was the music Clapton wanted...NEEDED...to play. Mayall hired musicians.

:toast:

[bluesbassman]

5. Great observations AV. I think it boils down to emotion.

Great music is emotional, and the Blues is among the most emotional IMO. The problem with most musicians who don't "get" the Blues is that they mistake quantity for quality.

[7wo7rees]

4. That's, like, my new Friday night anthem!

It makes me remember Belushi. That's a good thing.



What a happy blues song! Thank you AV!