cerumen Posted December 14, 2001 Share Posted December 14, 2001 I gotta ask this question, just out of curiosity... I was a big SRV fan and when this Shephard kid came out I was excited...After buying the first album and hearing the SRV cloning, I couldn't stand this kid anymore... I read somewhere he does everything SRV did-same amps,tuning, etc. This kid gets a lot of praise..So my question is, for you 'modern' blues fans, is this kid the real thing or too much of a copy cat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve LeBlanc Posted December 14, 2001 Share Posted December 14, 2001 He's just lame. http://www.youtube.com/notesleb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted December 14, 2001 Share Posted December 14, 2001 BULL The kid plays great, has an excellent band and is more Rocky than SRV. That he was influenced by him is no bad thang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippie Posted December 14, 2001 Share Posted December 14, 2001 yea, he's great for how young he is... He was on a TV concert a couple of weeks ago with Willie Nelson, yaaawwwn. :0 In two days, it won't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Posted December 18, 2001 Share Posted December 18, 2001 KWS is for real. Yes, he definitely does have some heavy SRV influence, but over the last few years, he's been developing his own voice as a player. If he plays your town, check him out and you'll see for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve LeBlanc Posted December 18, 2001 Share Posted December 18, 2001 OK, I'll have to take your word for it until I get a chance to see him again....he was lame when I saw him a few years back. http://www.youtube.com/notesleb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mplspaul Posted December 18, 2001 Share Posted December 18, 2001 From what I've seen, he hasn't grown into a player yet. Still just a show boat. Kind of like that kid in Nickel Creek, Sean Watkins. On the other hand, Chris Thile, the mando player in Nickel Creek is oozing talent and KWS' fellow boy wonder, Jonny Lang, is developing some taste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Thorne Posted December 19, 2001 Share Posted December 19, 2001 "Jonny Lang, is developing some taste..." I think so, too. At first I hated both Lang and KWS equally, though I thought Kenny Wayne was way more over the top with his SRV rip-off. But they're both young - I'll give 'em 10 years or so to develop... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chip McDonald Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 He does the SRV thing well. Some of his songs are undoubtably in the "blatant rip off" category. He makes the right faces and has the right promoter behind him. He gets good sounds. His drummer is tremendous. He may or may not be able to do "something else", I dunno. I can't blame him for riding that boat as far as it will take him. More power to him, I wish I had that opportunity. At least he's playing guitar and not kazoo, or something requiring Autotune. I wish he'd do something more like his hit single (whatever it was called); at first I thought "hey, he's going to do a sort of grunge-blues trip", something I've been wanting to do for awhile... thankfully for me I suppose he didn't (doesn't help me, though), but he should. I would. Oh well. Guitar Lessons in Augusta Georgia: www.chipmcdonald.com Eccentric blog: https://chipmcdonaldblog.blogspot.com/ / "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strat0124 Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 Yeah he's good, but he's young. You can tell cause he plays every lick he knows in the first thirty seconds. Not a jab....cause its a maturity thing. Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XNU8D Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 I remember watching one of those shows on VH-1 about Stevie, and I believe it was George Benson who said, "There will be a lot of frustrated guitarist trying to figure out what Stevie was doing." These kids problem to me is they're are full of technique, just missing the emotion. Who knows maybe, it'll come to them, but I have my doubts. Who keeps moving my chair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alleecat_dup1 Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 KWS needs some heart and soul. Saw him on G3 tour a couple years ago, he has the the chops but no vibe! Even my wife could pick out the SRV licks in his solo's. Not just the sound, but cloned phrases. Wanting to sound like your hero's is O.K., but one shouldn't let it be a trap.He can do the SRV "thing", now he should do his "own" thing. He should take a que from Johnny Lang, now that boy has got the mojo.By the way, having KWS on the G3 tour made no sense, he was way out of his league.Stevie Vai and Joe Satrini are GODS, KWS keep praticing!!! alleecat :] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 Originally posted by Hippie: yea, he's great for how young he is... He was on a TV concert a couple of weeks ago with Willie Nelson, yaaawwwn. :0 Geesh, who HASN'T played with Willie Nelson? Just for a laugh, a few years ago our bass player wrote and recorded this song where he impersonates Willie Nelson to a T and rattles off every artist that has done a duet with him. The song is like 10 minutes long already and that was a few years ago - now it'd be even longer! LOL... As for KWS... not really my bag. I agree he's got the chops but not really the emotion. But, I'm still glad he's out there doing his thang - like Chip says, nice to see a young guy that's playing guitar and doesn't need to be autotuned. Ya never know what he'll be like in a few years... --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 What a bunch of sanctimonious crap! If KWS was 40 you'd all love him. He is no younger than Clapton or Page or Hendrix or many other great guitarist were when they recorded. His age is not an issue. You may choose to make it one but it only shows your ignorence. I've seen him several times and he plays his ass off, from the heart. To claim he has no passion is bullshit! He hasn't matured enough?? Who the hell is posting this crap???? I find few that play as well at twice his age. The Blues world is over run with mediocre players of dubious talent, other than the fact that "they are old and have lived life man". So a younger cat blazes on the scene and gets hit with this age crap? I'm near 50 years old and have played forever. This kid is real. I for one am glad to hear him, and applaud his talent. Damn few seem to even want to play at that level anymore. I wish there were more like him. SRV was a clone off Albert King and Hendrix yet he made it work and took it further. KWS as I understand it was personaly introduced to this stuff from SRV himself. So why shouldn't he carry one?? Who better. I think it is beautiful. I sure can hear the difference between them. KWS sounds like KWS to me and SRV sounds like SRV. Same with Trower and Hendrix. Only a mutant couldn't tell them apart yet I hear the same thing about Trower. Sounds like so much sour grapes from wannabee hasbeens to me. Why is this so funny: How many guitarist does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Ten. One to actually do it and 9 to comment on how it should be done or could be done better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 Geez Al - if KWS was 40 I wouldn't like him any better. The only reason I mention his age is because he still has a chance to GET better, whereas if he were 40, the chances of that would be much less. I agree, there are a ton of mediocre players in the blues world nowadays and I don't like any of them any better than KWS. Trust me, I'd LOVE to see some young talent really play the blues - IMO, KWS just ain't what I'd like to see. If you're a fan that's cool, but some people are not, and it has nothing to do with the fact that he's young. --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve LeBlanc Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 What a bunch of sanctimonious crap! If KWS was 40 you'd all love him. He is no younger than Clapton or Page or Hendrix or many other great guitarist were when they recorded. Dude, Al, you are out of line man...seriously...you may be 50 but that doesn't give you the right to slam me or anyone else for our opinions. I don't care what age KWS is...I've seen him play and was bored out of my mind...I wanted to like him, I bought a ticket to his show, I don't pay to see people I don't want to like. HE WAS LAME in my opinion... You don't have to agree with me, I don't even expect you to but I'm highly insulted by the comments you've made that assume I judge musicianship based on age/experience. I didn't slam you for saying you like KWS, don't slam me for saying I don't. [ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: Steve LeBlanc ] http://www.youtube.com/notesleb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmd Posted December 22, 2001 Share Posted December 22, 2001 I'll have to agree with Steve Leblanc here. I've seen Kenny Wayne and Johnny Lang and they're both LAME. Lang is the worst of the two. He is EMBARRASING to watch. Making the same phoney facial expressions and playing the same stolen licks as many others before him. I think Stevie Ray added something new to the tired blues cliches, but even he wasn't very original. Both Lang and Shepard make more in a year than the originators like Freddie King made their whole lives. As for Eric Clapton, maybe he should pay Freddie King's family some of the hundreds of millions of dollars he has made imitating Freddie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanner Posted December 22, 2001 Share Posted December 22, 2001 god 'gmd' i totally concur-and yer from texas? that means even more to me that you see thru the mega BS that has been heaped on the populace over these poseurs. i feel bad for people that cant discern the difference between real and fake-but as 'pt barnum' said so eloquently-(paraphrase)"suckas bone evry minit" s AMPSSOUNDBETTERLOUDER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mplspaul Posted December 22, 2001 Share Posted December 22, 2001 Ah, what's a white boy to do? White jazz and blues players are always looking to black players (say, Freddie King for instance) for the real, authentic, soulful thing. And then those same white players end up complaining because they can't get the same respect as their black forerunners or contemporaries because they (the white players) are perceived to be poseurs, lacking in soul, etc. God, it must suck to be white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chip McDonald Posted December 22, 2001 Share Posted December 22, 2001 Originally posted by Big Al: What a bunch of sanctimonious crap! Nope. If KWS was 40 you'd all love him. He is no younger than Clapton or Page or Hendrix or many other great guitarist were when they recorded. When he started out he was, but that's not the point. His age is not an issue. You may choose to make it one but it only shows your ignorence. I agree his age is not an issue, that's the point. If he WAS 40, what would the big deal be? Because there's plenty of guys that do his trip just as well and better: Chris Duarte, Doyle Bramhall, for example. There's plenty of guys that ARE doing blues in an original way, like David Grissom. As far as the SRV thing goes, there's an SRV clone in my town that does the same thing, and it's not like it's *that* big of a deal to play like that. Ever heard of Eric Gales? Gales at 19 was a lot hotter than KWS is now IMO: where is he now? The point is "what is his motivation?". I suspect he started out as an SRV fan, that mutated into other things - but with his father's guidance he realizes where his bread and butter is, and is taking advantage of it professionally. He's good at doing what he does, but don't put him on a pedestal as a vaunted talent - he may turn into that, but I don't think he's in the running anymore than anyone else particularly. Guitar Lessons in Augusta Georgia: www.chipmcdonald.com Eccentric blog: https://chipmcdonaldblog.blogspot.com/ / "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Thorne Posted December 23, 2001 Share Posted December 23, 2001 "SRV was a clone off Albert King and Hendrix yet he made it work and took it further. " Absolutely. And perhaps Jonny Lang and KWS will take their things further, it's too early to tell. That's all I'm saying. But to the end of his days, whenever I heard Stevie Ray slip into autopilot on recycled Albert King or Jimi licks, I got bored. He did synthesize all that (and Lonnie Mack) into his own sound, and it was wonderful - and I wouldn't ever want to hear anybody but Stevie play it. BTW, throughout HIS career Eric Clapton has always given credit to Freddie, Albert, B.B. King, Otis Rush, etc. as the guy s who created the real deal. IMO, that's one reason why he lapses into that pop crap he plays ("Wonderful Tonight"? Aaaarrrrgggghhh...), because he feels like a poseur. (The other reason, of course, is money....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippie Posted December 24, 2001 Share Posted December 24, 2001 I should have said he was 'technically' good for how young he is. I don't care how young he is really; I wasn't diggin' his music long before I even knew who or how old he was. My 1st impression of KWS was 'oh, who's this SRV rip-off', now it's difficult for me to view him on his own merits, terribly sorry 'bout that. (first impressions are lasting impressions) On the other hand for example, Kurt Cobain was what, 23? when he recorded 'Nevermind'. (a masterpiece IMO) I mean, he wasn't nowhere in the same league technically as KWS is, but Kurt's playing had some serious pizazz to it, and in the end thats all that matters. If people like KWS, thats fine, it's just a matter of taste, right? Matt In two days, it won't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strat0124 Posted December 24, 2001 Share Posted December 24, 2001 Originally posted by Chip McDonald: Nope. If KWS was 40 you'd all love him. He is no younger than Clapton or Page or Hendrix or many other great guitarist were when they recorded. When he started out he was, but that's not the point. His age is not an issue. You may choose to make it one but it only shows your ignorence. I agree his age is not an issue, that's the point. If he WAS 40, what would the big deal be? Because there's plenty of guys that do his trip just as well and better: Chris Duarte, Doyle Bramhall, for example. There's plenty of guys that ARE doing blues in an original way, like David Grissom. As far as the SRV thing goes, there's an SRV clone in my town that does the same thing, and it's not like it's *that* big of a deal to play like that. Ever heard of Eric Gales? Gales at 19 was a lot hotter than KWS is now IMO: where is he now? The point is "what is his motivation?". I suspect he started out as an SRV fan, that mutated into other things - but with his father's guidance he realizes where his bread and butter is, and is taking advantage of it professionally. He's good at doing what he does, but don't put him on a pedestal as a vaunted talent - he may turn into that, but I don't think he's in the running anymore than anyone else particularly. Amen Chip....anybody who praises Eric Gayles, Doyle Bramhall, Chris Duarte, etc is alright by me.....YOU NAILED IT> Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baronedo Posted January 11, 2002 Share Posted January 11, 2002 I kinda like his stuff but he's heavily influenced by SRV. Speaking of influence, I heard this week from a reliable source who's in the touring circuit that Kenny's in trouble will a bad cocaine habit. The word is that he locks himself in his hotel room, does some heavy coke and won't answer. It's obviously affecting his performance and he's cancelling shows. I hope he learns another lesson from SRV and cleans up his act before it's too late. Why can't these guys just get high on their music and stay clean?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtr Posted January 13, 2002 Share Posted January 13, 2002 Chip - You mean I can't autotune my guitar???? DUUUUUDE - then I quit!! hehehehehe Wasn't gonna log in on this one - but sure is funny reading the posts. - Would just like to see the "young blues guys" play some original tunes. I mean write something for cryin out loud. Even Stevie got a bit long in the tooth with those same 3 chords. The Gales boys are writing some cool stuff while still playing plenty of "authentic" blues - and what about Govt Mule and Warren?? Of course when Kenny's management (read Dad) and label start having him write with outside writers, then you really do wonder if he has much creative talent or if he really IS just a lick copying machine. I actually dig him and think he is a decent player even if he is sort of a SRV ripoff. - I mean SRV ain't puttin out any new tunes ya know. Speaking of all these young kids with their parents as managers - just read an interview in some silly mag with Aaron Carter's Mom and manager - She said she "Really didn't think the fact that his brother Nick is in the Backstreet boys had anything to do with Aaron getting his deal" - hehehe God bless our Mothers!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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