Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s Grime On My Diamonds Quantity One finds the Strat-wielding blues-rocker mixing the most effective parts of pop nation, Southern rock, and the blues. Composed at FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Shepherd embraces the influences that solid his early music, but additionally leans into the longer term.

Quantity One is a cool mix of rural pop and intense blues-rock guitar.
It’s referred to as Quantity One for a purpose, and Quantity Two is able to go. We simply have to determine if it’s going to return out a yr from now, or nevertheless lengthy is the suitable period of time. However we’re all fired up about it and actually excited for individuals to listen to it.

Did you need to keep away from releasing a double album?
My intention was to make two albums, however the pandemic threw a wrench in every part. We’d recorded a bunch of stuff previous to the pandemic, then every part bought placed on maintain. I used to be not going to attempt to launch any of that stuff till we may get again to work. We did the twenty fifth anniversary of Hassle Is, put that out, and did a tour. Then we went again to complete all this up and I used to be like, “Let’s make a double file.” It’s totally different. You don’t see loads of these sorts of tasks being put out. Having two albums able to go additionally gave us extra of a runway for music and touring.

Was Quantity One pre-pandemic and Quantity Two post-pandemic?
Some components, sure; I wouldn’t say each track. Principally, I checked out what I had. It might come throughout as all a part of the identical undertaking, however these are stand-alone data. As a gaggle of songs, they needed to be cohesive, so a chronological order of once they had been recorded doesn’t come into play when making these choices. You’re making a call about which group of songs makes for the most effective file, no matter once they had been written or recorded.

What had been your intentions throughout the writing?
Each track has its personal message and its personal goal. It’s not like a Pink Floyd file – which is tremendous cool by the way in which, and I believe that will be one thing cool to do. However that’s not what that is. There’s not one lengthy story being informed. Each track stands by itself, however musically, they go nicely collectively. The objective was to make a contemporary-sounding file – one thing present and contemporary. For higher or for worse, that’s what I’m identified for – taking the blues as the muse then pushing it to new and totally different instructions to convey it into the fashionable period – to introduce new and youthful individuals to this type of music. That’s the way it continues to thrive and develop. To me, this can be a very present and modern-sounding file with loads of parts, a few of which you don’t hear on a lot of these data.

The guitar tone on “Dangerous Intentions” is killin’.
That guitar was so nasty (laughs)! Such a killer sound. That’s my ’61 Strat going by way of three Dumble amps constructed for me. I’m additionally utilizing an Analog Man Bi-Refrain, which I used with a gradual refrain, and one quick, so it sounds kinda like a Leslie. I used the Analog Man King Of Tone pedal for the overdrive sound. That’s it, with the Dumbles cranked to 10.

Another guitars?
I introduced my ’59 hardtail and ’58 sunburst, however I additionally used some prototypes of my new signature sequence as a result of I knew we had been going to launch the guitar. I even have a Customized Store referred to as the Copper Boy, which has an orange-sparkle end. That guitar sounds so unimaginable – very distinctive. I used it within the studio for the primary time on The Traveler, and eventually introduced it again in. However most likely 60 p.c of the file is my ’61.

You’ll have loads of songs to select from for the upcoming tour.
We’re engaged on a number of the new songs to prepare. It’s at all times thrilling to have new materials to play. It provides the viewers new songs to listen to for the primary time.

This text initially appeared in VG’s January 2024 concern. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.