Kenny Wayne Shepherd - 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads (U.S. Version) '2006

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Prison Blues (with Cootie Stark & Neal Big Daddy Pattman) [Live]
02. Potato Patch (with Jerry Boogie McCain) [Live]
03. Honky Tonk (with Buddy Flett) [Live]
04. The Thrill Is Gone (with B.B. King) [Live]
05. Tina Marie (with Bryan Lee) [Live]
06. Born in Louisiana (with Clarence Gatemouth Brown) [Live]
07. Chapel Hill Boogie (with John Dee Holeman) [Live]
08. Tears Come Rollin Down (with Henry Townsend) [Live]
09. Knoxville Rag (with Etta Baker) [Live]
10. Big Daddy Boogie (with Neal Big Daddy Pattman) [Live]
11. U-Haul (with Cootie Stark) [Live]
12. Red Rooster (with Henry Gray and Howlin Wolf Band) [Live]
13. Sittin on Top of the World (with Hubert Sumlin and Howlin Wolf Band) [Live]
14. Spoonful (with George Wild Child Butler and Howlin Wolf Band) [Live]
15. Grindin Man (with Pinetop Perkins and Muddy Waters Band) [Live]

10 Days Out may well be Kenny Wayne Shepherds most important and intriguing
album, even though the guitarist is hardly the featured artist on any of these
tracks, working instead more as a sideman and facilitator for the impressive
cast of venerable blues players who get a chance to shine here. Make no mistake
about it, this recording belongs to such senior citizens as Henry Townsend, Etta
Baker, Pinetop Perkins, and Henry Gray, and Shepherds presence (and the presence
of Stevie Ray Vaughans Double Trouble rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon
and drummer Chris Layton) simply helps to focus the attention on these veteran
blues players. Shepherd embarked on a ten-day journey into the American South in
2004 with a documentary film crew, a portable recording studio, and Double
Trouble as a house band in an effort to catch the blues in its natural habitat
of living rooms, kitchens, porches, back yards, and local watering holes, and
the performances that resulted are priceless. Here is one-armed harp player Neal
Pattman and blind guitarist Cootie Stark turning in a joyous, ramshackle version
of Prison Blues. A little later, Stark delivers further on a delightful song
called U-Haul, complete with a marvelous improvised rap over the tunes run-out
coda. Here, too, is the then-96-year-old Henry Townsend turning in a poignant
Tears Came Rollin Down. Etta Baker, then 93, shows that age hadnt slowed her as
a guitarist at all as she delivers an elegant Knoxville Rag. Shepherd wisely
stays in the background on cut after cut, allowing these amazing musical
treasures to unfold naturally and without intrusive elements. There are
absolutely no hotshot guitar histrionics anywhere on this disc, which speaks to
Shepherds sincere vision for this project. Hes after the preservation of blues
history with 10 Days Out, and as if to underscore that aim, five of the albums
participants (Neal Pattman, Cootie Stark, Gatemouth Brown, George Wild Child
Butler, and Etta Baker) passed away before the album and concurrent documentary
film were finally completed and released in 2007. Shepherds name may be above
the title, but he knows full well to whom this album belongs, and to his immense
credit, those are the voices he lets speak the loudest.

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