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Kenny Wayne Shepherd project

Kenny Wayne Shepherd to record and produce a documentary highlighting the great blues players of our time. Proceeds will benefit Music Makers Relief Foundation.

“It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive characteristic.” – James Weldon Johnson

Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s objective is simple – to record and produce a musical and narrative piece of history. Slated to be a television special, the project will include an Audio/DVD featuring performances with Kenny and some of the greatest blues players of our time – all the while, raising some money for the Music Maker Relief Foundation.

This project will allow knowledgeable blues fans to enjoy a compilation of the purest blues talent in the country, and at the same time, enable new fans to experience the traditional blues genre.

The artists involved in this project include both legends and lesser-known musicians, but all are essential and historical blues players – performers that reflect Kenny’s reverence for his musical roots.

Kenny, along with long time friends Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon of Double Trouble, Noah Hunt, Joe Nadeau and Jimmy Wallace will travel to the hometowns of some of these artists in June 2004 to record sessions in their own environment, be it a local juke joint, club or on the artist’s own front porch. They will begin in New Orleans, Louisiana, and end up in Salina, Kansas to record a show at the Church at Blue Heaven Studios with several members of both Muddy Waters’ and Howlin’ Wolf’s original bands. Filmmaker Noble Jones will capture each stage of this project on film. The producer of Kenny’s “Trouble Is…” and “Live On” albums, Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) will produce the audio.

Artists that Kenny will be featuring include Bryan Lee, Gatemouth Brown, B.B. King, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin, Jerry McCain, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Sam Lay, “Wild Child” Butler, Henry Townsend, Honeyboy Edwards, Cootie Stark, Essie Mae Brooks, John Dee Holman, Neal Pattman, Etta Baker and Buddy Flett among others.

The Music Maker Relief Foundation www.musicmaker.org will be receiving a substantial share of the profits from the sale of the Audio/DVD. MMRF is a remarkable foundation offering assistance to the pioneers of the Southern music tradition, ranging from food and shelter to medical care. They record, produce and distribute recordings by their artists as well as assist in obtaining tour dates or simply buying a new instrument for an artist to play.
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