Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
You don’t get much fresher than Kenny Wayne Shepherd when it comes to bringing out an album of exquisite note only a few short months after being part of the supergroup The Rides’ magnificent piece of work Can’t Get Enough. For fans of Kenny Wayne Shepherd that really shouldn’t be a surprise as Goin’ Home is an album that is delivered with the same strutting style, the same admirable honesty as you would hope to find attached to each person who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Goin’ Home is just that, an ode, a reflection of great musicians of the past wrapped up in a homage and finished off with a guitar swagger. If it was any sweeter it would be hand delivered by a person in a freshly pressed suit and highly polished cap with an invitation to the Super Bowl Final supplied as an afterthought.
Goin’ Home is a probing assessment of Mr Shepherd’s love of music by his heroes such as B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lee Dorsey and the examination would surely be greeted by the sound of ringing endorsements by all. It doesn’t do Mr. Shepherd any harm that on the album you have some pretty impressive names attached to it, including the great Joe Walsh, Liverpool’s Ringo Starr, Warren Haynes and Chris Wilson performing some incredible parts to Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s interpretations.
Music will always find a way to inspire its audience, the grip it manages to place around the heart and mind is worth the panting, exhausting smile you normally find plastered upon anybody’s face when they hear something terrific. Tracks such as Everything’s Gonna Be Alright, Breaking Up Somebody’s Home, You Done Lost Your Good Thing, Born Under A Bad Sign and the monstrously superb You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover all justify the large, warranted faith shown the guitarist over the years. For that faith has never wavered and with Goin’ Home it is easy to see why.
If home is where the heart resides then Kenny Wayne Shepherd has parked the car, walked up to the door and presented the album with a sweet flourish.
Ian D. Hall