The Monterey Blues Festival is held each year over the last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in June. One of the things I like about the Monterey festival is that it’s more Afro-centric than many other festivals I’ve attended
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is special. That’s what I found out when I went to my first one in 1985. So special to me that I’ve been back every year since (okay, I missed one). It’s an immersion, an immersion in all things New Orleans and Louisiana; music, food, culture and fun.
As I walked out of the festival grounds the thought struck me that I’d just seen something special. I missed Muddy Waters and Stevie Ray Vaughn, the two blues musicians I would most like to have seen live, but I had now seen Kenny Wayne Shepherd in his prime. And it was a show I would remember.
I’d heard Kenny in 1996 at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium when he was 19 years old and remember thinking he was pretty good for a kid. But, this time he had matured as a guitar player and showman and I found him mesmerizing. Part of it was his appearance – in command of the stage and somewhat surly. Yet when he talked to the crowd he sounded polite and appreciative. With a white scarf wrapped around his neck he reminded me of a 1970’s guitar god. Kenny played four different Stratocasters, swapping them out every few songs. Maybe because he’s so partial to Strats, Fender named an Artist Series signature model after him!
