Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s Dirt On My Diamonds Volume One finds the Strat-wielding blues-rocker blending the best elements of pop country, Southern rock, and the blues. Composed at FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Shepherd embraces the influences that forged his early music, but also leans into the future.
Volume One is a cool blend of rural pop and intense blues-rock guitar.
It’s called Volume One for a reason, and Volume Two is ready to go. We just have to figure out if it’s going to come out a year from now, or however long is the appropriate amount of time. But we’re all fired up about it and really excited for people to hear it.
Did you want to avoid releasing a double album?
My intention was to make two albums, but the pandemic threw a wrench in everything. We’d recorded a bunch of stuff prior to the pandemic, then everything got put on hold. I was not going to try and release any of that stuff until we could get back to work. We did the 25th anniversary of Trouble Is, put that out, and did a tour. Then we went back to finish all this up and I was like, “Let’s make a double record.” It’s different. You don’t see a lot of these kinds of projects being put out. Having two albums ready to go also gave us more of a runway for music and touring.
Was Volume One pre-pandemic and Volume Two post-pandemic?
Some parts, yes; I wouldn’t say every song. Basically, I looked at what I had. It may come across as all part of the same project, but these are stand-alone records. As a group of songs, they had to be cohesive, so a chronological order of when they were recorded doesn’t come into play when making those decisions. You’re making a decision about which group of songs makes for the best record, regardless of when they were written or recorded.
What were your intentions during the writing?
Every song has its own message and its own purpose. It’s not like a Pink Floyd record – which is super cool by the way, and I think that would be something cool to do. But that’s not what this is. There’s not one long story being told. Every song stands on its own, but musically, they go well together. The goal was to make a contemporary-sounding record – something current and fresh. For better or for worse, that’s what I’m known for – taking the blues as the foundation then pushing it to new and different directions to bring it into the modern era – to introduce new and younger people to this kind of music. That’s how it continues to thrive and grow. To me, this is a very current and modern-sounding record with a lot of elements, some of which you don’t hear on these types of records.
The guitar tone on “Bad Intentions” is killin’.
That guitar was so nasty (laughs)! Such a killer sound. That’s my ’61 Strat going through three Dumble amps built for me. I’m also using an Analog Man Bi-Chorus, which I used with a slow chorus, and one fast, 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.
Any other guitars?
I brought my ’59 hardtail and ’58 sunburst, but I also used some prototypes of my new signature series because I knew we were going to release the guitar. I also have a Custom Shop known as the Copper Boy, which has an orange-sparkle finish. That guitar sounds so incredible – very unique. I used it in the studio for the first time on The Traveler, and finally brought it back in. But probably 60 percent of the record is my ’61.
You’ll have a lot of songs to choose from for the upcoming tour.
We’re working on some of the new songs to get ready. It’s always exciting to have new material to play. It gives the audience new songs to hear for the first time.
This article originally appeared in VG’s January 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
