The Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut hosted blues great Kenny Wayne Shepherd to a sold out crowd. Shepherd and his band were fantastic. The band consisting of Noah Hunt on guitar, Chris Layton on drums, Kevin McCormick on bass and Joe Krone on keyboards.
They helped the Garde celebrate an acheivement of being home to the 2022 Outstanding Historic Theatre Award. It was said the 1926 Garde Arts center stood out among an impressive list of nominations to claim the award.
Shepherd let the crowd know before singing it that his number one song on the charts for a time “I Found Love When I Found You” has been used for many wedding songs. One couple even got engaged during a concert when he played. The song was also covered by Five Finger Death Punch who re-recorded it and it went to number one again.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd is on the road celebrating the 25th anniversary of his 2nd record Trouble Is and played the entire album at this concert. He is an amazing guitarist and got the audience completely into his performance with his expert playing.
He joked with the audience beforehand and said the band would be playing the entire record, then as if no one had ever done it before they would walk off stage and act like the concert was over and they were done until the audience cheered for them to come back on stage.
Shepherd did his best Hendrix impression on “I Don’t Live Today” which went into his biggest hit “Blue On Black.”
True to his word they did leave the stage and the band returned to play a five song encore which included “Woman Like You,” “Diamonds & Gold” and a great cover of BB King’s “You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now.”
It was a fantastic night of music and if you want to hear some great blues with a rock twinge don’t hesitate to take in a Kenny Wayne Shepherd concert. He and the band give the audience their all and more. I would definitely go again.
Shepherd has sold millions of albums worldwide, received five Grammy nominations, two Billboard Music Awards, the Blues Foundation’s Keeping The Blues Alive award and two Blues Music awards. He’s had seven #1 blues albums and a few #1 rock singles.
Review by Donna Erichsen
Photos by George Bekris
Setlist:
Trouble Is
Somehow
Everything Is Broken
Chase The Rainbow
I Found Love
Nothing To Do With Love
Kings Highway
True Lies
Long Gone
I Don’t Live Today
Blue On Black
Slow Ride
Encore:
Woman Like You
I Want You
Diamonds And Gold
Heat Of The Sun
Shame Or BB King
