Review: 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads - Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Blues prodigy Kenny Wayne Shepherd's latest work, 10 Days Out: Blues From the Backroads, tells two separate tales. The first is Shepherd's story of trying to earn the respect and acceptance of the blues masters. Shepherd burst onto the blues scene at the ripe age of thirteen and has experienced solid success since that time, garnering two Grammy nominations and two Billboard Music Awards as well as selling millions of albums. Yet, watching this, one cannot help but think that these accolades mean nothing without the respect of these legends he's spent years emulating and listening to.

The second element here is about those very legends that Shepherd desperately wants to prove himself to and their stories. Taking off with a recording and film crew for a ten-day stint across the southeast United States, Wayne and company set out to capture some true originators of the blues sound, many of whom had been forgotten by previous generations. These were men and women whose pedigree, in many cases, dated back to the early 1900's, having grown up experiencing the segregation and racism of the south, along with the poverty and hardship that accompanied it. These stories are what helped to nurture the blues these masters created, forming a living legacy of music that spoke to the heart.