Kenny Wayne Shepherd marks 30 years of ‘Ledbetter,’ plans 2026 Escondido stop

Kenny Wayne Shepherd has been a busy man lately.

The blues-rock guitarist released a new album in March, performed at Humphrey’s in September, and is currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of his acclaimed debut, Ledbetter Heights. The milestone includes a newly recorded version of the album due next year and a tour that brings him back to the region, where he’ll perform the record in full at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido on June 23.

“People have a lot of nostalgia when it comes to music from their past; this album had an impact on a lot of people, and me as well,” Shepherd said in a recent interview with Times of San Diego. “This was our introduction to each other. My goal back then, even though I was very young, was to write timeless music that hopefully people would enjoy listening to decades after its release and decades after I’m gone.” 

Shepherd’s musical journey began early. He got his first guitar from his grandmother at age 3, then taught himself to play by rewinding cassette tapes and learning songs note by note. When he was 7, he met one of his idols, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who gave him advice that he still follows today. 

“When he signed my first Strat he wrote: ‘Just play it with all your heart.’ And that’s what I try to do every time I pick it up,” he said. “That’s been my way of connecting with people — to just pour my heart and soul into that instrument and put music out there that hopefully makes people feel something.”

Growing up in the small town of Shreveport, Louisiana, Shepherd said money was tight, but his father’s job in radio exposed him to a lot of music and opened doors. 

“I actually got to meet a lot of bands because of my dad’s gig at the radio station, but the idea that I might be one of those people one day never really popped into my head until it just started happening, and even then it was kinda unreal.”

Revisiting Ledbetter Heights for the new recording, due out in March to coincide with his anniversary tour, brought back vivid memories for Shepherd — from writing the album when he was 16-17, recording it during his senior year of high school, and releasing it shortly after graduating and turning 18. 

Recalling that early uncertainty, he said, “I don’t know what people want, I don’t know what to expect, I don’t know if I’m doing this right or not … so I just recorded the music that I felt inspired to make and thankfully that connected with people.”

Connect it did. The rollicking “Deja Voodoo” reached No. 5 on rock radio, and the 1995 album — named for a neighborhood in his hometown honoring blues great Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter — went platinum and spent 20 weeks on Billboard’s blues chart. In 1996, Guitar World ranked Shepherd the No. 3 blues artist, behind B.B. King and Eric Clapton.

Across his three-decade career, Shepherd, now 48, has released 12 studio albums; most recently, this year’s collaboration with 91-year-old blues legend Bobby Rush, Young Fashioned Ways, a title nodding to their mix of vintage and modern styles. The album recently received a 2026 Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album.

But as much as Shepherd respects the blues, he resists being confined by it.

“Everybody has to put a label on you to be able to know what category to put you in,” he said. “I never considered myself to be just a blues musician. I consider myself to be a guy who loves blues and tries to move it forward and help it to grow and stay current.”

He also points to a wave of younger artists who are pushing the sound in fresh directions, including Samantha Fish, Marcus King, Ally Venable and Danielle Nicole.

“They’re really exciting artists and I love watching them do what they’re doing because it takes me back to when I was their age and doing the same thing,” he said.

Following the Ledbetter Heights album update and anniversary tour next year, Shepherd plans to show yet again that his musical reach goes well beyond the blues with a still-untitled rock ’n’ roll cover album.

“It’s a lot of rock songs that I grew up listening to when I was younger, [from bands] like Billy Idol, Genesis, INXS, The Who and Pink Floyd,” he said. “It was a fun project; we’re just finishing it up and that’ll come out probably in 2027. We like to rock ’n’ roll as much as we like to play the blues, and we rock pretty hard.”

Donovan Roche is a regular music and culture contributor to Times of San Diego.