Recently, we highlighted the lead song off the new album collaboration from blues-rocker Kenny Wayne Shepherd and traditional bluesman Bobby Rush, a shuffling number with stinging guitar from Shepherd, gritty vocals and harmonica from Rush, and some swinging horns that, together, make for a great start to this 10-track gem from the two Northwest Louisiana bluesmen born just over 50 miles and more than 40 years apart.
Yes, we’re pleased to report that the rest of the duo’s Young Fashioned Ways is just as good as that first track, with Shepherd’s guitar and Rush’s harmonica making for a highly entertaining combination, as much so on harder driving numbers like that lead track “Who Was That”, the muddy “Hey Baby (What Are We Gonna Do)” and a shredding “You So Fine” with its Elmore James-style slide guitar licks as on slower acoustic tracks like the more stripped-down (no pun intended) “G String”, creeping “40 Acres (How Long)” — with its patient, almost minute-and-a-half John Lee Hooker-ish instrumental lead-in that’s so locked into their playing that you can hear some of the ambient sound from the studio, and that has you partly hoping it remains instrumental until the introduction of some eerie organ and then Rush’s restrained vocals — and simmering closer “What She Said”, again featuring some excellent keys in addition to displaying Shepherd’s and Rush’s instrumental talents.
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