Kenny Wayne Shepherd rocks Whiting Auditorium

Flint gets its blues on
REVIEW A full house was in attendance at Flint's Whiting Auditorium for "An Evening with Kenny Wayne Shepherd." It was an enthusiastic, all-ages crowd, and in many cases, the whole family showed up.

"Our son introduced us to his music nine, 10 years ago," said Bruce Lauren, who was sitting with his wife Vicky and his son, Bruce Jr.

Flint resident Larry McCray served as the opening band -- obviously not a bit shy playing in front of the home crowd. McCray started things up with loud guitar and drums for his songs "Run" and "Big Black Hole. "

By the end of his set, it was hard to find anyone who hadn't been converted.

Not long after McCray retired for the night, Shepherd and his band took the stage. Shepherd took the audience through material from his first four albums with charming stories and an insane number of guitar solos.

A strong chemistry exists between the blond, slightly built Shepherd and the dark haired, deep voiced, solidly built lead vocalist Noah Hunt. Not that Shepherd doesn't have a strong presence, but it does seem like everything in him is channeled into his guitar.

The crowd loved favorite tunes like "Blue on Black," "Aberdeen" and "Slow Ride," punctuated with pauses of just straight blues with no vocals, and plenty of flashy guitar showmanship from Shepherd, who showed ogg his amazing hammer-on abilities in playing sans pick hand.

"I love the blues," Shepherd admitted midway through the concert. "Something about the honesty in the music, the real life experiences, the blues, makes you feel better."

Shepherd certainly made his longtime fans in attendance feel better.

"Fantastic," raved brothers Dennis and Norm Leger, who had driven into Flint with two other friends eight hours from Sudbury, Ontario.

"Jimi Hendrix would be proud of him," said Linden resident Janice Mayger after the show.

The ABC12 Listening Room staff: James Chesna, editor-in-chief; Josh Daunt, managing editor, photographer; LeeAlan Weddel, contributing editor, staff writer, photographer; Beth McEnroe, staff writer, photographer; Gwen Mikolajczak, staff writer; Chris Harris, photographer, staff writer; Trina Manty, staff writer; Eric Fletcher, chief photographer; Randy Cox, photographer; Chris Carr, photographer; Norm Fairhurst, photographer; Jessica Reid, contributing photographer.

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