Shepherd Honored by The Blues Foundation With 2008 "Keeping the Blues
Alive" Award

Kenny Wayne Shepherd's critically acclaimed CD/DVD "Ten Days Out:
Blues From The Backroads" (Warner Bros./Reprise Records) has been
nominated for two 2008 Grammy Awards -- "Best Traditional Blues Album"
and "Best Long Form Music Video." The awards will be telecast from Los
Angeles, February 10 on CBS. In addition to the Recording Academy's
recognition, The Blues Foundation will honor Shepherd's album and
accompanying documentary with the prestigious "Keeping the Blues
Alive" award for Film, Television or Video. The ceremony will take
place on February 2, 2008 in Memphis, TN. The documentary is also
nominated for "Best DVD" at the 2008 Blues Music Awards, which will
take place in Mississippi on May 8. Shepherd will also be playing at
the Sundance Film Festival on January 25th at Harry O's in Park City,
Utah with special guest, Hubert Sumlin.

The #1 Album on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart for 2007, "Ten Days
Out: Blues From The Backroads" chronicles the journey of renowned
blues and rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd -- along with a film
crew, a portable recording studio and producer Jerry Harrison (Talking
Heads) -- through a ten-day journey into the heart of the American
South. USA Today heralds the resulting documentary and accompanying
live CD as "...a blues fan's dream...," while Billboard Magazine
writes, "Kenny Wayne Shepherd passed for an old blues soul when he was
just 18 and released his first album... So it shouldn't be surprising
that, at 29, he can hang convincingly with some real old blues
souls..."

Directed by Noble Jones, "Ten Days Out" captures the stories of some
of America's best-known blues artists including B.B. King, Clarence
"Gatemouth" Brown and Honeyboy Edwards as well as some of the genre's
lesser-known talents. Shepherd is joined by longtime collaborator and
vocalist Noah Hunt as well as friends Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon
who make up the esteemed rhythm section Double Trouble (Stevie Ray
Vaughan's longtime band). Shepherd and his team immersed themselves in
the environments, which shaped these essential blues musicians,
talking, recording and performing in kitchens, living rooms, front
porches and local clubs. The goal was to get to know these amazing
artists and to produce intimate recordings in intimate settings
maintaining authenticity -- no overdubs were used. "What happened is
what you hear," says Shepherd, "we kept it as real as possible." This
historic trip culminated in a once in a life time performance at a
church in Salina, Kansas where Shepherd and friends were joined by the
remaining members of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters' bands at the aptly
named Church at Blue Heaven Studios.

"A project like this, with all these great people, it's not about me
-- it's about the music," says Shepherd, "and about the people who
inspired me to pick up an instrument and make music. You've got to
listen to what they sing or write about, and you'll hear the people
behind the music, the players behind the blues. And that's what the
blues is about -- the lives these people led, and that we are living
today."

Since the making of "Ten Days Out: Blues From The Backroads" six of
the featured musicians -- Etta Baker, Henry Townsend, Wild Child
Butler, Neal Pattman, Cootie Stark, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown --
have passed away, sealing the documentary's fate as an important
historical work in the tradition of Alan Lomax's "The Land Where Blues
Began." A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Music Maker
Relief Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the
true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern musical traditions gain
recognition and meet their day-to-day needs.

- http://www.kennywayneshepherd.net/
- http://www.tendaysout.net/

- http://www.satchmo.com/nolavl/grammy.html