Track Listing

1. Born With a Broken Heart
2. Deja Voodoo
3. Aberdeen
4. Shame, Shame, Shame
5. One Foot on the Path
6. Everbody Gets the Blues
7. While We Cry [Live]
8. I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)
9. (Let Me Up) I've Had Enough
10. Riverside
11. What's Goin' Down
12. Ledbetter Heights

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2177 in Music
• Released on: 1995-09-19
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Great debut album
Ledbetter Heights is a very strong debut album from Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Shepherd's guitar style is very reminiscent of the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan. Most of the material here is very strong. The opening tracks "Born With A Broken Heart" and "Deja Voodoo" received extensive airplay on AOR radio and are both excellent tracks featuring Shepherd's outstanding playing. Other strong tracks include the slow blues of "Shame, Shame, Shame", the soulful "Riverside", and the driving "Aberdeen." His version of Howlin' Wolf's "I'm Leaving You (Commit A Crime)" is also an excellent track. However, the best example of Shepherd's playing may be on the slow live track "While We Cry" and the killer ending title track which sounds like it would fit in nicely on Vaughan's Texas Flood album. Other tracks such as "Everybody Gets The Blues" and "What's Goin' Down" are decent, but not as strong as the rest of the album. A great debut, highly recommended to fans of blues guitarists such as SRV as well as the new breed of blues players like Jonny Lang.

Amazing Debut
Although I think KWS's "Live On" CD is his most original release yet, in some ways this one is even better. In my opinion, Corey Sterling is a more natural singer, less forced or put-on than his replacement, Noah Hunt. And this one features some great keyboard work by Jimmy Wallace, who isn't even on the "Live On" release. The first half of the CD is incredible, with several songs ("Deja Voodoo", "Born with a Broken Heart", "One Foot on the Path", "Everybody Gets the Blues", & the soaring instrumental "While We Cry") rating as good as anything Shepherd's recorded so far. Also, the songwriting is actually better here than on the two follow-up releases. A couple of weak tracks, ("Aberdeen" & "Riverside") keep this one from rating 5-stars.

A young man with the blues
Kenny Wayne shepherd burst onto the scene as a young major league guitar slinger. A couple of releases later and he seems to have disappeared.Kenny Wayne earned and deserved all the accolades given him.Ledbetter Heights was and is still an excellent CD. Mostly originals with a few covers thrown in, Ledbetter Heights is his most bluesy effort.He has a solid and talented band.I have no preferance between Corey or Noah on vocals , both are strong singers.
Shame,Shame,Shame is my favorite cut, a great blues jam.Kenny has a great extended solo that hints at Stevie Ray. Born Under a Bad Sign, Deja Voodoo and Aberdeen all enjoyed radio airplay and are fine blues\rock songs.Aberdeen is a Bukka White song, it starts with acoustic sound with some slide guitar and then the band kicks in, theres plenty of slide guitar fills its a cool song.While We Cry sounds toooo much like The Allmans song Soul Shine, but it is a good showcase for Kennys deft and subtle touch. I'm Leaving You is a Howlin Wolf song played ala SRV. Let Me Up is a true blue Texas shuffle, short but sweet.Riverside sounds like a haunted night on the bayou ,very eerie.The last two tracks sound like filler material to me, not bad ,but not up to the standards set by the rest of Ledbetter Heights
My hope is that Kenny will put out a CD that will pay tribute to all the blues legends he mentions in the liner notes. Ledbetter Heights gave me a taste as to how good he can be.One day he will be mentioned in the same breathe as these greats but he will need to release more great Cds like Ledbetter Heights.