Three-time Grammy® Award-winning blues legend Bobby Rush and five-time Grammy® nominated singer/songwriter/guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, drop their new gritty electric guitar and harmonica-driven single today, “Hey Baby,” from their forthcoming special collection of new blues songs titled “YOUNG FASHIONED WAYS.” Written and recorded by the two artists together, the album will be available on March 21. Additionally, Rush and Shepherd will embark on an upcoming 24-city U.S. tour starting April 25 in Kansas City, MO, with additional dates to be announced.
Check out the lyric video for “Hey Baby” HERE. Pre-order/pre-save the album, YOUNG FASHIONED WAYS HERE. Check out the album trailer HERE.
Says Rush about co-writing the song with Shepherd, “For years, I’ve been wanting to talk about this woman who we had a point in our lives where I had to say, ‘One of us has to go now. I love you, you seem to love me, one day you say you do, one day you say you don’t. How have you been saying this for years? Something’s got to give now.’ I went digging into this suitcase I had, looking for this lyric that I’ve had for eight or 10 years, and when I heard what Kenny did with it I said, ‘Damn, Kenny’s got this!’ And I just looked at him and I was just overwhelmed how he had read my mind, being in the same direction that my mind goes.”
Adds Shepherd, “One of the great things about this song was that it came together in the studio when Bobby had a show he had to go do. He left and drove hundreds of miles to go play a show and I stayed behind in the studio working on some of the stuff we had already recorded while he was gone and, in the process, I put down this track with this music and then Bobby had come back the next day. He walked in the door, and I said, ‘I want to play something for you. I came up with this music while you were gone’ and he listened to it, and he instantly knew what words to put to it. He went over to his bag with his hundreds of songs that he had written, and he whipped out these lyrics and went straight out there and sang this song and what you hear is basically what came together in the studio in that fashion.”
Born about 44 years apart, Rush and Shepherd joined forces at Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee for the sessions that led to “YOUNG FASHIONED WAYS,” which includes 10 tracks featuring Shepherd’s trademark guitar work and Rush’s soulful vocals, rhythm guitar and harmonica.
Rush and Shepherd named the album “YOUNG FASHIONED WAYS” culminating from their mutual admiration of blues legend Muddy Waters, and the youthfulness of their pairing despite their wide age gap. The two artists also wrote a new version of Waters’ “Young Fashioned Ways” based on Willie Dixon’s original, re-titled the song “Young Ways,” and included it on the album.
The original compositions on “YOUNG FASHIONED WAYS” either found Shepherd specifically writing licks and melodies to Rush’s lyrics, or Shepherd coming up with a riff or melody and Rush reaching into his satchel and pulling out lyrics that fit perfectly. For the tracks with a full band, the songs feature veteran blues and R&B musicians Steve Potts (drums), Charles Hodges (keyboards and B-3), Darryl “DJ” Pruitt” (bass), Doug Wolverton (trumpet) and Charlie Di Puma (saxophone). YOUNG FASHIONED WAYS also includes colorful re-inventions of four classic Rush songs – “40 Acres (How Long),” “G String,” “Make Love to You” and “Uncle Esau.”
