Blues Rock icon and five-time Grammy-nominated guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd has announced his second annual Backroads Blues Festival featuring veteran blues guitarist Eric Gales and NYC-based blues star King Solomon Hicks. The tour will make its way across the US, stopping in Huber Heights, OH on Wednesday, June 7 for a performance at Rose Music Center.
“I wanted to offer a traditional touring blues festival,” Shepherd shares. “One that will give people a chance to see the best of the best all in one place.” The announcement follows a hugely successful inaugural run of the Backroads Blues Festival in 2022, which featured Buddy Guy and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.
The Backroads Blues Festival is an extension of Shepherd’s award-winning, Platinum-selling 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads film and album project, which saw him travel the country with his band and a portable studio alongside the world’s most renowned blues players, as well as some of the genre’s lesser known, but rare and towering talents. Featured artists included Etta Baker, Pinetop Perkins, Honeyboy Edwards, Lazy Lester, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Hubert Sumlin, and B.B. King, among others.
The announcement of the second annual Backroads Blues Festival comes on the heels of Shepherd’s latest project Trouble Is…25, a top-to-bottom reinterpretation of his seminal album Trouble Is…, which struck the match that reignited modern blues upon its release 25 years ago. The release is accompanied by a live DVD filmed at The Strand Theatre in Shepherd’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, shot at the launch of his year-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of the album, which found the band performing the album, in its entirety, across the US.
Tickets will go on sale to the public beginning at 10am on Friday, February 17 at Ticketmaster.comand RoseMusicCenter.com.
