Sep 28, 2026 · 17 min · 8 segments
I first interviewed Kenny Wayne Shepherd when he was about 19 years old. That was about the time the original Ledbetter Heights album came out. This skinny kid walked into my studio with a guitar and…
Kenny Wayne ShepherdGuest
Jack AnthonyHost
When we last spoke, you had done a 25th anniversary re-recording of Trouble Is, where you took a band in the studio and reimagined all the tracks on the album, play them side by side on streaming services or buy the albums.
The Trouble Is, 25th anniversary, was more like a recreation of the original.
We had almost all the same people in the studio that we had on the original Trouble Is record.
And so I thought, man, let's see if we can really recreate the sound of the original and show that 25 years later that we all can rock as hard as we did when we were 25 years
So those two, if you listen to the original Trouble Is and the 25th anniversary edition of Trouble Is, they sound incredibly similar.
The new Ledbetter Heights, the 30th anniversary Sessions Ledbetter Heights album, is not a recreation of the original.
We have different people in the band now than I had when I made that first album.
The only two people that are still around from my first record is me and Chris Layton from Stevie Ray Vaughan's band.
So what's interesting and compelling about this is you can take the original Ledbetter Heights album, and you can hear the 17-year-old version of an artist of an unknown artist trying to make a name for himself and make a statement with his debut record.
Now you can listen to the 30th anniversary album and you can hear the evolution of the artist that's now got 30 years of experience and 30 years of touring and making records and all of that underneath my belt and hear the differences in what that makes and the evolution of the artist and the sound of the artist.
So listening to the new Ledbetter Heights album is a new listening experience for sure.
When you listen back to Ledbetter Heights, the original album, does it take you back to that time?
When we last spoke, you had done a 25th anniversary re-recording of Trouble Is, where you took a band in the studio and reimagined all the tracks on the album, play them side by side on streaming services or buy the albums.
The Trouble Is, 25th anniversary, was more like a recreation of the original.
We had almost all the same people in the studio that we had on the original Trouble Is record.
And so I thought, man, let's see if we can really recreate the sound of the original and show that 25 years later that we all can rock as hard as we did when we were 25 years
So those two, if you listen to the original Trouble Is and the 25th anniversary edition of Trouble Is, they sound incredibly similar.
The new Ledbetter Heights, the 30th anniversary Sessions Ledbetter Heights album, is not a recreation of the original.
We have different people in the band now than I had when I made that first album.
The only two people that are still around from my first record is me and Chris Layton from Stevie Ray Vaughan's band.
So what's interesting and compelling about this is you can take the original Ledbetter Heights album, and you can hear the 17-year-old version of an artist of an unknown artist trying to make a name for himself and make a statement with his debut record.
Now you can listen to the 30th anniversary album and you can hear the evolution of the artist that's now got 30 years of experience and 30 years of touring and making records and all of that underneath my belt and hear the differences in what that makes and the evolution of the artist and the sound of the artist.
So listening to the new Ledbetter Heights album is a new listening experience for sure.
When you listen back to Ledbetter Heights, the original album, does it take you back to that time?
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