Dirt On my Diamonds: Volume 2

Some creative streaks are so hot, they can’t be satisfied by one album alone. From the mind-expanding sprawl of The Beatles’ 1968 White Album to the twin Use Your Illusion records dropped simultaneously by Guns N’ Roses in 1991, rock ‘n’ roll history has witnessed an elite handful of artists whose vision demanded more.

Now, flash-forward to 2024, and in a rare career first for a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated global superstar who has seen and done it all, Kenny Wayne Shepherd is set to join the most exclusive club in rock ‘n’ roll. With the acclaimed Dirt On My Diamonds Vol 1 released only last November, Shepherd’s fans are still poring over that first slug of stellar material (“There’s no denying the impact,” wrote Classic Rock, “when he lets the blues off the leash”). But the Louisiana-born bandleader always had a bigger plan. Holding back a second set of songs birthed at the same sessions at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, he now presents a follow-up record that is a very different animal, with shared DNA.