Kenny Wayne Shepherd's new Backroads Blues Festival to launch at Bold Point Park Aug. 13

The blues has a long and important history in the fabric of American culture, and on Aug. 13, a traveling festival will celebrate this immutable style of music with a kickoff at East Providence's Bold Point Park.

The Backroads Blues Festival will have a stacked lineup, led by established artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and living legend Buddy Guy, as well as up-and-comer Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. It’s the first stop of the first edition of the festival that is envisioned as an annual event.

The festival was created by Shepherd and his crew as an extension of a blues documentary and album he released back in 2007 titled “10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads." The inspiration came from a festival Shepherd attended as a child and eventually became a part of.

“I grew up going every year to the B.B. King Blues Festival,” he said. “I have so many great memories of my childhood seeing the greatest acts in blues music that were touring at the time. Everybody from B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Etta James, Joe Cocker, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan, you name it. Then I became a part of it and I did it many, many times over the years. There just hasn’t been anything like that since for people, so I wanted to resurrect that and create a traveling blues festival with the hottest blues talent available."

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For the debut festival, he said, there was no better choice than Buddy Guy, "the modern-day king of the blues and the real direct link to that authentic Chicago blues era of guys like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf that so many people love.”

“Then you have me, which is kind of the generation after,” Shepherd added. “Then you have ‘Kingfish,’ which is the next generation, so it’s the full spectrum of what’s happening in blues music today. It’s a killer lineup, and we couldn’t have kicked off the inaugural year in a better way.”

Along with the festival, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Shepherd’s second album, “Trouble Is …” which features his biggest hit, “Blue On Black,” and he and his band have been performing the entire album live in select markets and preparing some special releases in support of the anniversary later this year.

“It’s not pop music that changes every five to 10 years and then you sound stuck in an era," he said. "This is timeless music. Obviously, it’s a monumental record for us. It still holds the record for the longest number-one blues album in the history of the blues charts. ‘Blue On Black’ at the time also set the record for the most consecutive weeks at number one in the history of the rock charts. What’s amazing about it to me is that it’s still relevant, and it still sounds as good today as it did 25 years ago."

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As for new music, Shepherd said he and his band already have nearly two albums worth of material done, after the pandemic interfered with plans to release an album in 2020. He said fans can expect a new record in the first half of 2023.

If you go ...

What: Backroads Blues Festival

When: Aug. 13, 6 p.m.

Where: Bold Point Park, 555 Waterfront Drive, East Providence

Tickets: $40 general admission; $49.50-$175 reserved seating

Info: waterfrontconcerts.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New to East Providence: Blues music festival by Kenny Wayne Shepherd