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posterTHE REEL BLUES FEST
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
with Ernie & the Automatics
with special guests
Jim Belushi and James Montgomery
Cape Cod Melody Tent, Thursday, July 26, 2007

live music and film all in one night
- Kenny Wayne Shepherd - Ernie & the Automatics - Jim Belushi - James Montgomery - Ten Days Out -

KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD

kwsKenny Wayne Shepherd (born June 12, 1977) is an American Blues guitarist. Shepherd was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he attended Caddo Magnet High School. Self-taught, he began playing at age 7, learning Muddy Waters licks from his father's record collection. At the age of 13, he was invited onstage by the New Orleans bluesman Bryan Lee.  After proving his abilities, he decided on music as a career.

Using his own contacts in the record business, Shepherd's father and manager helped his son land a major-label record deal with Giant Records.  His father, Ken Brobst Sr., had been a long-time Shreveport radio personality as "Ken Shepherd"; "Shepherd" had been the last name of his ex-wife, the mother of Kenny Wayne.  Because his father already had established contacts within the recording and promotions industry as "Shepherd," Kenny Wayne adopted it as his stage name as well.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd has sold millions of albums worldwide, with two Grammy nominations, three straight No. 1 blues albums, a string of No. 1 mainstream rock singles and two Billboard Music Awards. He was also awarded the 1998 and 2001 Orville H. Gibson Awards for Best Blues Guitarist.

JIM BELUSHI

belJim is back. Jim Belushi was there for the 2001 original The Reel Blues Fest, which was performed in the theater on the Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod. And he's back again to sit in with Ernie & The Automatics with James Montgomery. Hey, he can sing and blow a mean harp.

James Belushi was born June 15, 1954 in Chicago but grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the third of four children of Adam Belushi, an Albanian immigrant who left his native Qytezë village in 1934 at the age of 15, and Agnes, who was born in the U.S. of Albanian immigrants. A high school teacher, impressed by Jim's improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced Jim to to be in a school play. After that he joined the school's drama club. Today if asked why he got involved in acting, he will jokingly say "Because of girls. In the drama club, there were about 20 girls and six guys. And the same thing with choir....more girls!".

He attended the College of Dupage and graduated from Southern Illinois University with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts. From 1976-80 he became a resident member of Chicago's famed Second City. In 1979, write-producer Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for 2nd City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV Pilot "Who's Watching the Kids" for Paramount, and then for a role in the television show "Working Stiffs" (co-starring Michael Keaton). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for 2 years.

Jim came to national attention through his role in Edward Zwick's film "About Last Night" with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre's production of David Mamet's Obie-award winning play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago".

He has come a long way from 2nd City, SNL, and his early role in the TV series "Working Stiffs". His feature credits since then show an extraordinary range: He was James Woods' spacey DJ buddy, Dr. Rock, in Oliver Stone's "Salvador"; the mentally handicapped dishwasher befriended by Whoopi Goldberg in the Andrei Konchalovsky film, "Homer and Eddie"; and the defiant high school principal standing up to drug dealers in "The Principal." In 2000 Belushi co-starred in MGM's "Return to Me," directed by Bonnie Hunt and starring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, and he received rave reviews for his work with Gregory Hines in Showtime's "Who Killed Atlanta's Children? As his popularity grew over the years, so did his roles in film, theater, and television.

Belushi has performed on Broadway in Herb Gardner's acclaimed "Conversations with My Father" at the Royal Theatre, off-Broadway in "True West," at the Cherry Lane Theatre in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of John Guare's "Moon Over Miami," and for Joseph Papp as the Pirate King in "Pirates of Penzance." In addition he does numerous voiceovers for film, television and for commercials.

Music? Well, when Dan Aykroyd asked him to join the Blues Brothers Band as Brother Zee. Belushi has never fronted a blues band but was, as always, ready to take on any task that would keep in in front of a live audience. To prepare, Belushi got together with The Sacred Hearts, the House of Blues house band (Jim is an investor in the House of Blues), o test it out. He's been a Blues Brother as well as performing and recorded as Jim Belushi and The Sacred Hearts ever since.

Jim has made a major commitment as founder and member of the board of the John Belushi Scholarship Fund, which supports college and college-prep students pursuing performance and visual arts education. A dedicated husband and father he resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Jennifer, and their two sons and a daughter. Jim is currently starring in his own sitcom, titled According to Jim, which can be seen at it's regular time slot on the ABC network and 5 days a week in syndication.

THE FILM

10 Days Out…Blues From The Backroads documents the voyage of blues guitar great Kenny Wayne Shepherd as he travels the country to jam with, interview and generally pay homage to the last of the authentic blues greats. Beginning in New Orleans and ending with a grand finale concert at Acoustic Sounds' own Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas, Shepherd's pilgrimage is a perfect lens into blues history and with absolutely exceptional cinematography and editing. This is a major-league production about what all too often is treated as a minor-league genre.
      The guitar-slinger Shepherd, along with the Double Trouble rhythm section of Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton, begins in New Orleans, where they meet with Clarence "Gatemouth Brown" and Bryan Lee. Their tour busses rumble north to Shepherd's hometown of Shreveport where he and Buddy Flett jam at Leadbelly's graveside. They continue on into Mississippi to perform with B.B. King in his hometown of Indianola. Then it's over to Alabama to visit the home of Jerry "Boogie" McCain. The tour continues into rural North Carolina to meet with the Piedmont blues masters Cootie Stark, Neil Pattman, John Dee Holeman and Etta Baker. They turn West to jam with the great Henry Townsend in his St. Louis living room along with Honeyboy Edwards, who came down from Chicago for the session. Finally, the production ends at Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, KS (www.blueheavenstudios.com). There, Kenny performs with surviving members of Muddy Waters' and Howlin' Wolf's bands. The concert included Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Henry Gray and Hubert Sumlin along with guests Wild Child Butler, Lazy Lester, Jimmy D. Lane, Double Trouble and Noah Hunt. The performances are absolutely legendary and the beauty of the old church sanctuary with a revved up "congregation" is truly something to behold. 10 Days Out... is a no-brainer for any blues fan, but it's also the perfect introduction to the blues. And consider for historic sake that since this filming in June 2004, six of the legends documented within have died, making 10 Days Out... a crucial artifact in all future generations' explorations into such an integral part of American music history.

)Video
COMCAST reporter Blake Hayes

reports on backstage at the Fest

 

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The Reel Blues Fest, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping musicians receive access to medical care and to supporting the work of independent filmmakers. Proceeds from events will be distributed to eligible 501 (C) (3) organizations pursuant to the guidelines established by The Reel Blues Fest, Inc.

For more information call 508-495-FILM
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