Who Sings Blue on Black Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Observant songwriters should always take their antennas up, ready to zoom in on the most mundane topic or object, even a shirt, and hopefully plow it into a hit song. And that's exactly what happened when Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tia Sillers and Mark Selby wrote their smash hit, "Blue On Black."
"I had the whole musical idea, and I said 'what tin we do with this?'" Shepherd told American Songwriter this past summer, recalling the writing session that produced his most popular song, which first appeared on his sophomore anthology, 1997'southward Trouble Is….
Songwriter Sillers and Selby had previously collaborated with Shepherd on his self-titled 1995 debut record, co-writing the album favorite "Deja Voodoo." The three writers had some time off and went to New Orleans, where Tia and Mark had rented a place in the French Quarter. Shepherd remembers sitting in a small room with the songwriting couple, probably the kitchen, with Tia sitting across from the ii guitarists who were jamming on a D-C-Chiliad riff that Shepherd had spiced upwardly.
"In typical manner, Mark and I started jamming on the idea and Tia started scribbling away. After a few minutes of united states jamming and creating this vibe, Tia said 'what do y'all think about this? And she started rattling off this thought for a chorus: 'Blue on black,' 'tears on a river' and peradventure another ideas that didn't make information technology into the vocal."
"She had a whole list of things that don't amount to an consequence when you put one confronting the other. Cold to ice. Information technology's not irresolute anything. A tear into a river is non elevating the level of the h2o significantly. And adding bluish to black- the black consumes the blue."
"We thought it was great and I asked her where she got the idea. She said while nosotros were jamming, she was feeling the vibe. And she told me the shirt that I had on was a blue and black shirt where the seam was going down the middle. I side was bluish, and one side was black!"
"So basically," Shepherd laughs, "Mark and I jamming together on this groove and Tia observing my shirt, which was a very '90s advisable shirt, birthed the idea behind this very profound song!"
Though he knew they had written a pretty good song going into the recording session, it was the last song Shepherd recorded and almost didn't get cut. At this early signal in his career, the immature twenty year erstwhile guitar magician had built up a loyal base of fans and musician friends, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section (Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, Reese Wynans), who wound up recording the song with him. Simply the recording came downwardly to the wire and about fell apart.
"We had Double Trouble out there for the basic tracks. Chris Layton was laying downwards the drums and trying to become up and walk away because the car that was taking them to the aerodrome had been waiting for a while. They were afraid they were going to miss their flight! Jerry Harrison (producer) was like, 'simply one more than have!' And so it almost didn't get done."
Shepherd went on to flesh out the song, giving it a gut-punchy tightness by layering a detuned electric guitar role and a classic guitar pedal audio.
"I was simply playing acoustic rhythm, and when I went dorsum to add the solos and other parts, I felt there was something missing. It needed a deeper sonic bed to be there with the acoustic guitar. I started messing with the Univibe and I dropped the low Due east to D which gave it a deep sound, similar an sea underneath it. It's a very simple part and that Drib D tuning and the Univibe adds a layer of depth to the track."
"Blue On Black" went on to height the Mainstream Rock chart in 1998 and win the Stone Track Of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards. Just the song has legs and a deep connectedness with fans and artists, who interpret the lyrical aspect of the song in different means.
"I can't fifty-fifty tell you how many letters, emails and letters I've gotten over the years almost the vocal," Shepherd reveals. "And then many people have applied the song to their ain life experience in a number of unlike means. From the decease of a loved i, an abusive relationship, or futile attempts at salvaging something. I think the simplicity of the music allows you lot to connect with the vocal. There's nothing to distract you from the bulletin being conveyed. Merely what's magical is that whatever message you lot're getting or how it touches the listener, it'southward e'er very significant and very deep. But information technology can be something different in each ane of united states of america and how information technology'southward applied."
The song resonated with difficult rock ring 5 Finger Death Punch, who recorded two embrace versions of the song. The first version appeared on their 2018 anthology And Justice For None. When the song received good response, they went back into the studio for an updated version, inviting Shepherd to add guitar parts alongside Queen guitarist Brian May, and state singer Brantley Gilbert (who likewise frequently performs the song in his live shows), with proceeds benefitting the Gary Sinise Foundation for starting time responders. That version topped the Mainstream Rock chart, hit Number ii in the Digital Sales Chart and number 66 on the Top 100 in 2019.
"Five Finger Death Punch did information technology on their tape and then asked if I would do a version with them," Shepherd commented. "They got Brantley Gilbert to sing a verse, Brian May played a solo. Information technology was an incredible collaboration. When I heard they were going to record it I told them 'I'yard not saying this because I wrote it, but I believe in the power of this vocal. If you go to radio with it, I call back you'll take a Number 1. And they did go to radio and information technology did go to Number One for them."
"I was really proud to be part of it. It gave me the opportunity to experience information technology all over again, even though it wasn't my tape. It'due south my song and to accept information technology get to Number One and have that experience in two dissimilar ways is unusual. Without putting myself in his league, it was similar to Eric Clapton with the original version of "Layla" and then the Unplugged version so many years apart."
After the initial success of "Bluish On Black," Selby and Sillers went on to ride a wave of hits, including writing "At that place's Your Trouble" a Number 1 striking for the Dixie Chicks in 1999. Sillers also hit the stratosphere a yr later with the timeless classic, "I Hope You lot Dance," co-written with Mark D. Sanders and virtually famously recorded by Lee Ann Womack. That vocal was written subsequently a breakup Sillers went through, which led to her romantic human relationship with Selby, leading to their most successful creation: a 16-twelvemonth wedlock that was sadly cut short when Selby passed away from cancer in 2017, before "Bluish On Black" hit the charts again.
Shepherd humbly notes the appeal of "Bluish On Blackness" boils downward to a few core elements. "Information technology's timeless and information technology crosses genres."
Source: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-blue-on-black-by-kenny-wayne-shepherd/
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