When it comes to defining the blues, there are several schools of thought, including the slick licks of Chicago, the soulful sounds of the Delta or the salty grooves laid down in Austin. These days, the blues are almost inescapable–it permeates rock (Led Zeppelin), folk (Ani DiFranco), jazz (John Scofield) and jam bands (Widespread Panic), as well as helping to launch all sorts of hyphenated strains. Back in the late ’40s, when Muddy Waters put his first blues band together, he set into motion a sound and style that would soon revolutionize popular music, leading to a tremendous blues movement that forged the way toward the formation of rock & roll. “The blues had a baby,” Waters once sang, “and they called it rock & roll!”

The journey to find one’s self can often be a long and arduous task; the path to acknowledging who you are and what your contribution is can be even harder. Such has been the voyage for drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, collectively known as Double Trouble. Stevie Ray Vaughan once said he was just a member of a band, a band called Double Trouble…and with his death came a void in the act that had revived blues/rock for a whole new generation.

The journey to find one’s self can often be a long and arduous task; the path to acknowledging who you are and what your contribution is can be even harder. Such has been the voyage for drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, collectively known as Double Trouble. Stevie Ray Vaughan once said he was just a member of a band, a band called Double Trouble…and with his death came a void in the act that had revived blues/rock for a whole new generation.

We often talk about how most successful bands in the ’90s have largely set themselves up for the success they now enjoy. The Dave Matthews Band has perhaps become the best example. Through constant touring, releasing projects on their own label and by careful thought, they placed themselves into a position where major labels took notice.

Dave Matthews attacks his acoustic guitar as if he were playing a drum kit. “Percussions are my obsession. In fact, sometimes I see myself as drummer trapped in a guitarist’s body,” states the South African native, who is rarely caught standing still when performing with the Dave Matthews Band.

Not since the late Stevie Ray Vaughan has anyone burned up the blues like Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The “Tornado” from Shreveport, LA, who has, with his long blonde hair and Stratocaster in tow, rekindled blues in the 90s much like Clapton, Page and Beck did in the late 60s and 70s. With his own band, as well as the additional support of Double Trouble, Kenny Wayne simmers, steams and rocks the blues so as to attract a crowd of serious concert-going fanatics. His unadorned guitar lines alternately caress and blister, easily whipping the unassuming into a mass frenzy. His sophomore album, Trouble Is…, continues the high-octane deluge he started on Ledbetter Heights by echoing the influences of B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix, all the while updating the blues for a new generation of guitar fans.

Not since the late Stevie Ray Vaughan has anyone burned up the blues like Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The “Tornado” from Shreveport, LA, who has, with his long blonde hair and Stratocaster in tow, rekindled blues in the 90s much like Clapton, Page and Beck did in the late 60s and 70s. With his own band, as well as the additional support of Double Trouble, Kenny Wayne simmers, steams and rocks the blues so as to attract a crowd of serious concert-going fanatics. His unadorned guitar lines alternately caress and blister, easily whipping the unassuming into a mass frenzy. His sophomore album, Trouble Is…, continues the high-octane deluge he started on Ledbetter Heights by echoing the influences of B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix, all the while updating the blues for a new generation of guitar fans.

The digital revolution is being promoted as the next big thing. With it, a new culture has emerged, operating on the presence of an evolving generation; a sub-culture of interactionists on the quest for the ultimate in truth and knowledge. Are you ready for the adventure?

KCRW is unique in several ways. The most obvious being that we have a good balance of music, news and public affairs. We’re not a music station throughout the day. Between daylight hours, we have three hours of music of music, that’s Morning Becomes Eclectic with me. The rest of the daytime hours are news and public affairs. We don’t return to music again until 8pm, with Jason Bentley and Metropolis followed by Tricia Halloran and Brave New World. Essentially, the weeknight and weekend hours are devoted mostly to Alternative Music at KCRW. But that’s what makes us very unique. For a lot of people, KCRW is a music station. But when you look at it, we really don’t have a lot of airtime devoted expressly to music, very little of which is spent during daytime hours. That’s sort of a hurdle or handicap for us within the music business. But, I think it’s this balance and combination of all those different elements that make KCRW unique and special. You might be hearing news about events in Bosnia at one minute and then a garage band from Boston the next.