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Sam Bryant
Kenny Wayne Shepherd's GrooveologistIt took a little
inside politics and a lot of passionate playing to get Sam Bryant
into
The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band four years ago. Shepherd and his band
were running up and down the East Coast to
support their 1995 release
Ledbetter Heights when they made a stop in Bryant's hometown of
Wilmington, North
Carolina. Bryant heard Shepherd was looking for a new
stickman, so he wrangled his band the opening slot. "You couldn't
ask
for a better situation," Bryant says. "I most definitely had an agenda
as far as trying to figure out how to get in that
band."
Kenny and Sam have been together ever since. What makes their
relationship a touch different, though, is
that Bryant is the touring
drummer, and famed Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton plays on the
albums. Bryant has
managed to get his playing on record, appearing on
the Live On album tracks "Them Changes," "Shotgun Blues," and
"Oh
Well." "Naturally I would love to have been able to do the whole
album," Sam admits. "But I don't have a problem
with it at all, because
it's a different flavor and a different groove."
Bryant reports that he learned the art of the
shuffle from
Layton, and he's also been influenced by "grooveologists" such as Steve
Gadd, Dennis Chambers, Jeff
Porcaro, and Carter Beauford. "Their
grooves are very thick and hard," he says. "I listen to those cats for
inspiration and to
see how they lay those grooves down. That's where I
want to be, right there with
them."
David John Farinella
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