Picked up a couple of CDs today, KWS being one of those names I’d heard of but not known. Damn, son can play. Reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughn. So i guess my question is, is this guy as good as I think he is? Is it possible for those who love SRV to have disdain for KWS?
I’m not sure I understand. He’s a great guitarist who grew up an unabashed SRV fanboy and copped much of his style from him. KWS can be a big rockier - but yeah, he’s really talented.
I suppose any SRV fanboy could look down at the KWS or John Mayers of the world who clearly idolize and try to emulate their hero. But SRV was doing that with Hendrix. So it goes.
I’m about 10 times more likely to pull out a KWS album than an SRV one to listen to now.
Lightnin Hopkins
KWS definitely has the talent. I’ve seen him ‘live’ four times, and he has different styles of playing, a lot certainly SRV-influenced you could say, but also a good amount of his own style.
And this is from someone who has seen/met SRV dozens+ of times (in Austin where I lived), plus spent a number of evenings sitting on amps watching SRV jamming along with the Fab T-Birds (or most of them, it varied who was there a lot) during rehearsal/practices at a house near a then-friend. Smokin’ good times…but gotta say KWS has ~similar talent, but a style of a slightly to greatly different manner oftentimes. I will say that SRV played ‘live’ better than KWS, IMHO. But to each their own in their comparisons of stage performing.
If OP ever has chance, go see KWS play live - well worth it, I promise!
I saw KWS play live when he was at the height of his substance abuse problems. It was so bad that he was literally lurching around the stage and had to be stopped from leaving by a handler and taken back to the front of the stage and handed his guitar to resume playing when the next song began.
Yet, with all of that going on, once the music started, the brilliance and the total committment to the music was obvious.
My read on the real difference between SRV and KWS has to do less with technique and more with emotional depth. I give SRV the nod as the better technician (although not by a lot), and I do not mean to denigrate his connection with his music, but KWS somehow seemed to find the bottom under the bottom of the blues in the way that only the truly great ones can.
I regret that the two were never able to play together. There could have been some magic there, I think, along the lines of Eric Clapton and Duane Allman on the Layla album.
It is possible for some of us to distain both KWS SRV.
I would add Jonny Lang into the SRV and KWS equation. He’s phenomenal.
Eh, he’s more about the Jesus music nowadays, not so much the blues rock.
Another guitarist with an SRV connection is Colin James. He opened for SRV back in the day. And Stevie was said to have commented that Colin would be the next great guitarist. You can coearly hear SRV’s influence.
KWS covering Dylan. One thing about KWS vs. SRV is that KWS didn’t sing while SRV did. Kenny had some great vocalists early on and later started doing some vocals himself.
Also, (trivia) KWS is married to Mel Gibson’s eldest daughter Hannah.
To be fair, KWS has the distinct advantage of still being alive, and spent a very long time building off of what SRV had already built. I mean the kid was 13 when SRV died, and it took him at least a decade to really develop his own distinct sound.
You don’t like either of them because of their “More is More” approach?
I like Stevie - I’ve listened to far, far more of his stuff vs. KWS. I moved to heavy-gauge strings and a cleaner-but-gritty tone because of him. I don’t actively listen to him often - I almost don’t need to; I can touch a CD of his and get a contact high off it.
I no longer look to him for influence. His muscular style is too over the top. I am after a Less is More feel.