ALBUM REVIEW: ‘Ooh Yeah!’ Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne’s Latest is Boogie-Woogie Good
Grant Britt
Posted On December 30, 2024
EDITOR’S NOTE: Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne’s Ooh Yeah! was released on Nov. 15 on Stony Plain Records. We’re reviewing it now as part of a year-end round up of some of the best albums we missed along the way this year.
Kenny Wayne bills himself as a blues boss, but he’s a boogie-woogie king as well. Although he’s resided in Vancouver since the early ’80s, the Spokane, Washington native’s influences are from the American side of the border. Echoes of Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner, Charles Brown, and Floyd Dixon squirt out between the pianist’s fingers.
Rolling out strong on the title cut, Wayne tosses bucketloads of boogie and woogie around in a twitchy ode to the music that inspires dance floor mania when unleashed.
Wayne throws a change-up for “Whatcha Gonna Do Now.” What the hell is a banjo doing here? Sounds like Allen Toussaint in Appalachia, preaching a sermon on climate change, funky in the back and high and lonesome out front. Strange, but it commands your attention, the banjo constantly poking you in the ribs as Wayne keeps asking what are you gonna do to get things under control.
Wayne’s back again with banjo backing on “Try It Out,” sounding like Leon Russell in ’79 when New Grass Revival was backing him. But Wayne adds another level to the take with a Muscle Shoals-worthy horn section featuring Kaven Jalbert’s raucous tenor sax solo.
The pianist lays hard on the woogie on the little Richard-flavored “Honey, Honey, Honey” with a Chuck Berry choogle in the middle. Like all the other cuts on the record, it’s an original, but tailored to fit in Jerry Lee and Fats Domino’s musical wardrobes as well.
Wayne dips deep into southern soul with “It’s Pouring Down,” smooth as Tyrone Davis or Don Covay. Its roots are showing, churchy chords holding up a melody that could have walked down the aisle and out the worship house door to visit the blues joint down the street.
An innovate lyricist who doesn’t rely on cliches to get his message across, the octogenarian bluesman has used his time on the planet well, relating his life experiences in a manner that holds your attention without beating you over the head with them. A thinking man’s dance music to free your mind and stretch your legs.
