Kenny Wayne does not want to be the president …. according to his new single
2020 Western Canadian Music Award nominee Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne does nothing short of go for it on his latest single from this year’s album, Go, Just Do It!
It’s a cover of Percy Mayfield’s “I Don’t Want to be the President,” featuring hip hop rhymes by SeQuaL — aka his son, Cory Spruell.
“I actually stumbled across this song and had music already written that would fit perfectly,” Kenny said of the track’s creation. “And the timing was right to mention the importance of this year’s election.
“To help get this message across, it needed a good beat… It needed a younger generation person to get the message to the youth.”
That’s were SeQuaL came in.
“I’m not looking for a different path,” 75-year old Kenny said. “I love that jump blues and boogie-woogie. That’s where my heart is at.
“I’m just trying to keep that style alive…. That’s classic stuff, and I’m at that classic age, so it all works out.”
Inducted into the Boogie Woogie Piano Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, Kenny Wayne also lines his shelf with seven Maple Blues Awards, a Juno Award, three Living Blues keyboard awards, and more.
His 11-album catalogue resembles a swirling, savoury pot of musical gumbo, richly layered with flavours of Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, gospel, jazz, Latin, R&B and soul, and dashes of bebop and swing for good measure. But Go, Just Do It! might be his spiciest serving yet.
In addition to SeQuel, guests on Go, Just Do It! include Grammy award-winner Diane Schuur, former B.B. King bassist Russell Jackson, powerhouse horn players Jerry Cook and Vince Mai (both mainstays with Powder Blues, Colin James, and more), and Boogie Patrol guitarist Yuji Ihara. There’s also Juno award-winning former Parachute Club-er Julie Masi, award-winning Montreal vocalist Dawn Tyler Watson, Joey DiMarco on drums, and Incognito band and harp ace Sherman “Tank” Doucette.
“I Don’t Want To Be The President” and Go, Just Do It! are available now via Stony Plain Records.
