Hunt's Vocals Trump Shepherd's Guitar

Songs featuring vocals by the talented Noah Hunt make Kenny Wayne Shepherd look like garbage.

Guitarist and singer Shepherd puts together 11 soft rock/alternative songs in the 54-minute album, "The Place You're In." Despite the "soft rock" branding, the guitar solos on this album are outstanding, though at times Shepherd's singing has a whiney quality not aided by occasionally poor lyrics.

"Alive," the first song, is an uplifting tune that balances segments of classic rock and some soft but aggressive guitar solos. The only down side is that the lyrics are a little clich?(c), with phrases like "I feel so alive" and "I want to fly but I ain't got wings."

The poor lyrics continue into song two, "Be Mine," where there are actually a couple sections of straight "La La La." It's hard to believe Shepherd put in any effort at all.

"Ain't Selling Out" has a repetitive background beat that quickly becomes annoying. Perhaps, the "thorn in his side" that Shepherd refers to is the same guitar chord over and over again.

The album picks up on the next track, "Believe, " featuring Hunt. Hunt's singing talent is great, except where Shepherd attempts to complement him with his voice. The instrumentals on this song were spectacular, perhaps because Shepherd was able to focus on his guitar rather than wasting all his time trying to sing. Hunt's superior vocal performance is clear; a whole album with Hunt vocals and Shepherd on guitar would be fantastic.

The song "The Place You're In" seemed to be directed at desperate women. Shepherd comes off as trying to be cool or slick with the ladies and it just doesn't work.

Shepherd sings, "Dream for the day/ Open up your mind/ It don't matter what happens girl/ You got to leave it all behind."

Shepherd sounds more like he's trying to "get some" than produce good music.

"A Little Bit More," again with vocals by Hunt and complemented by Shepherd's guitar, is another brilliant composition. As Shepherd continues to earn comparisons to the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, it's not far off to say that "the sky is crying" for more of the Hunt/Shepherd combination.