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Kenny Wayne Shepherd, pictured with his trusty '61 Strat, releases his new album, How I Go, on 2 August. © Tim Mosenfelder/Corbis

"I used to bang out records kind of back-to-back," says blues marvel Kenny Wayne Shepherd. "Lately, though, I've waited a bit more for inspiration to come to me. Still, it's not like I've been sitting idly by – I've put out records, they just haven't been studio albums."

It's true: Shepherd has released records since 2004's The Place You're In - in 2007 there was 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads, a Grammy nominated-CD/DVD that documented the guitarist's musical encounters with blues pioneers; and last year he issued the bracing live disc, Live! in Chicago, which featured performances by Hubert Sumlin and Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith, among others.

Even so, Shepherd's legion of fans have clamored for a brand-new studio offering, and on 2 August their wishes will come true with the release of How I Go, a masterful 13-song set (a 'special edition' version features four additional cuts) which could very well be the Louisiana-born axman and songwriter's strongest effort to date.

Shepherd co-produced How I Go with Jerry Harrison, whom he's worked with previously. "I wrote for maybe a year, year and a half, and then we spent probably a year in the studio, maybe more," says Shepherd. "But it wasn't like we were recording the entire time – I fit in a lot of touring. I just wanted to make sure that everything with this album was really right. I let the music guide me and dictate the pace."

Diversity and taste rule the day on How I Go. From the straight-ahead, butt-kicking rocker Never Lookin' Back (you can order the song from iTunes here) to the this-close-to-metal The Wire to the shimmering pop ballad Who's Gonna Catch You Now?, Shepherd and his band (lead singer Noah Hunt, keyboardist Riley Osbourn, along with the always steady rhythm section of Chris Layton on drums and Tommy Shannon on bass) ace their way through a wide range of genres. Fiery, blues-based guitar playing, of course, remains Shepherd's raison d'etre, and on the new album he simply astonishes.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd sat down with MusicRadar recently to talk about the making of How I Go, the guitars and gear he used on the record (his treasured '61 Strat is the heart and soul of his sound). What's more, he filled us in on what it was like to play the actual guitar that Jimi Hendrix performed with at Woodstock.

The new album has a very punchy sound, not overly produced, but there's definitely a nice sheen to it. How did the band set up in the studio? And did you play any solos live?

"I definitely like the band to play live in the studio. We don't go in and do things one instrument at a time. On The Place You're In, we did that because the producer, Marti Frederiksen, and I played the majority of the instruments on it. On this record, I approached it the way I've always liked tracking: the band set up and played together. Not necessarily the way we would be as if we were playing a show, but definitely altogether in the room, with the exception of whoever's singing, whether it's me or Noah. If I'm singing, we just track it and I sing it later.

"The kind of music I make is meant to be played live by musicians working together, inspiring one another, vibing off of each other. When you don't do that, I think you can hear a disconnect. When you nail the groove of the rhythm section and my rhythm guitar, then you've got something to build on. In a lot of cases, what you hear are the first passes.

"A lot of the solos are overdubs, but there was one I played live. I can't remember which one, but there was a slight problem because we were getting too much bleed-over into the drum mic. But it was a great solo, so we ended up using it. [pauses] I'm drawing a blank on which one it was now!" [laughs]

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