Keb' Mo
(born October 3, 1951 in South Central Los Angeles, California as Kevin Moore
) [1] is an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter.
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Biography
Early life
From early on he had an appreciation for blues and
Gospel music. "The blues is my history, my culture," said Keb' Mo' in an interview. His uncle gave him his first guitar. By adolescence he was already an accomplished guitarist.
[2] He also played the
trumpet and the
French horn.
Career
Keb' Mo' started his musical career playing the
steel drums and
upright bass in a
calypso band. He moved on to play in a variety of blues and backup bands throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He first started recording in the early 1970s with
Jefferson Airplane violinist
Papa John Creach through an R&B group. Creach hired him when Moore was just twenty-one years old; Moore appeared on four of Creach's albums:
Filthy!
,
Playing My Fiddle for You
,
I'm the Fiddle Man
and
Rock Father
.
Around that time Moore was also a staff writer for
A&M Records, and arranged demos for Almo - Irving music. Keb' Mo's early debut,
Rainmaker
, was released on
Chocolate City Records, a subsidiary of
Casablanca Records, in 1980. He was further immersed in the blues with his long stint in the
Whodunit Band, headed by
Bobby "Blue" Bland producer
Monk Higgins. Moore
jammed with
Albert Collins and
Big Joe Turner and emerged as an inheritor of a guarded tradition and as a genuine original.
In 1994, Keb' Mo' released his self-titled debut album,
Keb' Mo'
, which featured two
Robert Johnson covers, "
Come On In My Kitchen" and "
Kind Hearted Woman Blues".
[3] In the Martin Scorsese miniseries
The Blues
, Keb' Mo' states that he was greatly influenced by Johnson. The album received critical and popular acclaim.
In 1996 he released
Just Like You
, his second album, which featured twelve songs full of Delta rhythms. He won his first
Grammy Award for this album, which featured guest appearances from
Jackson Browne and
Bonnie Raitt.
[4]
On June 10, 1997, Moore performed on the television program
Sessions at West 54th
. He joined musicians
Laval Belle on
drums,
Reggie McBride playing
bass, and
Joellen Friedcken on
keyboards to perform fourteen songs, some from each of his albums. Blues pianist
Dr. John also made a guest appearance. This session (known as
Sessions at West 54th: Recorded Live in New York
) was shown on television, but wasn't released as a DVD or video until late 2000, over three years after the performance.
Slow Down
, his next album, was released in 1998 and featured twelve songs. It earned him a second Grammy Award. The album begins with the song "Muddy Water", a tribute to
Muddy Waters. It also features a song entitled "Rainmaker", which had been released previously on his first album, eighteen years prior. The song was rerecorded, though there is little difference to the song itself with no lyrical changes at all.
His fourth album,
The Door
, was released in 2000. The same year, Keb' Mo' released
Big Wide Grin
, a children's album featuring many songs from Moore's own childhood, along with some newer children's songs and some by Moore himself.
In 2003, veteran filmmaker
Martin Scorsese collaborated with many blues musicians including Keb' Mo' to put together a series of films entitled
The Blues
. Following its release, several albums were released in accordance, some were compilations, some new collaborations, and Keb' Mo' released an album in the series featuring a handful of existing recordings from ''Keb' Mo
to
The Door''.
On February 10, 2004, he released
Keep It Simple
which earned him a third Grammy Award, again in the contemporary blues genre. Later that year he released his sixth studio album,
Peace... Back by Popular Demand
.
Moore released
Suitcase
, on June 13, 2006. His touring band following the release included Reggie McBride on bass, Les Falconer III on drums, Jeff Paris on keyboards, and Clayton Gibb on guitar.
Film projects
In 1998 he portrayed
Robert Johnson in a documentary film,
Can't You Hear the Wind Howl?
.
In 1999 Keb' Mo' portrayed the character Isaac, the Angel of Music, in the episode "Then Sings My Soul" of the television series
Touched By an Angel
. He performed "Hand It Over" from his 1996 release
Just Like You
, in the 2002 episode "Remembering Me: Part 2". He also appeared as J. D. Winslow in the 2001 episode "Shallow Water" where he performed his song "God Trying to Get Your Attention" from his album "Slow Down."
In 2006, he appeared on the final episode of
The West Wing
to perform "America the Beautiful."
In January 2007, he performed at the
Sundance Film Festival.
[5]
He played the role of the mischievous spirit Possum in the 2007
John Sayles movie
Honeydripper
.
Political activism
In 2004 he participated in the politically-motivated
Vote for Change tour alongside
Bonnie Raitt and
Jackson Browne, with whom he originally recorded the title track from the album
Just Like You
.
Keb' Mo' is part of the
No Nukes group which is against the expansion of
nuclear power. In 2007 the group recorded a
music video of a new version of the
Buffalo Springfield song "
For What It's Worth".
[6] [7]
Discography
Released
| Album
| Notes
|
1980
| Rainmaker
| Released under the name "Kevin Moore"
|
June 7, 1994
| Keb' Mo'
| Debut album as "Keb' Mo'"
|
June 18, 1996
| Just Like You
| Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, 1997
|
August 25, 1998
| Slow Down
| Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, 1999
|
October 10, 2000
| The Door
|
|
December 4, 2000
| Sessions at West 54th: Recorded Live in New York
| Recorded in 1997
|
June 5, 2001
| ''Big Wide Grin
| Children's album
|
September 19, 2003
| Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Keb' Mo'
| Part of the series The Blues
|
February 10, 2004
| Keep It Simple
| Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, 2005
|
September 21, 2004
| Peace... back by popular demand
|
|
June 13, 2006
| Suitcase
|
|
Other contributions
In 2002, Moore contributed "
Sonnet 35" to the
compilation album,
When Love Speaks
(
EMI Classics), which features famous actors and musicians interpreting
Shakespearean sonnets and play excerpts. Two years later, he appeared on
Amy Grant: Greatest Hits 1986-2004
in a duet entitled "Come Be with Me", which became a modest success on pop radio.
In 2005 he appeared on
Buddy Guy's version of "
Ain't No Sunshine", along with
Tracy Chapman. Moore composed one of the theme songs featured on the show,
Martha Stewart Living
. That same year, he appeared on
Eric Clapton's album
Back Home
. In 2006, he co-wrote the song, "
I Hope", with the
Dixie Chicks for their album,
Taking the Long Way
.
Moore also provided vocals to
Marcus Miller's 2007 album,
Free
on the track entitled "Milky Way" and again on Miller's 2008 album entitled,
Marcus
.
Moore appeared on the June 7, 2008 broadcast of
Garrison Keillor's radio program
A Prairie Home Companion
. He performed two songs with
Bonnie Raitt: "No Getting Over You" and "There Ain't Nothin' in Ramblin'". The show is archived on the
A Prairie Home Companion
website.
References
- Henkle, Doug, "FolkLib Index"
- Keb' Mo' Biography on KebMo.net
- Info about Keb' Mo's first album
- See ''Just Like You'' CD sleeve
- Keb'Mo' Plays at Sundance 2007 » Propeller
- “For What It’s Worth,” No Nukes Reunite After Thirty Years
- Musicians Act to Stop New Atomic Reactors