Keb' Mo'

Infobox musical artist
Name = Keb' Mo'


Img_capt = Keb' Mo' in 2006 at the Rhythm & Ribs Festival, Kansas City
Img_size = 145
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Kevin Moore
Born = birth date and age|1951|10|3
South Central Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died =
Origin = Compton, California, U.S.
Instrument = vocals, guitar, banjo, keyboards
Genre = Delta blues, Country blues
Occupation = Singer-songwriter, guitarist
Years_active = 1980–1982
1993–present
Label = Chocolate City, Epic
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.kebmo.com/ www.kebmo.com]

Keb' Mo' (born October 3, 1951 in South Central Los Angeles, California as Kevin Moore) [Henkle, Doug, [http://www.folklib.net/index/discog/birth2days.shtml "FolkLib Index"] ] is an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter.

Biography

Early life

Keb' Mo' came from a divorced family.Fact|date=July 2008 From early on he had an appreciation for blues and Gospel music. "The blues is my history, my culture," said Keb' Mo' in an interviewFact|date=March 2007. His uncle gave him his first guitar. By adolescence he was already an accomplished guitarist. [ [http://www.kebmo.net/ Keb' Mo'] Biography on KebMo.net] He also played the trumpet and the French horn.Fact|date=July 2008

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 Starship 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". [ [http://www.wirz.de/music/rarearly.htm Info about Keb' Mo's first album] ] In the Martin Scorsese miniseries "The Blues", Keb' Mo' states that he was greatly influenced by Johnson. The album received critical and popular acclaim.Fact|date=July 2008

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. [See "Just Like You" CD sleeve]

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 "") 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". 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 in the last episode of "the West Wing" to perform "America the Beautiful".

In January 2007, he performed at the Sundance Film Festival. [ [http://music.netscape.com/story/2007/01/28/kebmo-plays-at-sundance-2007 Keb'Mo' Plays at Sundance 2007 » Propeller ] ]

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". [ [http://www.nukefree.org/node/96 “For What It’s Worth,” No Nukes Reunite After Thirty Years] ] [ [http://www.nirs.org/home.htm Musicians Act to Stop New Atomic Reactors] ]

Discography

Other contributions

In 2004, Moore appeared on in a duet with Grant entitled "Come Be with Me", which became a modest success on pop radio. In 2006, he cowrote the song "I Hope" with the Dixie Chicks for their album "Taking the Long Way". In 2005 he appeared on Buddy Guy's version "Ain't No Sunshine" along with Tracey Chapman. Moore composed one of the theme songs featured on the show "Martha Stewart Living". In 2005, he also appeared on Eric Clapton's album "Back Home".

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

External links

* [http://www.kebmo.net/ Keb' Mo'] official website
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