Early life From early on, Keb' Mo's parents, who were from Louisiana and Texas, instilled in him a great appreciation for the
blues and
gospel music. By adolescence, he was an accomplished guitarist.
Career Keb' Mo' started his musical career playing the
steel drums 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 21 years old and Moore appeared on four of Creach's albums:
Filthy!,
Playing My Fiddle for You, ''
I'm the Fiddle Man and Rock Father''. Keb' Mo's first gold record was received for a song, "Git Fiddler", which he co-wrote with Creach on
Jefferson Starship's
Red Octopus.
Red Octopus hit number one on the
Billboard 200 in 1975. Moore was also a staff writer for
A&M Records and arranged demos for Almo – Irving music. Keb' Mo's 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. Keb' Mo' has appeared on stage (1990–1993) in several versions of the musical
Spunk, by
George C. Wolfe, an adaptation of three short stories by
Zora Neale Hurston. His character, Guitar Man, learned while he was an understudy to "Chick Streetman", played all the actual music in the play while performing. The character of Guitar Man is the foundation for his stage persona. In 1994, Keb' Mo' released his self-titled album, ''
Keb' Mo', which featured two Robert Johnson classics, "Come On In My Kitchen" and "Kind Hearted Woman Blues". In the Martin Scorsese miniseries The Blues'', Keb' Mo' states that he was greatly influenced by Johnson. Keb' was the runner-up for Best New Blues Artist at The
Long Beach Blues Festival, where he was spotted by Steve LaVere, who owns the publishing for the entire
Robert Johnson song catalogue (1992–93). Keb' Mo's self-titled album was released on
Okeh Records, a vintage revival division of Sony Music. In 1996, he released
Just Like You, his second album, which featured 12 songs full of
Delta rhythms. He won his first
Grammy Award for this album, which featured guest appearances from
Jackson Browne and
Bonnie Raitt. 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 Friedkin on keyboards to perform 14 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 was not released as a DVD until late 2000. In 1998, Moore was involved in the multi-artist project "Begegnungen (Encounters)" by German rock musician
Peter Maffay. They performed together a new version of Mo's "Am I Wrong" on the album and some more songs in the 30 concerts at the arena tour later the same year, documented on the live album
Begenungen Live, released in early 1999. A further guest of Maffay at the
Begegnungen album and tour was
Sonny Landreth and many more artists from around the world.
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. 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 2001, he appeared on
Sesame Street with
Kermit the Frog,
Grover,
Elmo, and other
muppets performing the song "Everybody Be Yo'self". The album includes an original arrangement of "
America the Beautiful", which he performed years later on the 2006 series finale of
The West Wing, "
Tomorrow", in which he appears as himself to perform the song at the
inauguration of President
Matt Santos. In 2003,
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. Also in 2003, Moore and Lyle Lovett released a cover of the Bob Seger song "'Til it Shines". 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. On October 20, 2009, Keb' Mo' released the live album, ''
Live and Mo'''. at the 2013
Crossroads Guitar Festival, April 12, 2013 At the 2010
Crossroads Guitar Festival, Keb' Mo' performed an acoustic set with
Stefan Grossman and an electric set with
Vince Gill,
Albert Lee,
James Burton,
Earl Klugh and
Sheryl Crow. He joined the finale with most of the day's performers. On August 2, 2011, Keb' Mo' released
The Reflection. Keb' Mo' performed at a White House event titled "In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues" on February 21, 2012. On February 24, 2012, many of the same performers, including Keb' Mo,
Gary Clark Jr.,
Buddy Guy,
Warren Haynes,
Susan Tedeschi and
Derek Trucks, paid tribute to
Hubert Sumlin at the "Howlin' For Hubert" memorial concert at the
Apollo Theater in New York City. On the first night of the 2013
Crossroads Guitar Festival, Keb' Mo' performed a set with
Booker T. Jones,
Steve Cropper,
Blake Mills and
Matt "Guitar" Murphy. Keb' Mo' later performed two songs with emcee
Dan Aykroyd. On the second night of the festival, Keb' Mo' performed with
Taj Mahal. In early 2014, he was nominated for three
Grammy Awards for Best Americana Album (
BLUESAmericana), Best American Roots Performance ("The Old Me Better") and Best Engineered Album Non-Classical (
BLUESAmericana). In May, he appeared alongside
Metallica at MusicCare' 10th Annual MAP Fund Benefit Concert at Nokia honoring
Ozzy Osbourne and Jeff Greenberg. In October 2014 he honored
The Everly Brothers, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 19th annual Music Masters Series, and in November he honored
Mavis Staples alongside
Bonnie Raitt,
Gregg Allman,
Taj Mahal and
Grace Potter, at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre for celebration of Staples' life and career in honor of her 75th birthday. Also in late 2014 he was featured on a
Jackson Browne tribute album,
Looking into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne. In 2015, his album
BLUESAmericana won the 'Contemporary Blues Album' category at the
Blues Music Awards. He has been supportive of charity
Playing For Change since its inception and recently appeared in a video with
Keith Richards' singing
Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up". He appeared on two tracks from the
Playing For Change: Songs Around The World that was released on June 17. The album had over 180 musicians from 31 countries, including
Keith Richards,
Sara Bareilles,
David Hidalgo,
Cesar Rosas, and
Taj Mahal. He donates 5% of
BLUESAmericana to the charity. In late 2015, he performed at a special concert hosted by
Barack Obama called "A Celebration of American Creativity: In Performance at the White House". It was shot and filmed in the
East Room of the
White House. Other performers included
Smokey Robinson,
James Taylor,
Buddy Guy,
Queen Latifah,
Usher,
Trombone Shorty,
MC Lyte,
Audra McDonald,
Esperanza Spalding,
Brian Stokes Mitchell and
Carol Burnett. It commemorated the 50th anniversary of the founding of
Lyndon B. Johnson's
National Foundation on the Arts through the Humanities Act. Keb' Mo' released a live album, ''Keb' Mo' Live – That Hot Pink Blues Album'' on April 15, on Kind of Blue Music/
RED Distribution. Keb' Mo' partnered up with
Taj Mahal to release a joint album,
TajMo, on May 5, 2017. The album has guest appearances by
Bonnie Raitt,
Joe Walsh,
Sheila E., and
Lizz Wright, and has six original compositions and five covers, from artists and bands like
John Mayer and
The Who. The album won the 2018 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. In June 2019, Keb' Mo' released a studio album,
Oklahoma, with guest contributions from
Rosanne Cash,
Jaci Velasquez, Robert Randolph, and Taj Mahal, with a duet with Robbie Brooks Moore (his wife). Keb' Mo' played the
Glastonbury Festival in June 2019 followed by UK and European dates in July 2019. Keb' Mo' performed at the 2019
Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum concert and induction ceremony. Keb' Mo' won the
Grammy Award for "Best Americana Album" in 2020 for
Oklahoma. He was one of the headliners at the 2020 Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai, India.
Film projects In 1998, he portrayed
Robert Johnson in a documentary film, ''Can't You Hear the Wind Howl?'' In 1997, Keb' Mo' portrayed the character Isaac, the Angel of Music, in the episode "Inherit the Wind" and again in 1999 in "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 1997 episode and again 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. The 2003 movie
Holes features a re-recorded rendition of
Just Like You with slightly altered lyrics. In January 2007, he performed at the
Sundance Film Festival. He played the role of the mischievous spirit Possum in the 2007
John Sayles movie
Honeydripper. Keb' Mo' provided additional music for
Mike and Molly. He has co-written the opening music for
B Positive with executive producer
Chuck Lorre. In 2019, Keb' Mo' featured as a guest artist on the PBS concert series
Bluegrass Underground (now re-branded as
The Caverns Sessions).
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 was 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". ==Equipment==