Keb’ Mo’ has pulled off the improbable. He’s a traditional delta blues artist who has somehow become a mainstream star. He has played major events and venues like The White House (twice), Glastonbury Festival, Crossroads Guitar Festival, and the Musicians Hall of Fame. He has been asked to perform tributes to Hubert Sumlin, Gregg Allman, Jackson Browne, Mavis Staples, and the Everly Brothers. How does analog win in a digital world? Quality. It’s his voice, his playing, his authenticity, and the songs. Many of his tunes are originals, yet they fit in alongside those of his heroes. The Los Angeles native feels a responsibility for the blues. His former bandmate and mentor Monk Higgins was a musicologist and stressed the history and their part in it. “It’s not an ownership thing. Your people built this music,” Keb’ Mo’ said he was told by Higgins. “It belongs to everybody, but in a deeper sense, it’s our experience and our music. It made me walk in with pride in the blues. Stewardship is the correct word.”
His is a unique story. Keb’ Mo’ was not signed to a major label record deal until he was 41 years old. The good part was, he had a lifetime of experience and songs and knew what he wanted that first record to be. One of the standouts on the 1994 self-titled debut was “Anybody Seen My Girl”. “That’s the song that started the whole thing off. ‘Anybody Seen My Girl’ was written in 1977. That got me my Casablanca deal (in 1980),” Keb’ Mo said. It was a bittersweet song about his roommates, who were in the process of breaking up. “That’s the first time I saw a man really fight for his woman. There’s a lot in that song, a lot of respect for my friend. They had a kid. It was about their situation. It was the first time I wrote a song about something really real.”
All these years later, Keb’ Mo’ is still vibrant and relevant and creating. In 2018, he won one of his five Grammy Awards for the collaborative album with Taj Majal entitled TajMo. He was first saw Taj Majal while in high school in Compton, California and thought, “Uh oh, something just happened, I don’t know what it is. I just heard something I can’t unhear.” The record is a high point in Keb’ Mo’s discography. The breaking news is that there will be a sequel. “We just finished another one,” he said, which is due in early 2025. “I just finished mastering it. We went through four rounds of mastering to get it right. Working with him is always amazing. He is a blues scholar,” Keb’ Mo’ said of Majal. It takes one to know one.
Keb’ Mo’ is touring this summer, both on his own and with Slash’s SERPENT Blues Festival, which will hit New York on August 4.
You can watch Dave Popkin’s full interview with Keb’ Mo’ here.
Keb’ Mo’ “Anybody Seen My Girl” live at Buddy Guy’s Legends:
Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Majal with Jon Batiste “All Around The World”:
Keb’ Mo’ “Good To Be (Home Again)”:
Keb’ Mo’ “Old Me Better”:
