Wednesday 7 July 2010

And a Little Mo'


Today has been a great day so far my back so far has been downgraded from severe to bearable on the pain scale and I have just downloaded the new Keb' Mo' album Live and Mo' from ITunes and am quietly chilling out listening to his crossover easy listening Blues sound. If you're not familiar with Mr. Keb' Mo' here's a brief Little history of this great artist:

Keb' Mo' born Kevin Moore on October 3rd 1951 in South Central Los Angeles, he is an American Blues singer, guitarist and songwriter who currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee. From a very early age Keb' had an appreciation for the blues and gospel music and by early adolescence he was already an accomplished guitarist.
His career started with him playing the steel drums and upright bass in a calypso band. He moved on to play in a bunch of blues bands and backing bands throughout the 70s and 80s. His recording career started in the 70s with Jefferson Airplane violinist Papa John Creach through an R&B group. Creach hired him when Keb' was only 21 years old and Keb' appeared on four of Creach's albums, Filthy!, the hilariously entitled Playing my fiddle for you, I'm the fiddle man and Rock Father.

In 1994 Keb' released his self titled debut album, Keb' Mo', which featured two Robert Johnson covers "come on in my kitchen" and "kind hearted woman blues", in the Martin Scorsese miniseries The Blues, Keb' states that he was greatly influenced by Johnson. Which is why in 1998 he went on to portray Robert Johnson in the documentary film Can't you hear the wind howl?


Keb' is also a political activist and in 2004 participated in the politically motivated Vote For Change tour alongside his long time friends and frequent collaborators Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. Keb' Mo' is also part of the No Nukes group which was against the expansion of Nuclear power. In 2007 the group recorded a music video for a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth". Keb' Mo' has also won 3 Grammy Awards over the years for his albums Just Like You, Slow Down and Keep It Simple. Since his debut album Keb' Mo' has released 10 others including his most recent which I'm currently listening to which is a mix of previously released tracks, live recordings and four new songs and would really make a good introduction to his music for anyone who is unfamiliar with him.
The only blip so far today was when I entered the kitchen and didn't realise the floor just next to the fridge was wet and as you've probably guessed the klutz that I am slid on it and went down like a ton of bricks on top of my ankle. The reason for the wet floor was simple my little sidekick Oscar had just been having a drink and drooled it all over the place, now I know that he didn't do this on purpose he's just a messy drinker but when he comes over to you when you've just fell on your butt and he has a big daft grin on his face and those mischievous eyes it's hard not to think he knew what he was doing.

Anyhoo

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

3 comments:

  1. Hello there! Never heard of Keb' Mo' but I'll sure search him on youtube and listen to his music.

    Oscar is so cute. I love big dogs (as well as small ones) have I mentioned I have 4?

    Kiss your cheeks.

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  2. Hello hello!! Soo I spend some time browsing through your posts and decided to comment on the newest one haha. I really like your blog mister! Loved the writing & your train of thought! Keep it up!

    I'm always on the look out for new music artists! There are so many good ones out there who are being overshadowed by the mainstream artists! Thanks a bunch for posting this!

    Consider me your new follower! I shall read a few other posts now. Glad to hear the pain isn't that bad today too!

    Take care mister & waves to Oscar!

    TJ

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  3. G'day Andrew,
    Oscar looks like a charmer and I have three dogs too so I know what you mean by drool and that daft look. Too bad you fell.


    When it comes to learning to live with pain take good care and remember what Yoda said:
    "Do. Do not. There is no try."

    I've never heard of Keb Mo before but your piece was so well written that it captured my attention, held it to the end, and made me want to hear him.

    I found several Keb Mo videos there. I listened to one called "Keep It Simple" and I really liked it. Then I spotted this one Keb'Mo Tribute to Muddy Waters. Check it out because I'll bet you will like it too.

    With much love,
    TiTi

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