Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 is a national treasure. Can we just agree on that before we get started?<\/p>\n
The man has spent the last 20 years bringing the blues to mainstream audiences. There will be purists who say he\u2019s not as authentic a bluesman as he could be because he can gets a little folky and introspective and sometimes writes songs that use sweetly melodic acoustic guitar and banjo rather than dirty electric. But when you hear Mo\u2019 bust loose on a classic old-time blues\u2014as he always does eventually\u2014there can be no doubt he\u2019s the real thing. The difference is that Mo\u2019 is an artist whose work doesn\u2019t live only inside the blues idiom; he stretches across boundaries and drops in and out of blues, Americana, r&b, folk, New Orleans jazz, and more, with the common thread being his distinctive, genuine voice. And isn\u2019t that what the blues is all about, in the end\u2014singing about life in a genuine voice? <\/p>\n
That\u2019s the backstory to Mo\u2019s 12th album BLUESAmericana<\/i>, whose title suggests a characteristically matter-of-fact declaration of the genre-straddling nature of his work. Like any bluesman worth his salt, he knows how to turn the ups and downs of everyday life into engaging entertainment, as opener \u201cThe Worst Is Yet To Come\u201d demonstrates, cataloguing a day filled with calamities small and large. In typical Mo\u2019 style, though, he defies expectations by wrapping this tale of travail in a steady-on mid-tempo beat decorated with banjo and harmonica, to the point where it almost feels like he\u2019s celebrating the bad things that are happening to him, not in a contrary way, but in an amused\/exasperated way, as in \u201ccan you believe this sh#@?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody Hurt You\u201d digs deeper into the blues with its back-porch sing-along handclaps and repeats, and gospel call-and-answer vocal arrangement. Up third, \u201cDo It Right\u201d is an anti-blues, an upbeat affirmation and statement of purpose from a narrator who\u2019s screwed up relationships in the past, but is ready to commit to a real one now. The sense of romantic optimism continues with the gently funky \u201cI\u2019m Gonna Be Your Man.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMove\u201d rides a dark, pulsing groove, a tune about changing your life, hopefully for the better. The emotional center of this album arrives with \u201cFor Better Or Worse,\u201d an eloquent tune about what the word \u201ccommitment\u201d really means: doing the hard work it takes to navigate a relationship through changes and challenges. It\u2019s a mature love song, arranged as a pretty acoustic ballad, with Paul Franklin\u2019s pedal steel accents lending the song a country-folk feel: \u201cI\u2019m willing, if you\u2019re willing \/ To dig deep and stay up all night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right there, at the farthest point Mo travels from classic blues on this album, is where he turns around and delivers \u201cThat\u2019s Alright,\u201d a classic old Jimmy Rogers \u201cwoman done me wrong\u201d blues thumper, lovingly restored by master craftsman Mo\u2019. The album\u2019s second highlight follows, as Mo\u2019 enlists the California Feetwarmers to give his wickedly sassy \u201cThe Old Me Better\u201d a full-on Dixieland jazz treatment that\u2019s guaranteed to leave a smile on your face.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore For Your Money\u201d is a pointed economic blues, mixing socio-political commentary with a simple, acoustic-plucked number: \u201cI got a Chinese phone and a Japanese car \/ But the gasoline takes me twice as far.\u201d Things close out on a somber note with the resigned, elegiac \u201cit\u2019s time to call it quits\u201d song \u201cSo Long Goodbye.\u201d Something in the changes and arrangement has a distinct James Taylor feel to it, bringing us back around to the Americana.<\/p>\n
To me the key part of the title is not \u201cblues\u201d or \u201cAmericana\u201d; it\u2019s \u201cAmerican.\u201d As in, this is quintessentially American music, drawing from strands of musical tradition ranging from the hills of Kentucky to the swamps of Louisiana, stirring in elements from urban r&b and classic jazz and acoustic singer-songwriter genres to create a genuinely frothy blend.<\/p>\n
The other thing about Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 is that he just doesn\u2019t put out bad albums; I have everything he’s issued over the past two decades, and there isn\u2019t a slacker in the bunch. That track record of consistent craftsmanship and genuine passion for his music is what makes Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 a truly special artist. Long may he run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7091],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43778","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-keb-mo","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43778"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}