Keb' Mo' paints a blues panorama with a moral center

If a body can’t swing to Keb’ Mo’s Blues Americana, it might not have a swing gene at all. Nominated for Best Americana Album at the Grammy Awards, Mo’s latest installment continues his tried and true path of combining old blues and new. The busy blend of guitar, banjo, and harmonica transports the listener back an era or two into a smoky backwater tavern for a late night jam session. The clincher is and always has been Keb’ Mo’s voice—with just enough crackle to moan about hard times and just enough clean to have it come right in the end.

The album gets rolling right from the start with the rollicking and amusing “The Worst Is Yet To Come,” which channels Mo’s inner Murphy (of Murphy’s Law fame) as he encounters one mishap after another. Mo’ begins by dolefully recounting that he, “Didn’t get no breakfast / didn’t get no lunch / but I did get two weeks notice / they gonna close the factory up.” After being laid off, his car breaks down, and he comes home to find his girl left him and took everything in the house (“even the bedbugs up and run”).

Despite it all, Mo’ chooses optimism—it’s almost impossible to avoid with the bass and mandolin thumping along so happily. It’s that sunny outlook in particular that keeps Mo’s problems in perspective: “The sun keeps on shining / just like it should / take a look around / and I’m doing pretty good.”

Although love didn’t work out for that ill-fated character, Keb’ Mo’ takes a more positive tack in the New Orleans shuffle, “Do It Right.” Atop the twangy snapping of a dobro and shuffle-pop beat, Mo’ recalls when he “used to think love was a dangerous thing / lure you and trap you in a pretty thing / but you made me want to love you, respect you, protect you, baby.” Mo’ celebrates because “like a needle in a haystack, love is hard to find.” But the end result of Mo’s message about love makes it seem more like good fortune than a product of hard work.

These shortcomings are rectified in the thoughtful “For Better Or Worse,” in which Mo’ hauntingly asks, “So what do we do now / it’s getting harder every day? / Do we try and work it out? / Or do we turn and walk away?” Tasty organ and subtly sliding B.B. King-style blues licks accompany Mo’s readiness to undertake the heavy labor and commitment that a marriage requires: “I’m willing, if you’re willing / to dig deep and stay up all night / I’ll listen, if you’ll listen / no matter how bad it hurts / for better or worse.”

His song “Move” presents a litany of troubling problems, the solution to which is to not get bogged down but just “move.” The problem is, wherever a man moves, he still drags with him the essential problem: himself. Boxer Joe Louis once said about a quick-footed rival, “He can run, but he can’t hide.” The same could be said of every man and his sin problem.

Despite its teasing humor—and occasionally coarse language and themes—Blues Americana offers a folk and blues panorama with a moral center. Unfortunately, Mo’ looks at life through a compassionate lens but not a Biblical one.

Grammy Award nominees

The 57th annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held Sunday night. Here are a few of the artists nominated in the top four categories:

Record of the Year

Album of the Year

Song of the Year

Best New Artist