Seventy-something guitarist and songwriter Kevin Moore, a.k.a. Keb-Mo likes to be categorized as a blues musician because coming from a blues background he has long paid homage to it, although he developed his own style early on, which is captured in pure form on his new album, Good To Be. “Don’t get me wrong,” he clarifies, “the blues is a very important part of my experience, but it’s not all of who I am musically”. He underscores this statement with a collection of original compositions that definitely can't be pigeonholed as blues, but have a distinct country flair and pay homage to rock to soul, among other things, and can just as easily pass for Americana. "This album shows where I'm at right now," says Keb Mo. "It may not fit neatly into any particular category, even though the music business and algorithms like to put me in the blues genre. Don't get me wrong, the blues is a very important part of my experience, but it's not all I am musically. Years ago, I was driving around L.A. delivering flowers and listening to some of Nashville's biggest artists on the radio, and now that I've lived here for a while, it's probably shaped me even more. So, the album may be 'all over the place,' but the common denominator will always be me."

Keb' Mo' wrote or at least co-wrote the acoustic guitar-accompanied songs on Good to Be himself, with the exception of his very successful cover of Bill Withers' "Lean on Me." With the title track he lovingly pays homage to his birthplace Camden: "It's good to be here/ It's good to be anywhere/ It's good to be back/ It's good to be home again/ Back on the block, back in the hood/ Who would've known, that it would feel so good/ This is the place, that made me strong/ I gotta whole lotta memories, I've been gone too long".

A central, because very personally held song of the new album, which also presents the special style of Keb' Mo' in pure culture is "The Medicine Man". Part sermon, part feel-good song, its message is packaged in words that come across as harmless but pack a punch: "The whole damn world is singing the blues/The president lost, but he won't go/Mother Earth, she needs a little help, you know/I can't tell what the future holds/She might turn to shit, she might turn to gold/Maybe the bees could teach the pigs how to fly/But I'll just love everybody until the day I die."

Good To Be - Nomen est Omen - is, by the way, over long stretches quite geared to making the listener feel relaxed and comfortable, which is by no means to be blamed on the album in a negative way. Above all, however, Keb' Mo' on Good To Be is a master of not only spicing up the blues with elements of country, rock, soul and funk, but also of creating something new out of the mixture in a completely relaxed way that appeals to the listener right off the bat and wins him over. A really well done album.

Keb' Mo', vocals, guitar