Keb’ Mo’

Keb’ Mo’ Bio

Kevin Roosevelt Moore, known professionally as Keb’ Mo’, is an American blues musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Born on 3 October 1951 in South Los Angeles, California, he has been described as a living link to the seminal Delta blues that travelled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America. Drawing on Delta blues as well as folk, rock, jazz, pop and country, he is known for a contemporary, post-modern blues style that has earned him multiple Grammy Awards over a career spanning more than four decades.

The stage name “Keb’ Mo’” was coined by his original drummer, Quentin Dennard, and adopted by his record label as a street-talk abbreviation of his given name. Keb’ Mo’ plays a wide range of instruments, including guitar, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, bass and keyboards, and he continues to record, tour and collaborate with artists across many genres.

Early Life and Background

Keb’ Mo’ was born Kevin Roosevelt Moore on 3 October 1951 in South Los Angeles, California. His parents, who came from Louisiana and Texas, introduced him at an early age to the sounds of blues and gospel music, traditions that would later define his artistic direction. By adolescence, he had become an accomplished guitarist, building a strong technical foundation that would carry him into a professional music career.

Growing up in South Los Angeles during the 1960s and early 1970s exposed him to a wide variety of musical styles, from the gospel and blues of his family roots to the emerging rock and R&B scenes on the West Coast. This diverse environment helped shape his ability to move fluidly between genres and contributed to the eclectic approach that has marked his career. He began his professional music life in the early 1970s playing the steel drums in a calypso band before moving on to perform with a range of blues and backup groups throughout the decade.

Path to Music

Keb’ Mo’s first major break came in the early 1970s when Jefferson Airplane violinist Papa John Creach hired him at the age of 21. Moore went on to appear on four of Creach’s albums, including Filthy!, Playing My Fiddle for You, I’m the Fiddle Man and Rock Father, and co-wrote the song “Git Fiddler” on Jefferson Starship’s Red Octopus, which topped the Billboard 200 in 1975 and earned him his first gold record.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he also worked as a staff writer for A&M Records and arranged demos for Almo–Irving Music. He spent a long stint in the Whodunit Band, which was led by Bobby “Blue” Bland producer Monk Higgins, and he jammed with major blues figures such as Albert Collins and Big Joe Turner. His debut solo album, Rainmaker, was released in 1980 on Chocolate City Records, a subsidiary of Casablanca Records, and he later joined the cast of George C. Wolfe’s 1990–1993 stage production Spunk, where the character Guitar Man became the foundation for his later stage persona.

Keb’ Mo’ Career

Early Career (1970s–1993)

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Keb’ Mo’ built a reputation as a versatile session musician, backing artist and songwriter in Los Angeles. His work with Papa John Creach and Jefferson Starship, combined with his time in Monk Higgins’ Whodunit Band, helped him develop a deep command of blues forms and stage performance. The release of his 1980 debut Rainmaker marked his first step toward a solo identity, even as he continued to support other artists behind the scenes.

During the early 1990s, he appeared on stage in several versions of the musical Spunk, an adaptation of three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston, where he served as an understudy before playing Guitar Man, the role that inspired his future stage name. He was the runner-up for Best New Blues Artist at the Long Beach Blues Festival, where he was spotted by Robert Johnson publishing owner Steve LaVere, a connection that would prove central to his breakthrough album.

Breakthrough (1994–2000)

In 1994, Keb’ Mo’ released his self-titled album Keb’ Mo’ on Okeh Records, a vintage revival division of Sony Music. The album featured two Robert Johnson classics, “Come On In My Kitchen” and “Kind Hearted Woman Blues”, and reflected his deep study of Delta blues traditions. The release established him as a major voice in contemporary blues and earned him the W.C. Handy Award for Best Country/Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in 1995.

His second album, Just Like You, arrived in 1996 and featured guest appearances from Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, along with twelve songs built on Delta rhythms. The album won his first Grammy Award and cemented his crossover appeal. In 1998, he released Slow Down, which opened with the tribute song “Muddy Water” and earned him a second Grammy Award, and in 2000 he released The Door, further expanding his sound while continuing to draw on blues roots.

That same year, he also released Big Wide Grin, a children’s album that included an original arrangement of “America the Beautiful”, a song he later performed on the 2006 series finale of The West Wing. He also made television appearances on Sessions at West 54th in 1997, joined Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne on the 2004 Vote for Change tour, and portrayed blues legend Robert Johnson in the 1998 documentary Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl?.

Notable Works and Milestones

Among Keb’ Mo’s signature albums are his 1994 self-titled breakthrough, the Grammy-winning Just Like You (1996), Slow Down (1998), The Door (2000), Keep It Simple (2004), BLUESAmericana (2014), the Grammy-winning TajMo collaboration with Taj Mahal (2017) and the Grammy-winning Oklahoma (2019). He has recorded with a remarkable range of artists, from Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne to Lyle Lovett, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Metallica, Marcus Miller and many others, and he has performed at major events including the White House, the Crossroads Guitar Festival, the Glastonbury Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Music Masters Series.

Keb’ Mo’ Award Nominations

Keb’ Mo’ has received multiple Grammy Award nominations across the contemporary blues, Americana and American roots categories. In early 2014, his work on BLUESAmericana earned nominations for Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Performance for “The Old Me Better” and Best Engineered Album Non-Classical. He has also been recognized at the Blues Music Awards and at the Long Beach Blues Festival, where he was runner-up for Best New Blues Artist in the early 1990s.

Keb’ Mo’ Awards Won

Keb’ Mo’ has won multiple Grammy Awards over the course of his career, including awards for Just Like You, Slow Down and Keep It Simple in the contemporary blues category. In 2018, he and longtime collaborator Taj Mahal won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album for their joint album TajMo, and in 2020 he won the Grammy for Best Americana Album for Oklahoma. He also won the W.C. Handy Award for Best Country/Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in 1995, and in 2015 his album BLUESAmericana took the Contemporary Blues Album prize at the Blues Music Awards.

Keb’ Mo’ Family

Keb’ Mo’ was raised in South Los Angeles by parents who came from Louisiana and Texas and who introduced him early to blues and gospel music. He is married to singer Robbie Brooks Moore, who contributed a duet to his 2019 album Oklahoma.

Personal Life

Keb’ Mo’ lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has been based for many years and where he lost two electric guitars, an Epiphone Sheraton and a Danelectro Selectomatic, in the 2010 Nashville flood. Beyond music, he has taken part in political and charitable work, including the 2004 Vote for Change tour, the No Nukes group’s 2007 recording of “For What It’s Worth”, and ongoing support for the global charity Playing For Change, to which he donates a portion of proceeds from BLUESAmericana.