Keb’ Mo’: Family Ties
By Brett Leigh Dicks
If Keb’ Mo’ had realized just how far music was going to take him, he says he would have worked a little harder at it early on. But in perusing his impressive resume, it is difficult to imagine that any more youthful diligence could have made a difference. Not only is the acclaimed blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter a three time Grammy Award winner in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category, he has collaborated with everyone from Eric Clapton to the Dixie Chicks. Hailing from Compton, California, Mo’ now resides in Nashville and has released over a dozen albums. His latest, The Reflection, is a stirring introspective journey that offers a masterful embrace of blues, jazz and soul. The intimate nature of the material is a reflection of its genesis with many of the compositions having been co-written with friends including Vince Gill, Maia Sharp and Alan Rich. Having just stepped off a plane from touring through Europe in support of the album, Mo’ shared a few precious moments with Music! The Sounds of Santa Barbara while repacking his suitcase in preparation for his next musical sojourn, an undertaking which this month will see him in Holiday mode at the Lobero Theatre.
Your forthcoming performance at the Lobero Theatre will capture ‘The Spirit of the Holidays.’ What do the holidays mean to you?
What do they mean to me? Oh, wow, I wasn’t ready for that question. Well, for me the holidays are about family. Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful and Christmas time is a time for giving and a time to reflect on whatever religious beliefs you have. Christmas means different things to people. It’s a celebration of the birth of Christ and I’m a very spiritual guy, but I’m not one to dig deep into Jesus. The holiday for me is more a spiritual thing. It’s not religious to me. And I think Christmas has been taken advantage of. It’s been hijacked by commerciality. But on a personal level, it’s a time to reflect.
Reflecting has seemingly been something you have been doing a lot of recently. Your latest album is of course titled The Reflection. What has inspired this bout of contemplation?
That was brought on by an end of an era, an end of one era and the beginning of a new era for me. Record companies are not so important anymore and I when I went into this album I didn’t have a record deal. So I had to figure out more about who I was and how I operate in the world and what I was going to do. All this reflection brought on the making of this record. It’s the process I went through to arrive at the place to make that album.
The album evolved into a very personal undertaking, on many levels. Along with the reflecting there is the writing. The album features an array of co-writes. What drew you to the various collaborators?
They’re my friends. Maia Sharp, she’s a good friend of mine and a great writer. And Alan Rich is a friend of mine and I’ve known him since the early 1980s. I knew him before he was a big hit writer. These are people who I know and who I choose to surround myself with. My friends are highly creative people who help me to deliver my message.
That’s very impressive because when I get together with my friends to do something we never seen to get anything done!
Yeah, I hear you! You know, that’s friendship. It’s a lot of things. There are a lot of levels. It’s about camaraderie on a really deep level. You learn from each other. And it’s a way to share something creative. I like to talk with my friends when we are writing these songs. We talk about very deep and intimate and personal things. We get to share those with each other and at the same time by putting those into song we get to share them with the world too.
And they take on an energy of their own …
Yeah. These songs, people use them to share their own personal feelings too, you know? They play them at weddings and funerals. They fall in love to a song and they dance to it. They become a part of their lives too. You find like souls and find people who will share what you’re feeling. It’s an exchange of energy.
When you sit down to write with someone, how does it work?
You get together and just start talking and from that comes a little vignette that develops into something that becomes art. That’s how it works. You bounce things off each other and when it works, it’s like an echo. When you agree that it’s something good, it resonates. And it’s fun. It’s a confidence builder too. You look at each other and say, ‘Yeah, that’s good, let’s go forward with that.’
You alluded to songs becoming part of people’s lives. “Something Within” must be a song like that for you. It features your family, including a vintage recording of your grandfather …
That’s a big deal right there, the grandfather on the record. That recording was made before I even had a career. He passed in the late eighties. It started with my Uncle Herman. He had a cassette tape of my grandfather singing “Something Within” a cappella that he recorded on a boom box at his house. I put it on a CD and gave it back to him and to members of my family so they would all have it. It was something I wanted to share with the whole family. It’s an acknowledgment of family and it’s something that involves them and something they take ownership of on some level.
How did music enter your life?
I kept running into music all the time. The great thing about back then was that they still had music in the schools. There were music programs and bands you could actually play an instrument at school. It was part of my education and that’s what I’m so grateful for. Having music instruments in the school is important to expose young minds to art and culture and creativity. I was the kind of kid who was just going to school because your Mama told you to. Not necessarily going for any kind of purpose. I don’t think any of us kids liked school. We would have much rather been playing ball out in the streets. But because of music we kept going and we were able to figure out who we were and forge relationship and friendships and grow up. It was a very important time in my life. Music was always on my block, and it was in my school. I was just fortunate that I kept bumping into it and not anything else, you know?
Did you have any idea back then that this is what you were going to do with your life?
Had I known that it was going to be such a big part of my future I would have studied much harder! I was really lackadaisical about it. I would have gone to college and studied. I would have taken it a lot more seriously but, then again, if I had taken it a lot more seriously maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now. Ignorance is bliss I guess. When I sit and play in front of the audience and I play my style of guitar, I wish I had had known that this was possible when I was younger, that I could achieve something like this, because I really would have worked harder. It would have been really inspiring. I just thought when I get out of school I would get a job like everybody else did have a few kids and nagging wife. I really thought things would be pretty ordinary, but it didn’t turn out like that. And that was a real surprise to me.
It must be very satisfying though to have achieved what you have….
Having all this success is a little strange to me. So that’s why my work ethic now is so strong, because I’m really grateful and I really want people to be inspired when they come to the shows and feel like they got their money’s worth. So I try and tell good stories and sing and play to the best to my ability and bring a good band.
Keb’ Mo’ performs at the Lobero Theater on December 6th.
