Keb' Mo'

Nowadays, not too many bluesmen make their way to the mainstream at all, let alone without watering down their sound. But somehow, Keb' Mo' — known to the DMV as Kevin Moore — broke through with his blues-soaked vision intact. He was already in his forties when his star began ascending with his self-titled 1994 debut, and all those years of experience shine through the sharp, syncopated country-blues of "Am I Wrong," powered by some fierce, percussive picking. Mo' adds a funky backing band to his Mississippi Delta dreams for a sexy, simmering take on Robert Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen." And with his swampy slide licks and soulful moan, he even manages to make "America the Beautiful" sound like something that wafted in across the Yazoo River.

Keb' Mo' sings the baby to sleep, then gets the grown-ups in a good-time party mood, in Next Steps.

Part of Keb' Mo's gift is his knack for shifting in and out of different styles at will without ever abandoning his blues base. True to its title, "Lullaby Baby Blues" is a gentle ballad custom-made for whisking wee ones off to dreamland. Meanwhile, "Everybody Be Yo'self" is bound to wake anyone within earshot, with its rolling New Orleans second-line groove and loose, loud party vibe. And on "Tell Everybody I Know," Mo' manages a triple-play, blending Delta blues licks with a reggae bounce and hill-county folk feel, even busting out a banjo for the occasion.

Mo' goes old-school — tackling country and folk traditions, in Deep Cuts.

There's no denying Keb' Mo's gifts as a songsmith, but like any bluesman worth his salt, he knows how to get inside the soul of someone else's song too. He stands up to the towering shadow of his hero Robert Johnson on a soul-searing version of the Delta blues king's tearful train tale "Love In Vain." Staying in a melancholy mood, Mo' tugs even harder on our tear ducts by laying some blues moves on Hank Williams' mournful country moan "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." He knows how to tap into an even older tradition, too, breathing new, bluesy life into "Stack O Lee" — often known as "Stagger Lee" — a murderous folk tale that goes back more than a century.

Keb' Mo' may have been born in L.A., but his heart is deep in the Mississippi Delta that birthed the country-blues licks he lashes out of his acoustic six-string like so many Southern-fried lightning bolts. Of course, his feet are planted wherever his wandering soul decides to roam — sometimes Mo's restless muse leads him towards the fat, funky grooves of Memphis soul, other times to the street-parade stomp of New Orleans R&B, and other times still to an indefinable point on the musical map where folk, funk, pop, jazz, and more mix freely with his blues roots for a sound that can be adequately described only as Keb' Mo'. Whether he's coming off like a blues-baked Al Green on "Remain Silent" or injecting a touch of gospel soul into Buffalo Springfield's classic-rock smash "For What It's Worth," you'll find all the killer cuts of Keb' Mo's career collected right here.