Keb' Mo' - 2000 - The Door (SACD 24 88 2) FLAC torrent

Keb' Mo' - 2000 - The Door
SACD 24 bits, 88.2 KHz

Keb' Mo''s self-titled first album, from its Robert Johnson covers to its appearance on a resuscitated Okeh Records, seemed to suggest the arrival of a Delta blues traditionalist, even though the former Kevin Moore was really a Los Angeles native who had kicked around the music business for years playing various styles of music. The follow-up, Just Like You, was therefore a disappointment to blues purists, since it clearly used folk-blues as a basis to create adult contemporary pop in the Bonnie Raitt mold. But to the music industry, that was just fine, since it fostered the hope that here was an artist (finally!) who could find a way to make the blues -- consistently revered but commercially dicey -- pay, and Keb' Mo' won a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy for his effort. Slow Down (1998) brought him a second Grammy and got even higher in the charts. The Door is more of the same. Keb' Mo''s slightly gritty voice and fingerpicking are the focus of the music, but he does not hesitate to add mainstream pop elements, beginning with writing partners who include Bobby McFerrin and Melissa Manchester, and continuing with a backup band that features such session aces as keyboard player Greg Phillinganes and drummer Jim Keltner. This is music that is folkish and bluesy rather than being actual folk-blues. Just in case anyone hasn't gotten the point yet, Keb' Mo' begins the album's sole cover, Elmore James' "It Hurts Me Too," in authentic folk-blues style, after which the arrangement lurches into a heavily percussive, anything but traditional direction. It's fair warning that the singer/guitarist is interested in tradition only as a jumping-off point. Maybe that's what "contemporary blues" is. (AllMusic)

Track list:
01. The Door
02. Loola Loo
03. It Hurts Me Too
04. Come On Back
05. Stand Up (And Be Strong)
06. Anyway
07. Don't You Know
08. It's All Coming Back
09. Gimme What You Got
10. Mommy Can I Come Home
11. Change
12. The Beginning

Personnel:
Keb' Mo' - guitars, banjo, harmonica, vocals
Jim Keltner, Steve Jordan - drums
Sergio Gonzalez - percussion, drums
Reggie McBride - bass
Scarlet Rivera - violin
Greg Leisz - pedal steel guitar
Greg Phillinganes - synthesizer, pedal steel guitar, keyboards
David Mann, Lawrence Feldman - saxes
Thomas Tally - viola
Gerri Sutyak - cello
Leon Ware, Dennis Collins, Marva Hicks - backup vocals

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