Good To Be...

Grammy-winning blues and Americana musician Keb' Mo's latest, Good To Be, melds lofty ambitions with deeply personal inspirations. When asked what makes his 19th studio album in 42 years worth hearing, the 70-year-old artist born Kevin Moore in South Los Angeles' Compton neighborhood offers a simple yet powerful answer: "Everyone forgets about it every 20 years or so, but the blues is the truth. It's like gospel or 90s R&B -- when you hear it, you know it."

Returning more than two decades later, Keb' Mo' recorded most of this album in Compton, as he was renovating the house he grew up in and that his mother, Lauvella Cole, owned until she died in September 2018 at 91.

"You can't be anything but real when you're walking down the same streets you used to ride your bike on as a kid. So in a lot of ways, coming back there felt like it completed me," he says.

Darius Rucker, Kristin Chenoweth, Americana string band Old Crow Medicine Show, bassist Marcus Miller, and emerging star guitarist Christone "Kingfish" Ingram are guests on Keb' Mo's latest album. It's a varied list of timeless and contemporary collaborators that highlights the artist's happiness and his gratitude for success. And Keb' Mo' has "no interest in slowing down" and remains intent "going for it every single day," he said.