Keb' Mo' takes 8th Handy Award, releases "Big Wide Grin"

Keb' Mo'

(CNN) -- Keb' Mo' should be grinning from ear to ear after winning the prize for acoustic artist of the year at this year's Handy Awards. It's his eighth award since taking home the prize for best acoustic Album in 1995.

The Handy Awards, put on by The Blues Foundation, were held in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 24th.

The LA-born, singer/songwriter's win comes right before the June 5 release of his 5th album "Big Wide Grin".

Strong on sentiment and with a focuss on family life, the album includes a mix of new songs plus renditions of some of Keb' Mo's personal favorites.

"I know that life and family is not always easy, so I have tried my best to represent family life musically with as many variations and feelings as I could come up with," he explains in the album's liner notes.

The 49-year-old, who used to be known as Kevin Moore, recently performed the album's uplifting song "Everybody Be Yoself" on PBS's Sesame Street.

"Big Wide Grin" comes out right on the heels of his October 2000 release "The Door".

"The Door", which has remained on the Billboard blues album charts since it hit record stores, features a mix of blues and other genres.

Keb' Mo' is known for using basic blues as a foundation in his music, and adding a mixture of rock, pop, soul and even hints of country and gospel.

"I would describe my form of blues as just a little bit of everything that relates to blues and all it's related subjects," said Keb' Mo'. "In a sense I haven't really done anything that really hasn't been done before -- just added me to it."

Nevertheless, he's managed to pick up two Grammy awards, one in 1997 for his album "Just like you", and another in 1999 for "Slow Down."

World Beat recently caught up with Keb' Mo' to talk blues.

Keb' Mo': "When I am writing, what I draw my inspiration from is what has come from before".

World Beat: What does blues mean to you?

Keb' Mo': The blues means the same to me as it does to any other person. Speaking of it not as a musical genre, but as a life experience which is what it is a life experience put to music. I think the blues means to me recover, a means for reflection. It means going through life's bumps and bruises and coming out on the other end and having an appreciation for where you've gone and the strength that it has given you.

World Beat: How do you think your music, evolved through the years?

Keb' Mo': I think it's evolved with me as I have matured in life. You know as I have grown up and become more settled and stable. The blues has kind of made me honest in a sense.

World Beat: Can you take us back to South Central LA when you first started to get into the blues. How did you get into the blues music initially?

Keb'Mo': Well, I got into blues (and) I guess the blues kind of got into me! I wasn't trying to get into blues. I got into blues through two people I can attribute to big time -- actually more than two but I am going to single out these two -- Mulk Higgens and Charlie Tuna. Mulk Higgens being kind of like a record producer and more or less an aficiando of the blues and Charlie Tuna just being a great blues guitar player.

In a sense (he) demonstrated to me with his playing what could be done with the blues in a sense as a tool of communication... He didn't sing much but he could communicate very clearly with his guitar. And he really inspired me. He and working with people like Vernon Garrett, (and) local blues people around LA made me really interested in the blues because they executed it so well.

World Beat: How do you feel about the state of the blues music today, compared to when you got into it years ago?

Keb' Mo': I don't know. I think the state of blues music today is kind of trying to find it's way in a world, where what created it, the times that created it are gone.. you know the circumstances that made blues great, are gone. But the blues aren't gone... In a sense the blues is always trying to find pertinence, always trying to find relevancy in its current state.

The blues is what happens today, when the stock market crashes or when the president that you want doesn't get elected or whatever... It's like that's the blues.