Keb' Mo

Keb' Mo' is the man who'll be almost single-handedly responsible when satellite radio kicks off the "New Smooth Blues" format. He also must possess a pair of brass balls. After all, he kicks off his latest album, Keep It Simple, with a song called "France," a highbrow-raiser about someone struggling with his baby's need to visit Paree. Mo' even risks the tongue-in-cheek "Prosperity Blues," suggesting that since his career has taken off (and it has), he just hasn't been able to get quite sad enough for the blues. Early reviews tagged him as "the next Taj Mahal," but there's more than a little evidence that Mo' has gone a long way toward absorbing Lyle Lovett's genre bends and lyrical twists after touring and dueting with him on the Mumford soundtrack. Gutbucket he ain't, but Mo' has found his niche, working his gravelly croon through subtle, relaxing blues songs about the lives of people who think about things like, well, international travel.