Keb' Mo' represents someone who found his calling later in life, the calling in this case is the Blues, a uniquely American phenomena that has spawned the likes of Country and Jazz music. In another life he was Kevin Moore, pop guitarist, playing other people's hits, until he discovered the creative fire of the Blues. And so, he took a new name, Keb' Mo', drawn from way people pronounced his original name.

The Blues signified not only a new name, but also a creative wild fire that has led to two Grammies awards. His albums entitled "Just Like You", and last year's "Slow Down," recorded with Epic Records/Sony Music, both won "Blues album of the year." His down to earth song, "Just Like You," which talks about the commonality of people, features rock'n'roll greats Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne.

On each album, Keb's voice, manner, song material, and playing style naturally blend together like sunshine and blue skies, making it "oh so easy" to listen to his tunes, over and over again. When I have seen him perform, he holds the audience lovingly in the palms of his talented hands. During the quiet moments when Keb' paused for emphasis, you could hear a pin drop, while other times, the audience jumped up dancing, singing all the words to his songs along with him.

In the following interview, the soft spoken, towering, Keb' talks about how the Blues effected his life, and how he keeps writing songs that continue to win him unlimited accolades from everyone familiar with the Blues.

It's the real-ness of it. For me, the Blues is communication that's real. There is nothing cute about it. It is what it is. Like folk music, it comes from the heart and the Earth. That's why I like instruments such as guitar, banjo, and slide guitar played in a simple way. It's music that's woven into the fabric of our society, which is why it continues to be popular.

I don't know where it's going because I don't really attempt to take it anywhere. For me, the blues offers me a home. Maybe I'll think of an idea that nobody quite thought of, but it's not really different. At the same time, what I try to bring personally to the Blues is a positive feeling. It's the healing feeling I love about it. Some, but not all Blues, can be depressing. So I just try to go with the positive element of the music.

That's because there's something about it that puts everybody on common ground. If somebody has a problem, you can relate to it. You feel like you're not alone. The Blues is about feeling things right now, because the minute you stop to reflect upon the moment, it's in the past.

Yes there is. The Blues are about being present in your feelings that are happening now. But also in addition to that, the feeling you get from the Blues when you look back on it, is like looking back on a catastrophe a week after it happens. It seems kind of funny in a way.

It was a little dramatic, but not because of any acting on my part (laughs). It was a whole series of circumstances, which felt like we were pulling something forth from the spirit world. The director Peter Myers was so into it, and we were all there in the moment. It felt like we definitely conjured up something.

Well, I was playing in pop bands on the road, and I kept running into the Blues. It was a time when I had tried everything else. I was feeling like I wasn't going to make it, but I would keep playing anyway. There's nothing else I really wanted to do, but this so I really had no choice. Then something started happening with me. One of the things that stuck out in this experience was meeting Charlie Tuna, and a lot of the other people I learned from. They were doing the Blues and seemed happy and had a respect for the music.

Right now I'm in a writing mode. This morning I felt the pressure was off so I took my banjo out to the balcony of my apartment. I'm just having fun with the banjo. I live down along the beach so I can look out and see everything. I took up the banjo because I want to use it on a song on my next album. I hear what I want to hear, and so that's why I took it up myself. Sometimes it's hard to get the sound I hear in my head across to someone else, and expect them to play it the way I hear it.

I travel so much because I'm on the road performing that I get into a writing mode the last six months of every other year (laughs). In my writing process when I start trudging along, I get nothing. Usually after about two weeks, I get a thought or something. Then one day about three months into it, I get to a place, where every time I pick up the instrument, I can pretty much write on call.

Yes, like working a muscle until it starts getting loose. It's like writing a novel. I imagine the hardest problem is writing the first line. In terms of songs, once you get that first line, things start rolling. I usually get the ideas for the words and music together as one entity. I look for different ways to express things, and lot of time look for that one thing that does it. I try to keep it simple. Also, when I make up songs, I want the words to have a reason for being there. The creativity, the music and the songs, give me a reason for being.