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very good, atmospheric and it really makes you wish you'd been there listening and having a few

drinks.

Graham Harrison
Keb' Mo’—Good To Be—Rounder Records—ASIN: B09J1C4P6X

I’m not the biggest Keb’ Mo’ (Kevin Moore) fan, I’m afraid that

I’ve always found him a bit too slick and smooth, while
recognising that he is a consummate musician and turns out some
catchy well-played songs. This new album was recorded in
Nashville (where he currently lives) with production help from
both Tom Hambridge and country legend Vince Gill, and features
guests including Darius Rucker, Kristin Chenoweth and the Old
Crow Medicine Show. The title track was written with Jason Nix

and Jason Gantt and you can clearly hear the country influence
alongside the blues - it’s got both Keb’s resonator guitar alongside
Paul Franklin’s pedal steel. Darius Rucker brings more country sounds on the single ‘Good Strong
Woman’ – which you could see making the country charts – and we also get old-timey bluegrass
with the Old Crow Medicine Show who join Keb for ‘The Medicine Man’ one of the best songs that

I’ve heard about Covid (complete with a little dig at ex-president Trump).

‘So Easy’, ‘Sunny and Warm’ and ‘Marvelous To Me’ are all typical Keb’ Mo’ songs i.e. bland – with
the last two having some syrupy strings to boot, even Keb’s version of Bill Withers’ ‘Lean On Me’ is
bland and adds nothing to the original. With ‘All Dressed Up’ we finally get something that has a bit
of attitude, a slow blues with tasty lead guitar and brass and ’62 Chevy’ is a nice faster song.
‘Louder’ is a melodic song that addresses the attitudes of young people and suggests handing

control over to them, while ‘So Good to Me’ is a Keb’-style romantic ballad, as is the final ‘Quiet
Moments’ with Kristin Chenoweth adding her vocals and with more dramatic syrupy strings. There
has been some great blues coming out of Nashville recently but this record isn’t part of that – it
does have elements of Keb’s older blues-based styles but the prominent sound here is modern
country and to be fair Keb’ does it very well but it’s not for me I’m afraid.

Graham Harrison

The 2.19—Revelator—©The 2:19

I know nothing about The 2.19 and can't find anything about them
online (They come from Belfast, Ed.) - are they named after Louis
Armstrong's '2.19 Blues' or the Tom Waits song '2.19'?

However, what matters is the music - this album starts with the
title track a powerful song built on impressive Hammond organ

with harmonica joining in, 'Diamond in the Dust' carries on this
time with tough guitar and piano, and another harmonica solo.
'Horseshoe Curve' starts with nice bluesy lead guitar over
subdued driving Hammond, and the guitar continues throughout
the song, great track, while 'Lee Shelton' tells the story of Lee

Shelton (who shares a birthday with my cousin Alan).

'All Kinds of Evil' is subdued, almost acoustic, with piano and slide guitar and 'Bad Blood' starts
with the same sort of vibe before gradually gaining in intensity and 'No Time to Bleed' is another