Keb' Mo's New Epic/Okeh Album "Suitcase"

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Keb' Mo' -- a three-time GRAMMY winner for Best Contemporary Blues album -- is set to launch a major coast-to-coast North American tour with Bonnie Raitt on June 20 with a show at Atlanta, GA's Chastain Park Amphitheatre. The tour's kick-off comes exactly one week after the June 13 release of Keb' Mo's new album "Suitcase, " his eighth full-length release for Epic/Okeh. The itinerary for Keb' Mo's tour with Raitt currently encompasses over 40 shows at major amphitheatres, stadiums and festivals nationwide as well as select dates in Canada. Highlights include a June 25 concert at NYC's Central Park Summerstage, Toronto's Hummingbird Centre on July 7, Morrison, CO's Red Rocks Amphitheater on August 29, Los Angeles, CA's Greek Theatre on September 9 and Nashville's historic Grand Ole Opry on October 1.

Outside of touring with Bonnie, Mo' will also headline several dates on his own, including Albany, NY's Hart Theatre on June 30, Northampton, MA's Calvin Theatre on July 1 and the Reno-Tahoe Blues Festival on August 13.

Also upcoming in June, Keb' Mo' will be heard on NPR and other radio stations nationwide via a performance with James Taylor that was taped at Denver's Paramount Theater as a special 15th anniversary benefit concert for the acclaimed weekly live series "etown." In addition to their individual sets, Taylor and Mo' performed together on several numbers including "She Caught The Katy" and "Imagine." The show airs from June 28-July 4; log on to www.etown.org for specific broadcast times and dates.

Keb' Mo's forthcoming album "Suitcase" follows up his 2004 double play of "Peace: Back By Popular Demand, " featuring Mo' covering classic peace and protest songs from the '60s and '70s, and the self-produced "Keep It Simple, " the artist's third GRAMMY-winning album. Handsomely spare and emotionally resonant, "Suitcase" was produced by Keb' Mo' and John Porter, and is a richly textured collection of songs that the artist feels are his most personal to date. His powerful, unvarnished vocals, masterful acoustic guitar and lyrical dexterity are eloquently showcased throughout.

Keb' Mo' -- aka Kevin Moore -- was born in South Los Angeles and raised in Compton, CA, and his distinctive sound is rooted in Delta blues and other American roots idioms. At the same time, it owes as much to contemporary music's singer-songwriter tradition, encompassing his longtime friends and collaborators Jackson Browne and 2006 touring companion Bonnie Raitt, as to the spirit of blues icon Robert Johnson that informs his work.

Recently, audiences nationwide saw Keb' Mo' singing "America The Beautiful" during the series finale for NBC-TV's award-winning program "The West Wing." Scripted into the episode playing himself during the Presidential Inauguration scene, Keb' Mo' said, "It was an honor to participate in this moving closure to a show that has been such a cultural milestone." Later this year, Mo' -- who has also pursued acting for over a decade -- will be featured both on-camera and on the soundtrack for the Sony Pictures feature film "All The King's Men, " set for release September 22, the day in between the Albuquerque, NM and Grand Prairie, TX stops on his North American tour with Bonnie Raitt.

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