Keb Mo

Keb' Mo' has won three Grammys for Best Contemporary Blues Album, which is ironic, since there's nothing remotely contemporary about Mo's blues. He performs antique backwoods blues fashioned after legends like Robert Johnson, a man he emulates so precisely that he even depicted him in the 1998 documentary Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? Some blues purists never forgave Robert Cray, who co-headlines an 8 p.m. show with Keb' Mo' tonight at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino, for his 1986 breakthrough album, Strong Persuader, an ultra-smooth crossover blues record that made Cray a sex symbol (in part because he sang so much about sex). Those purists, however, have missed out on the great albums Cray has released since, discs that run the gamut from traditional blues to blues soul heavily indebted to Al Green and Hi Records. In a genre infamously averse to change, Cray has never been afraid to rock the boat.