Keb's twelfth full-length album marks the 20th anniversary of his debut, but, more important, Bluesamericana is a signpost of artistic and personal growth. At its core, the album is about love and understanding. Those qualities are expressed in some of the most poignant and joyfully melodic numbers Keb has ever recorded. Many of them, including the pledge of commitment "Do It Right" and the reflective "For Better Or Worse," assay devotion and marriage. The thorny, comic "The Worst is Yet To Come" is about hope, despite the hilarious laundry list of pitfalls its protagonist endures as he searches for a silver lining. And "Somebody Hurt You" is, in Keb's words, "where the blues meets the church." That number features Rip Patton, a longtime friend and Civil Rights era Freedom Rider, on beatific bass vocals. Acoustic guitars do feature prominently in these arrangements, which boast plenty of textural flesh via electric and resonator slide guitars, mandolin, percussion, keyboards, reeds and horns, but still reveal the gorgeously chiseled architecture of their bare bones origins. The album was co-produced by Keb and his friend Casey Wasner, who's an accomplished performer in his own right.