Peace... Back by Popular Demand

1	For What It's Worth 3:58
2	Wake Up Everybody 4:07
3	People Got to Be Free 3:45
4	Talk 3:38
5	What's Happening Brother 3:25
6	The Times They Are A-Changin' 4:11
7	Get Together 4:00
8	Someday We'll All Be Free 4:02
9	(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? 3:43
10	Imagine 4:54

Barnes & Noble

Neo-folk and blues singer Keb' Mo’s Peace…Back by Popular Demand, is not as controversial as Steve Earle’s The Revolution Starts Now, but it is just as insistent in its call to question war. But in this set, war can be against racism, the establishment, or an asleep-at-the-wheel society. All except one of the songs are classics, from Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin' ” and Donny Hathaway’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” While most renditions are in the easy folk style of Mo’s other recordings, just a taste of the popular originals is usually incorporated as a reminder of the artists who preformed them or the era in which they were released. Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Happening Brother” feels like it might have been produced by Curtis Mayfield; “Get Together” is as sunny and positive as the Youngbloods' version; and on John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Mo’s vocals are soft and dreamy. “Talk,” a Keb' Mo’ orignal, is an imaginary visit with the president in which the singer asks why war is the answer. Then he gives his simple solution: that neighbors and countries should solve their disagreements by talking to each other. While neither the original nor the covers will every have the fierce response that protest songs of the '50s and '60s evoked, it is always worth remembering that great songwriting can come out of strife. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

Peace...Back by Popular Demand finds Keb' Mo' covering nine classic protest and peace songs from the 1960s and early '70s, and what is immediately apparent is how well these songs translate forward into the current political milieu. This is an album where the songs themselves are the stars, and Keb' Mo' wisely takes a low-key and measured vocal approach to each of them, letting the messages take hold over light soul-jazz backings, with just enough funk in the horn charts to give the arrangements some push. It's hard to argue with the song selection, but as an interpreter, Mo' seldom makes any of these tracks his own, and behind each stands the ghostly but clear memory of the original version. Perhaps that would be unavoidable under any circumstances, because songs like John Lennon's "Imagine" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Happening Brother" are so perfectly realized in the original recordings, but if the idea here is to give the messages of these songs a new cachet in a new era, then only a couple of them are given a redefinition by Mo' that would allow it. One that does work in a new guise is the opening track, a spunky, light soul rendition of Stephen Stills' "For What It's Worth." The song seems to have gained wisdom and import as the years have passed, and in the hands of Keb' Mo' it becomes both universal and danceable. Less successful is Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding," which is also given a heavy makeover, emerging in a swampy string band version that makes the song feel somehow less urgent. The cover here of Gaye's "What's Happening Brother" works because Mo' stays close to the original template, and given that Gaye pretty much invented the jazzy soul approach on his classic What's Going On album (an album that hardly needs redefinition to be vital in a contemporary setting), this is a wise choice. Delivering a perfectly nuanced vocal on Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free," Mo' brings out the hard-earned wisdom and hope inherent in the song's lyrics, as well as preserving its natural elegance. The simple vocal-and-piano approach to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" strips the song of its defiant swagger, replacing it with a kind of cautious -- but hopeful -- resignation that is surprisingly effective in shining a different kind of light on the lyrics. There is one Keb' Mo' original on the album, "Talk," which takes as its premise a one-on-one talk with the President of the United States, a notion that will seem like science fiction for most listeners. Obviously Mo' isn't trying to top the Hit Parade with anything here, and his effort to bring these important songs into a new light is laudable. Peace...Back by Popular Demand is not a major album, but it does have some major things to say, or re-say, in this case, and it serves as a reminder that every era could use (and deserves) some peace. Steve Leggett