Keller Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Keller Williams | ||
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 Keller Williams performing on stage.
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Keller Williams | |
| Born | February 4, 1970 | |
| Origin | Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA | |
| Genre(s) | Rock Jam Progressive Bluegrass |
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| Occupation(s) | Musician | |
| Instrument(s) | Singing Guitar Bass guitar Percussion Theremin Piano |
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| Years active | 1991–present | |
| Label(s) | SCI Fidelity | |
| Associated acts |
The String Cheese Incident Umphrey's McGee Yonder Mountain String Band Keller and The Keels The WMDs |
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| Website | http://kellerwilliams.net | |
Keller Williams (also known as K-Dub and the Jam-Man) is a one man jam band from Fredericksburg, Virginia. A self-taught, percussive, and rhythmic musician, Keller plays mainly on acoustic guitars while looping other instruments with a Gibson Echoplex Delay system. He formerly used a Lexicon Jamman, inspired by Flecktones bassist and Virginia native, Victor Wooten. Many die-hard fans of Keller Williams tend to prefer his pre-looping albums. He is, mainly, a one man band and a singer-songwriter, known for unconventional introspective folk songs and his innovative and original methods of performing concerts in the jam band scene. His main guitars used are modified 12 string Guild JF30-12s and a Martin HD-28. He also has a few custom guitars, a custom baritone, and he uses a Godin Electric, a synthesizer, as well as a Fender Jazz Bass. On his 12 string guitars, Keller takes one string off of the high and low E pair for better and sharper harmonics during playing, thus making them 10 string guitars.
Williams' lyrics are humorous and often somewhat nonsensical with his often lighthearted and liberal views on everyday life, touring, and everyday activities to marijuana legalization. He often plays with the String Cheese Incident, as a jam band called the Keller Williams (or K-Dub) Incident. The year 2005 saw him create a new band, Keller McGee, with jam band Umphrey's McGee. He records and is managed under String Cheese Incident's label, SCI Fidelity and he often uses his hometown studio, Wally Cleaver's Recording, in Fredericksburg.
By his association with the String Cheese Incident and other jam-bands such as Yonder Mountain String Band and going to such festivals as Haymaker and Bonnaroo, he has gained fanbase strength, although a lot of his die-hard fanbase currently seems to remain around his home in the Virginia and North Carolina area. In 2004, Keller toured on the Acoustic Planet Tour with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and Yonder Mountain String Band. In 2005, he had a very successful large Summer tour with String Cheese Incident, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Umphrey's McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band, New Monsoon, and occasionally, Australian native Xavier Rudd.
Williams often recounts his following of jam band forefathers the Grateful Dead in songs such as Gate Crashers Suck. Keller currently hosts the radio show Keller's Cellar, pre-recorded at Wally Cleaver's, which also has a live online stream. Lately, he has been working with bassist Tye North, formerly of the bluegrass jam band Leftover Salmon, and drummer-percussionist Dave Watts on his albums. At times, Keller's live performances feature harmony vocals, harmonica, trumpet, and other assorted additions from his soundman, friend, and right-hand man, Louis Gosain.
His first album, Freek, was released in 1994. Some of his best known songs include Freeker By The Speaker, Passapatanzy, It's A Plant (420/24/7/365), Dear Emily, Take Me To the Tundra, Kidney In A Cooler, Dogs, One Hit Wonder, Moving Sidewalk, Brunette, Kiwi and the Apricot, Bob Rules, Stinky Green, Vabeeotchay, and A Day That Never Was. He often loops and combines newgrass/bluegrass, folk, alternative, reggae, electronica/dance, djembe (and other assorted percussion instruments to his avail), drums, jazz, funk, mouth percussion, mouthflugel, bass guitar and other assorted instruments and genres to create his own creative and innovative style of, majorly, folk music. Keller's favorite guitar effect is the Stereo Envelope Filter or Auto-wah, aka the "Jerry Sound", as it was a frequently used effect by Grateful Dead frontman and lead guitarist Jerry Garcia.
He recorded an album with the String Cheese Incident called Breathe.
He does many covers by musicians, including Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Guns N' Roses, Led Zeppelin, Ani DiFranco, Phish, Neil Young, John Prine, Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Michael Hedges, Todd Snider, Michael Jackson, and Kevn Kinney. His main musical inspirations include Jerry Garcia, Victor Wooten, Michael Hedges, Martin Sexton, Leo Kottke, Ani Difranco, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Craven, and Charlie Hunter. In 2005 Keller released and album entitled "Grass", on which he is accompanied by The Keels, a husband and wife duo, Larry and Jenny Keel. On this album, Larry Keel plays lead guitar, Jenny Keel plays bass, and Keller plays guitar. There are covers of Pink Floyd's The Wall, Tom Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance, and Yonder Mountain String Band's New Horizons as well as many original songs. The album is bluegrass influenced.
As far as his live recordings go, Keller is a firm believer of bootleg and tape trading, but he does not allow video at his concerts. You can listen to these recorded shows at Archive.org. He and his wife, Emily, have two dogs named Sheeba (deceased) and Earl, as well as a daughter named Ella and continue to reside in Fredericksburg, though they met in and have a fondness for Colorado. Keller has often stated and implied that Colorado is his home away from home and he resided there for a few years. He has also released a studio album, in 2003, titled Home, which centered around his love for Fredericksburg and has clips of himself in his childhood, on songs.
Keller released his long awaited video on DVD, Sight, on June 28th, 2005. Sight was recorded at Mr. Small's state-of-the-art theatre facility, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during a two day run in November 2004. The video also includes 100 minutes of concert footage, as well as b-roll footage and behind the scenes clips.
Keller's collaboration project, Dream, was released on February 6th, 2007, on a sweet note, after selling out venues and a short run of awaited appearances as Keller & The Keels hit the stages, once again.
[edit] Discography
- Dream (2007)
- Grass (2005) & The Keels
- Stage (2004)
- Home (2003)
- Dance (2003)
- Laugh (2002)
- Loop (2000)
- Breathe (1999) with String Cheese Incident
- Spun (1998)
- Buzz! (1996)
- Freek (1994)
[edit] Other
Though not usually confused, the one man band shares a name with a popular real estate company, Keller Williams Realty and sometimes shows frustration towards the company's website address, though uncontrollable.
Keller's soundman, Louis Gosain, often adds harmony vocals and a trumpet solo.
Larry Keel is Keller's childhood friend.
Played on 2 State Championship football teams at James Monroe High School, Fredericksburg, VA.
Keller's favorite sport is bowling.
Keller also attended Virginia Wesleyan College and majored in theatre.
Favorite book is The Road Atlas, by Rand McNally.
Keller is a Washington Redskins fan.
He was also delivered by the same doctor as his wife. They both grew up in Fredericksburg, but met in Colorado. They've been married for ten years and have one daughter, Ella.
Favorite attended live performance to date was performed by Blue Man Group.
Keller's favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey
