Album Review: Keller & The Keels, "Grass" (SCI Fidelity)

Jam band darling Keller Williams is at our throats again, but this time, he has a little help from his friends - Larry and Jenny Keel, featured on guitar and bass. As the title suggests, Grass is a bluegrass album (not another type of grass you may have been wondering about), and a very fun one at that.

Grass gives the listener a glimpse at some of the stylistic influences that have been a part of Keller's guitar virtuosity all these years, as well as a peek into his newest experiment - standard rock mixed with improvisation. With only two guitars and a bass - not the typical bluegrass instrumentation which includes banjo, mandolin and fiddle - Grass is a more palatable introduction to the genre for newcomers than its twangy, "pure" version.

Like any other Keller Williams album, Grass has its own individual, quirky vitality. However, this particular release lets die hard fans down with its lack of Keller originals. Grass is dominated by bluegrass covers of an atypical variety of songs, far removed in origin from bluegrass (i.e. Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" and Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" transposed into "Mary Jane's Last Breakdown").

The originality of the material Keller infuses into the covers keeps the songs from becoming stale too soon, but with a 3:7 original to cover ratio, the album leaves its listener wanting more of Keller's own songwriting touch. Especially in wake of his hit concert DVD Sight released last summer, which showed Keller at his best - thriving in a live full-house setting, the album settled itself below expectations in terms of vibrancy. All in all, the studio effort of Grass, although competent, is much more pale than Keller's previous livelier work.


*****
Originally Published Mar 30, 2006, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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Interview: Chillin' With Keller Williams

With an unabashedly fun, quirky songwriting voice and a knack for inventing infectious rhythmic grooves (not to mention the rather impressive layers of sound he can get out of live phrase sampling of his own playing), singer-songwriter-guitarist Keller Williams is exactly the kind of hard-to-pigeonhole entertainer that the majority of mainstream media tends to ignore. When asked if, 10 years into his career as a performer, his perspective on the music industry has changed, he says no.

"I never really looked to the labels as a savior ... I am still way off mainstream radar, and never really had high hopes for the actual [music] industry. I've always had somewhat selfish reasons for playing: to entertain myself, and hopefully I can entertain other people, too."

Nevertheless, for an independent artist, Williams has managed to attract and sustain a relatively large-and loyal-following, something he attributes mainly to persistence and grassroots support. "It's taken years to get to this point. It's simply returning to the same towns year after year; start small, keep doing it, and hopefully people bring their friends next time," Williams remarks, adding that overall, he is happy with where his career is right now. "It's quite comfortable for me in my own little world."

Although he is a songwriter and performer, Williams notes that he never learned how to read music notation. "I wrote my first song when I was about 12. I was taking piano lessons, and it came time for the recital, but I couldn't read music or anything, so I just kind of made up my own song." Indeed, with original songs to his credit including ones titled "Love Handles," "Kidney in a Cooler" and "Blazeabago," one of the best parts of what Williams has to offer is his own unique songwriting voice.

"A lot of those [songs] are basic things that actually happened. Some are tidbits of conversations that got turned into a fictional tale, and sometimes I just use my imagination." For his vocal songs, Williams says that the words usually come to him before the music does, whereas the instrumental ones come from "mindlessly doodling" on the guitar. Generally speaking, however, "I try to stay away from politics and sappy love songs ... but I am in love, so there are some," Williams comments, though he shies away from love song cliches.

Williams names the release he gets from being onstage as his favorite part. "I have tons of music kicking around inside my head, and I want the music to be out. It's not the same at home, because at home, you can be playing, but the phone can ring, and you get distracted. If the phone rings while you're onstage, you can't answer it." His job as a musician is "to entertain, to help people get out of their heads for a few hours, forget their worries and the world struggles going on right now."

When I spoke with Williams, he was gearing up to start his current tour. "We're doing 15 shows in 19 days," with his appearance at The Canopy Club in Urbana scheduled near the end. "When it gets close to the last show of a tour, there's always a special energy." Although touring has its hardships-such as the tendency to get "quick and easy food," which makes it "very easy to be unhealthy" and "put pounds on when on the road"-Williams says he likes that he gets to "see the world and get paid for it-or at least pay your expenses." He also encourages people to come out to the live shows, remarking that, "It's really hard to get to know what I'm about without seeing the show."

Williams has been quite busy with recording, touring and his own radio show (Keller's Cellar-"Somewhat Ruleless Radio") for the past couple of years, and has several projects in the works for 2005 as well, which include "picking some bluegrass with friends," a forthcoming DVD release and a new studio project featuring collaborations with other artists, something that Williams says he's been wanting to do for a while. Williams also added that "We just had a baby ... so she's filling my life with all kinds of goodness right now ... She's my next 18-year plan."


*****
Originally Published Mar 3, 2005, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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Album Review: Keller Williams, Stage (Live)

Each of Keller Williams's albums has its own stylistic flavor, while at the same time remaining unabashedly within the span of his own musical style. Stage, Williams's ninth release to date, is no exception. The recording captures a series of live performances on two discs, each of which attempts to capture a different audience vibe: according to the liner notes, a "seated listening audience" versus a "seatless dancing party." As Williams seems to consider himself more of a live performer (who happens to also record CDs) rather than a recording artist per se, this album, like his earlier live release, Loop, might be thought of as more representative of his work.

The main criticism I have of this album is the preponderance of covers-something that is not nearly as prevalent on Williams's other releases-which eat up valuable space on the discs that could have been used to capture live renditions of more of his own songs. Although covers generally tend to be a staple of any live act-if only from the need of more material to fill out the sets-Williams's talent for inventing catchy instrumental grooves, as well as the quirky originality of his songs' lyrics, make the inclusion of covers of other people's songs on this release (such as a needlessly long version of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth") wholly unnecessary. With this in mind, it must be added that Williams at least has the good taste to make the songs his own by transforming them into his own idiom, rather than merely copying what someone else already did.

Highlights of the album include the infectiously happy "Keep it Simple," the humorous words to "Novelty Song" set in a sort of free recitational vocal style, the delicate layers of timbre that unfold in "Celebrate Your Youth," and the driving virtuosity of the instrumental "Shapes of M+M's." Also, having said the above about the presence of covers on this album, I have to admit that Williams's rendition of "Moondance"-abstracted so far from its original source that it almost seems like a new song, with several improvisational forays into the unknown and then segueing back into the pocket of the song as he set it up at the outset-is most impressive.

Williams's work is, first and foremost, music to make people happy, and, as usual, is quite successful. This release is no exception; it is a solid effort, and definitely worth the time it takes to hear.


*****
Originally Published Mar 3, 2005, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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