Keller Williams is an American singer, songwriter and musician who combines elements of bluegrass, folk, alternative rock, reggae,

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

/dance, jazz,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

, along with other assorted genres. He is often described as a 'one-man jam-band' due to his frequent use of live phrase looping with multiple instruments.Keller Williams, Guitarist And One-Man Jam Band
, by Jim Fusilli, Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2006. Keller Williams was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia on February 4, 1970, and began playing the guitar in his early teens. He later matriculated to

Virginia Wesleyan College Virginia Wesleyan University (VWU) is a private university in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The university is nonsectarian but historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church. It enrolls 1,607 students annually in undergraduate and graduate ...

in Virginia Beach where he received his degree in theater. After college, he moved to Colorado to advance his music career and expand his repertoire.

Touring

Though primarily a solo artist, Williams has toured with Yonder Mountain String Band, The String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee and Ratdog, and has frequently performed at The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, the AllGood Music Festival, Summer Camp Music Festival, The Rothbury Festival, the Elysian Fields Music Festival, and Jam Cruise. Williams has an audio taping policy of his performances, and for non-commercial trading of the recordings, but use of video or flash photography, or any recordings for profit are prohibited.

Keller Williams Incident

''Keller Williams Incident'' is a collaborative performance between Williams and The String Cheese Incident. They have performed together, and Williams' 1999 album '' Breathe'' was released collaboratively under the name Keller Williams Incident. Williams and SCI began collaborating after Williams saw the band perform in Colorado, offering to play with them in exchange for free ski passes.

Keller Williams with Moseley, Droll and Sipe

Williams also frequently performs with a backing band as "Keller Williams with Moseley Droll and Sipe". Formed in 2007 as the WMDs, they first played at the Bonnaroo music festival. The group consists of Williams on rhythm guitar, Jeff Sipe on drums, Keith Moseley on bass, and Gibb Droll on lead guitar. They changed their name to the WMDs in 2008.

Keller and The Keels

"Keller & The Keels" is a bluegrass project consisting of Williams and the husband and wife combo of

Larry Keel Larry Dwayne Keel (born November 25, 1968) is an American bluegrass musician from Southwest Virginia who has been performing since 1976. He was a founding member of Magraw Gap in 1990. He also performs with his wife, bassist Jenny Keel, in The L ...

and Jenny Keel. The trio released ''Grass'' in 2006, a collection of both original and cover songs. They released ''Thief,'' an album of cover songs, in May 2010. A new album, "Pick", with The Travelin McCoury's, was released in July 2012.The most recent Keller and The Keels album is ''Speed'', which was released in 2019. It features a Larry Keel song, a Keller song, and several covers.

Instruments

A self-taught musician, Williams usually performs with a variety of instruments connected to a Boss Loop Station RC-300 phrase looper pedal, which allow him to play a riff once on an instrument, record, and repeat it. He also uses a Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro looping unit for that effect. He often then records and loops an accompanying instrument. This allows him to play unaccompanied on stage, helping him to recreate the sound of a full band. He also uses a wide variety of effects, including an envelope filter expression pedal, wah pedal, a Line 6 tap delay, a

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

GR-55 guitar synth, a Line 6 M13 Stompbox Modeler Guitar Multi Effects Pedal, and a Talk Box. His main guitars used are a Martin HD-28 and D-35, an Alvarez/

Joe Veillette Joe Veillette (born March 13, 1946), is a luthier and the owner of Veillette Guitars. He specializes in the crafting of unusual and innovative handmade guitars, basses, and other stringed instruments. Veillette's diverse client list includes John S ...

MTB

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

, a Gibson Chet Atkins SST Acoustic Electric Guitar with synth pickup routed to a Roland synth processor, a Fender Precision bass, a Becker Acoustic Retro, an Avante baritone acoustic guitar, a Rick Turner baritone 12-string, a Tacoma Thunderhawk, an early 1950s tempo and a Gordon Anderson custom 8-string. In addition, Williams incorporates a variety of acoustic and electric percussion instruments into his live sets, most notably a

Handsonic HDP-15 drum machine and a Korg Wavedrum. He also frequently performs on piano, a theremin, a Korg

Kaossilator The Korg Kaossilator is a line of portable music synthesizers manufactured by Korg. Termed "dynamic-phrase synthesizers" by the manufacturer, Kaossilators are capable of producing a wide range of sounds, can produce a continuous music loop, and ...

, a Macbook, and a set of Boomwhackers percussion tubes.

Other projects

Williams is the host of the radio show Keller's Cellar. In 2009, Williams started the "Once a Week Freek" on his website, where every week he released a new song from his album "Odd". Upon release of every song on the album, he released the entire album in one download. Due to the success of this idea, Williams chose to keep the "Once a Week Freek" project going and released a new song/video or two each week. These tracks consisted of live performances of previously recorded songs, unreleased covers of other bands' songs, or just different renditions of his own recorded music. Williams played as a member of the Rhythm Devils with

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

drummers Bill Kreutzmann and

Mickey Hart Mickey Hart (born Michael Steven Hartman, September 11, 1943) is an American percussionist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 until February 19 ...

at the

Gathering of the Vibes Gathering of the Vibes (often abbreviated as GOTV) was an annual four-day music, camping and arts festival that celebrated the Grateful Dead and showcased a diverse variety of music. Over the course of the event, styles would often include funk, ...

festival in 2010. Williams then appeared with the Rhythm Devils in nine July shows on their summer tour. Kdubalicious is a project involving Keller Williams on bass/guitar, Jay Starling on dobro/keyboards, and Mark D on drums. Kdubalicious is Reggae/ Dub/ Funk. Keller's project Kdubalicious formed in late 2010, and the group continues to play occasional shows. There was a unique winter concert held on a turf field in Fredericksburg, VA featuring Kdubalicous with Larry Keel, Jenny Keel, and John Starling in December 2010.

Discography

Albums

*'' Freek'' (1994) *''

Buzz Buzz may refer to: People *Buzz (nickname), a list of people *J. Buzz Von Ornsteiner (born 1967; aka ''Dr. Buzz''), American forensic psychologist and journalist Fictional characters *Buzz, a character in the 1987 American comedy movie '' Reve ...

'' (1995) *'' Spun'' (1999) *'' Breathe'' (1999) – ''(with The String Cheese Incident as Keller Williams Incident)'' *''

Loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

'' (''live'') (2001) *'' Laugh'' (2002) *''

Dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

'' (2003) *''

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

'' (2003) *'' Stage'' (''double live'') (2004) *'' Grass'' (2006) – ''(with Larry and Jenny Keel as Keller & The Keels)'' *'' Dream'' (2007) *'' 12'' (2007) *'' Rex'' (''digital download'') (2008) – ''(with Jeff Austin and Keith Moseley as Grateful Grass)'' *''

Odd Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

'' (2009) *'' Thief'' (2010) – ''(with The Keels as Keller & The Keels)'' *''

Kids Kid, Kids, KIDS, and K.I.D.S. may refer to: Common meanings * Colloquial term for a child or other young person ** Also for a parent's offspring regardless of age * Engage in joking * Young goats * The goat meat of young goats * Kidskin, lea ...

'' (2010) (Children's Album) *''

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

'' (2011) *''Pick'' (2012), with The Travelin' McCourys *''Keys'' (2013), (Album of Grateful Dead covers played on Piano) *''

Funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

'' (2013), with More Than a Little *'' Dos'' (2014) – ''(with Jeff Austin and Keith Moseley as Grateful Grass)'' *''

Vape An electronic cigarette is an electronic device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an Atomizer nozzle, atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank. Instead of tobacco smoke, smoke, ...

'' (2015) *''

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

'' (2017) * '' Sans'' (2018) * ''

Add Addition (usually signified by the plus symbol ) is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication and division. The addition of two whole numbers results in the total amount or '' sum'' of ...

'' (2019) * '' Speed'' (2019) (with Larry and Jenny Keel as Keller & the Keels) *''Cell'' (2020), (with Erothyme) *''Grit'' (2022)

Compilations

*''High Times Presents Rip This Joint'' – Various Artists (2001)

Guest appearances

*''Hellhound Blues'' - Pretty Gritty (2012) *''The J. Case Show'' – Julian Casellas (2010) *''Seeds'' –

Martin Sexton Martin Sexton Born March 2, 1966 is an American singer-songwriter and music producer. Early life Born in 1966, Sexton grew up in Syracuse, New York, the tenth of twelve children in a working class Irish-American family. He acquired his first ...

(2007) *''Chateau Benares'' – Sanjay Mishra (2006) *''Collision'' – DJ Harry (2004) *''

On The Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonis ...

: 04-14-02 Ann Arbor, MI'' – The String Cheese Incident (2002) *''

: 04-13-02 Chicago, IL'' – The String Cheese Incident (2002) *''

Solar Igniter ''Solar Igniter'' is the second album from jazz band Modereko, a side project of drummer John Molo (of Bruce Hornsby and the Range), released in 2003. The album features an appearance by Keller Williams, who in addition to performing on the albu ...

'' –

Modereko Modereko is a jazz band, featuring drummer John Molo of Bruce Hornsby and the Range. The group has released two albums, '' Modereko'', and '' Solar Igniter'', a collaboration with jam/rock musician Keller Williams Keller Williams is an Ameri ...

(2001)

Videos

* Sight (2005, DVD)

References

External links

* *
Mike St. Thomas, "Keller Calling: An Interview with the King of Energy", Outside Bozeman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Keller 1970 births Jam bands Living people People from Fredericksburg, Virginia Guitarists from Virginia Virginia Wesleyan University alumni 21st-century American guitarists