After the numerous high profile guests – Bob Weir, Bela Fleck, String Cheese Incident — who appeared on Keller Williams’ 2007 studio effort, Dream, the traveling tape looping troubadour goes it pretty much alone on his latest release, Odd. Fans of his live shows should feel as if they’re in a comfy environment as the 12 tracks find him moving from guitar-driven tracks to Keller-tronica, a ballad to ease the pace and much more.
As usual, Williams has been on the road prior to and following its release. I catch him in the afternoon prior to a performance in Idaho. Ever the amiable type, his cellphone hiccups leads him to step outside his room in order to offer better reception. During our conversation he discusses not only the new album but his new approach to releasing music and how his theater background helped him become the hyperkinetic entertaining Keller Williams that we know today. As our talk begins, Keller explains that he had been in the midst of constructing the evening’s setlist.
JPG: It’s interesting that you’re working on tonight’s list because one of the things that I was going to bring up was whether you have a concrete setlist, wing it or mix it up.
KW: A lot of thought goes into it. There’s so many songs that I love to play. I have this weird unhealthy fascination with doing completely different sets every night as well as the last time I was at that venue or in that market. I study set lists from past times I was there and come up with something completely different.
JPG: I was thinking about the idea of being the controller of your musical world on stage every night. You can switch things radically and it doesn’t matter because you know where you’re going.
KW: It’s important to me to make it more interesting or else my mind will wander off in the middle of a song. If I play a song too many times, it just becomes second nature.
JPG: It’s kind of funny that you mention your mind wandering off…In a part serious/part joking way, I was thinking about how your performances change each night and how your albums have a different approach each time and wondering if it’s a matter of variety being the spice of life or whether you’re an inspiration for the rest of us with Adult ADD?
KW: I’m very lucky to have a job that allows me to explore and expose my own adult ADD, for sure. It’s all of those. It’s variety, putting myself in the place of the audience member or in the record sense, the listener, wanting to give something different, staying away from more of the same. Wherein at the same time, it is a little bit of that because it’s me and I have a certain kind of writing style. I’m sure there’s evidence of similarities through all the records, yet I’m hoping, at least trying, to make them completely different from the last.
JPG: There’s also that Grateful Dead influence in that regard.
KW: Yeah, well, I definitely came from that school. I went on tour when I was 19. That was ’89 so, about ’89 to ’95 when Jerry died, I’d seen a bunch of shows. Probably ’97, ’98, I started putting more into my career as opposed to going to shows. Even before that, in the early to mid 90’s, I was doing the weekly thing. Doing the same place every Monday. Going to a different town, the same place every Tuesday. Constantly doing that. I took that really seriously. I went to less and less shows when I started to get more work.
JPG: For a music fan like yourself, that’s the good and the bad of it. You get to do what you love, being a musician, but you don’t get to do what you also love, seeing music.
KW: Right. You have to make that conscious decision. Now, I’d much rather do my own show than go to someone else’s but I still love to go to shows as much as I can.
JPG: I know you interviewed Bob Weir for Relix’s coverage of The Dead Spring Tour. In it you mentioned how you hoped to make it to as many shows as possible. Did you get to do any of the shows and what did you think?
KW: Yeah, I got to see D.C. and Charlottesville. It was really cool that the guys are keeping that music alive. It definitely looked like they were enjoying themselves. It was fun to see.
JPG: As far as being a part of the jamband scene, that experience of being a fan, of going to shows, how has that affected your approach of how you play music, whether it’s in the studio or in concert? You’re directing things as a performer, but you’re also thinking of it as a fan as well whereas the first generation of musicians possibly thought of matters in a different, more insular way because they didn’t have that concertgoing experience.
KW: Sure, 100%. I’m always putting myself in the place of the audience. I’m always trying to do something that I would want to see if I was in the audience, trying to relate to that. But different shows have different vibes, like sometimes I play these patron-run type of theaters and it’ll be a sit down, kind of listening show. That will require somewhat of a different set list, not too much in-your-face rock so to speak if people are just sitting there. More storytelling. So yeah, constantly trying to adapt to what’s in front of me.
JPG: Speaking of which…now you have my brain going in five different directions as opposed to three from earlier.
KW: I aim to please.
JPG: Thanks. As far as adapting, let’s start there. I saw you at All Good and saw you at ROTHBURY last summer. I liked your adaptation of “Woodstock” for ROTHBURY. Did you make a conscious decision just before you got on or was it worked on prior to the festival?
KW: This being the 40th year it seemed like an obvious choice, especially ROTHBURY has that excitement that’s not necessarily lacking from other festivals, but for some reason it’s become somewhat of a mecca. And the site is so cool, and everyone is so excited, the past two years.
“Woodstock” is definitely a powerful song and it seemed appropriate, and it seemed really easy to change the words around and make people scream. I’m kind of an applause whore when it comes to that. I’ve always loved that song so I enjoyed changing it up and doing it kind of bluegrass style and putting some energy behind it.
JPG: You’re appearing later today with Dark Star Orchestra, is that a festival as well?
KW: No, it’s just me opening for them at a drive-in movie theater. Really cool. First show ever at this drive-in movie theater. We came into town last night, and the valley’s psyched up about it. We’re close to Jackson [Wyoming] and there’s a lot of towns around here with young people who are looking forward to this show. And I’m really excited about it, too. And EOTO is doing the aftershow in Victor. So, there’s definitely a buzz going around today.
JPG: So, you’re going to paint the red state blue.
KW: Well, we’re gonna have fun, multiple sit-ins, and different cities on the same day. I would imagine it’s going to be a really, really good time. The weather’s perfect…
JPG: Going back to the adaptation of your set, near me is Kent, Ohio and I see that you’re returning to the Kent Stage this October. In reference to what you said about playing a sit-down type of set. What is it about Kent Stage that appeals to you?
KW: Well, I guess it’s the vibe of the room. It’s like a movie theater turned into a club. I was going into it expecting it to be a sit-down vibe, but it wasn’t. It was a stand up and dance thing. And that’s always cool, an old theater like that but it has a rock club type of vibe to it. The town is really cool and small. I hung out at the music store there. It was just a good relaxing day. I’m psyched to play any cool old theater that has a backstage with a bathroom. That’s like a prerequisite in my world.
JPG: And I suppose a check that clears. [The track, “Spartan Darn It,” from the new album details a promoter who didn’t pay up.]
KW: (laughs) Yeah, that helps.
JPG: Speaking of the new album, when I interviewed you for the site back in 2004, I asked what are you currently listening to and you mentioned Fela Kuti and song number 12 on the new album is “Song for Fela…”
KW: That song has been kicking around for a little while now, too. Just never got around to record it. I don’t really come close to what he did, but the influence definitely runs deep through it. I’m a huge fan of that whole style of music and everything that’s involved with it. There are different groups that are really encompassing and some that drift towards the Afrobeat sound. I really get off on hearing that influence in these bands today.
JPG: Were you able to see Femi Kuti [Fela’s son] play at ROTHBURY?
KW: I did. I’ve got to see him a few times, too. It’s always exciting to see him.
JPG: You were saying at the time how Fela’s music is more political than yours but you did put the song, “Rush Limbaugh,” online earlier this year, which focused on free speech and its use. It seems as if the song has gained added potency with the craziness going on with health care town hall meetings and things like that. Have you thought about that lately and played it live due to the current political climate?
KW: No. That song was written, around the time when Rush Limbaugh was quoted saying he hopes Barack Obama’s plan fails. And that’s pretty much an attack on Rush Limbaugh’s character. It’s just directed at him and how he is like the king of free speech and how because of the free speech that he is projecting, he gets the choice and the chance to say that. There are other people who take politics and put it in their music and it’s very much part of them and that’s what they play at the festivals because that’s what they do and I can relate to that. I’ll probably play it again someday but that requires a different kind of scene for my shows. That’s a good sit-down venue type of song.
JPG: Also, in the news item about that song streaming online, I found the quote from you talking semi-jokingly about if you want a copy of the song it’ll cost 99 cents, but if you steal the song, you’re a cheap bastard. So if you do, here’s the address, send me a dollar, blah, blah, blah…go choke to death on sewage…
At the same time I’m thinking to myself, I hate to say it, there’s a generational thing where we grew up with the idea of you want it, you buy it, you want to have it in your hands. I think some people just can’t handle it. That’s where I think the value of music was killed unfortunately by Napster more than anything else.
KW: Well, the value of music was killed and then the romantic idea of an album and the songs appearing in their order, now it’s just kind of you pluck ‘em out. It’s like anything, change happens and this type of situation, it’s like can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em type of situation. There are people who are taking pride in releasing their stuff on vinyl and that’s cool.
And it took me a long, long time to really accept this whole thing and to realize that CDs and vinyl and whatever, it’s just a medium. It’s just a piece of plastic. Once it gets digitized and passed around then there’s more of a chance of it becoming immortal. That’s what I keep telling myself to keep doing it. The Once A Week Freek series is pretty cool and I could see where it could be a possible overflooding of material. But at the same time, it’s fun for me to dig into this archive and really listen to the tapes in a different way; you know more releases and whatnot. I’m going to continue to be doing records and making CDs and selling hard copies with artwork and lyrics and everything. I’m going to continue to do that, but I’m also trying to keep up with the Joneses at the same time, wanting to do something completely different and wanting to, at the same, time keep up with technology. And so the idea came to release this record out one song at a time, once a week. I’m sure people do it but that’s nothing I’ve ever done before. So, I was kind of proud of the fact that something completely different as far as writing, selling music or attempting to.
JPG: Do you have it planned out for the next month and beyond so you’re not stuck with having to put a track on at the last minute?
KW: Some really cool recordings I did with the band. And that’s, of course, Keith Moseley on bass, Jeff Sipe on drums, Gibb Droll on guitar. We had a really cool sit in with Danny Barnes. I met him through Yonder Mountain String Band. We’ll be releasing that. Releasing a bunch of different covers.
JPG: When did you do the thing with Danny Barnes, was that recent?
KW: It was at the end of the band tour. I think it was like September or October of last year. The band had done 60 or 70 shows, 5 or 6 tours over the course of a year-and-a-half. And that’s kind of where Live that double live along with the DVD record came from that tour. There’s going to be all kinds of stuff that I release. There’s also studio outtakes that I’m digging up and remixing. So, it’s not going to be all live stuff. Studio stuff in there, too.
JPG: From the new album, Odd, I love the line from “Groove of the Storm” where you’re talking about watching the storm on your porch. The house I grew up in that was just the coolest thing, to sit on the porch with my dad and watch some heavy storms come pouring down. I don’t know why, maybe because it was dangerous but peaceful at the same time.
KW: When that song was written, there were storms happening all the time the spring of ’08 maybe. It was really like a whole month or two, on and off freak storms. It was crazy.
JPG: As far as the track, “Doobie in my Pocket.” Based on a true story? Paranoid dream?
KW: Loosely. I don’t think I went through that amount of stress, but I definitely remember the doobie in my pocket and it was actually in my pocket. But the whole drama that surrounded it was definitely embellishment. The beginning and the end, totally.
JPG: I read that you have a theater background, that you majored in Theater at college [Virginia Wesleyan College]. How did that help you as you started performing in a live music setting? Does it still help you?
KW: 100% yeah. The solo act, once people started buying tickets and stuff and actually coming to the shows and paying attention, as opposed to the years and years I spent being the dude in the corner in the restaurant…Once people started paying attention, then it was just me and the guitar, so it was bringing out different facial expressions and things like that. I think a lot came from my theater background as well as being onstage in a play and having someone skip lines, you have to improvise and keep the storyline happening.
I’ve definitely run into a lot of problems with my technical equipment and loops will drop and equipment will fail. Just have to pretend that’s part of the show. I think it really helped me out having the experience of doing all those weird plays and assignments.
JPG: Were you doing support roles or leads?
KW: In high school I had a few leads and I did Children’s Music Theater growing up as a ‘tween, whatever you call it. Had some leads back then. But once I got to college I never really had the leads. Vaclav Havel from Czechoslova, we did one of his plays. The next six weeks would be powdered wigs and white face. Elizabethan. Then, directing a few people in some term assignment. Ran the gamut. Constant memorization. I think that didn’t hurt what I’m doing, too.
JPG: Returning to our last interview, I’d like my final question to be the same: what are you listening to now?
KW: Something I’ve been listening to a lot lately, Danny Gatton’s Redneck Jazz Explosion which was recorded in ’78 at the Cellar Door in DC, the show that Jeff Sipe was actually at. It’s like a real heavy connection with our band. If you listen to it, amazing, Buddy Emmons on pedal steel and Danny Gatton. The whole set is really amazing.
