With Keller Williams’ inexhaustible muse and self-proclaimed creative ADD, he’s now moved on to the funky stuff with his latest musical venture, More Than A Little. Explaining the interest in this genre he said, “It’s prominent in my love of music. It’s like breathing. It just happens naturally without me thinking about it.”
Selecting 10 tracks from several More Than A Little dates, the recently-released Funk includes four originals as well as covers of the Grateful Dead (“West L.A. Fadeaway”) and Rick James (“Mary Jane”). Keller and his five-piece outfit also play a revised version of “Hey Ho Jorge,” which was on his 2011 reggae-infused release, Bass.
I catch him as he’s driving himself to a gig in West Virginia, the start of another slate of dates to close out 2013. The shows place him in numerous combinations – solo as well as with The Travelin’ McCourys, with His Compadres (Michael Kang and Michael Travis of the String Cheese Incident, Drew Emmitt and Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon), with Tim and Nicki Bluhm and then Grateful Grass (Jeff Austin of Yonder Mountain String Band and Keith Moseley of The String Cheese Incident) for the Rex Foundation Annual Benefit.
And although he’s been without the companionship of a dog, he remains a friend to man’s best friend by performing his 13th annual benefit for the Fredericksburg (Virginia) Regional SPCA. This year he’s joined during that night’s second set by Steve Kimock and John Morgan Kimock.
When I mention how my wife regularly sends hints about getting another dog to join our Golden Doodle Owsley, he admitted, “My wife’s all about it right now too because it’s been a long time since our dogs have been gone and the kids are getting older and she’s definitely getting closer to having one again.”
Bringing it altogether he rings out the old and brings in the new on Dec. 31 with a bash that finds him playing solo, alongside The Keels and finally fronting More Than A Little.
When January arrives, he returns fulltime to the soulful sounds of More Than A Little as the members travel across America on a full-scale, two-month What the Funk tour.
Once the cellphone connection got stronger the conversation easily flowed from life on the road to opening the Lockn’ festival and, of course, putting together a Keller-styled funk album and getting used to the idea of playing in a band.
JPG: I’m looking at the dates on your website. Is this the beginning of your next tour or…
KW: Nah, it’s all just one long run. I go out on the weekends and come home during the week. It goes on…
JPG: I remember years ago when I reviewed your DVD Stage, there was footage of you riding around in a RV so you could have a little more freedom when travelling. Are you still doing that?
KW: No, I just go out on the weekends. We usually fly and rent minivans. This week I’m actually in my own truck and driving. We’re doing shows in West Virginia and then home. So, this is a lucky weekend because we get to actually drive.
JPG: The other reason is I looked over the schedule and you jump from Charleston, South Carolina to California. I take it you’re flying?
KW: Absolutely.
JPG: Okay. I saw that there was a four-day break so I thought it was possible to drive but…I’m sure you’ve done the cross-country trek numerous times.
KW: We used to plan six week tours of the southern trip across the country. Then, go from San Diego to Seattle and then have a northern route back home. We’d do that in six weeks. That was probably the late ‘90s.
JPG: I always hope for artists that do that to plan something fun or diverting to do along the way, just for a reason to stop and enjoy themselves and get on the ground for a little bit rather than just ride, gig, ride, gig, ride, gig. I just feel bad that they’re cooped up all that time, even if it’s in a luxury bus.
KW: I call those luxury problems. The folks that get to do that — play music for a living — it’s pretty much the reward in itself. And if you can make it to get and see something that’s great, but if not you’re still…I feel very lucky to be able to do it.
JPG: Speaking of playing shows not too far from your home, I was there when you appeared at the Lockn’ Festival where Jason Hann and Kyle Hollingsworth stole your thunder by coming onstage before you. Were you and the Keels just running late that they came out just to vamp a bit or…?
KW: No, no…we were actually on time. We were, I think, it was right to the minute that we came onstage, right when we were supposed to. I think that they were bored and…they wanted to…I don’t know. There was no real microphone or anything like that. They just kinda went out and played. Kind of interesting. Yeah.
JPG: It was sort of a hometown gig in a way for you at a big festival’s inaugural year. How does it feel to be the opener for an event like that?
KW: Oh, it’s huge. It’s huge. This festival definitely has legs and I think it’s gonna live for a long time. I was really very quite honored to be the first one on the bill, even though out of the 24,000 people that came, maybe I got a thousand of those because the gridlocking was in full effect during my set. There was lots of drama getting into the festival as far as having to go the wrong way down the other way to pass everyone to get in, and I think The Keels even had to go through some fields in their car. Had to do some four-wheel drive, off road.
JPG: Were you able to stick around for Furthur’s sets?
KW: No. We left. I had to play another show the next day somewhere in some other time zone.
JPG: That’s too bad. They were so completely consistently good all three nights. I’m bummed that shortly afterwards came the announcement that they’re taking 2014 off.
KW: Quit while you’re ahead, you know? Not that they’re quitting, but kind of like leave at a high note when it’s good. Leave a good taste in your mouth.
JPG: Speaking of things related to Furthur, when you were on “Weir Here,” you seemed very, very reserved than one would have expected. I don’t know if you were on your best behavior or nervous or what during that.
KW: You know what it was, you’re sitting there in between Bobby and Steve Parish — if you can imagine — it’s not something I do every day. I wanted to be cool and I didn’t want to loosen up and have a bunch of drinks or anything like that. I guess I was reserved. Trying to be cool.
JPG: I thought it was so nice that the microphone caught you saying something like “Thanks for inviting me Bobby.”
KW: Well, it’s definitely an invite type of scenario there and it’s pretty cool to be able to go and hang out in Bobby’s funhouse. His little fort.
JPG: Have you considered doing a session from TRI Studios after getting a taste of it?
KW: No, no I haven’t really thought about it but I do like Terrapin Crossroads though and I’m hoping that could be a place where I could play more often.
JPG: Moving from concerts to your new album, Funk, the last time we talked was when you released Bass. Is this release the natural progression from that one – a move from the reggae and groove-oriented tracks to these soul and groove-oriented tracks?
KW: The whole funk thing is definitely something that I feel like I don’t think about. It’s just something that naturally happens. It’s a natural progression. To answer your question, it would be a definite “Yes.”
I feel it’s a definite progression not necessarily from the Bass record but just in general as far as me making records. It’s kind of like a document of the live project that is More Than A Little, which is pretty much what the record Funk is about. It’s pretty much a documentation of that couple weeks that we spent together. We’re actually doing some tours where we will be on a bus coming up in the beginning of the next year.
JPG: What made you go with a whole new band rather than just use Jay Starling and Mark D who played on Bass and expand the lineup?
KW: It was pretty much surrounding myself with new people that are in a whole different world than I am. I’m taking about the gospel, R&B scene in Richmond, Virginia. They’re gonna have a different formula that they operate under as far as the arrangements and the feel and the groove and the vibe of how they approach music. That was completely different from anything else that I’ve done. It was really inspiring. It still is inspiring. We’re gonna start back up some rehearsals next week for the month of November.
JPG: Did you know anyone beforehand or was it just cold and hoping that you’d develop chemistry?
KW: The connection was the drummer, Toby Fairchild. He and I played in a group called The Added Bonus, which was a couple years ago. It was a live project I put together between Christmas and New Year’s. And he was doing an R&B night on Tuesday nights in this local bar, and I went and sat in with him and we pretty much took that exact band from that night and added one more show-stealing, up-front singer, Sugar Davis. And that was the band. As soon as we started to rehearse, it really started to click and really got good quick.
JPG: As far as the funk sound itself, it’s not the hard James Brown/Parliament Funkadelic style. It’s more the disco, sensual style with jazzy keyboard…
KW: Yeah, absolutely. It’s definitely a soulful R &B kind of funk. It’s different. It’s not like a normal stereotypical type of funk. It comes from within. I think you can hear that we’re feeling it.
JPG: Was that something because of the people around you or was that purposeful, as in “Let’s not do something to let people think of “Atomic Dog?””
KW: It was just what was happening and how this music was being played. It just happened naturally. Something like “Mary Jane” by Rick James, that was like a one-timer in rehearsal and then we left that to the stage. That was like something that everyone connected with. I think it’s a real soulful feeling kind of music.
JPG: Then, there’s the way you interpreted “I Feel Love,” where it has more of a jazzy feel then what I would expect if you did it solo where it would have been really fast.
KW: That song, the original from Donna Summers is so trippy, so psychedelic for that time frame. I added elements of today’s dance music, the halftime. That was just how we were feeling it. It turned out to be real fun. It was a real fun thing to do live, too.
JPG: That sounds like the type of number you do solo, and I feel as if I’ve seen you do it. So, have you played it or is it just my imagination?
KW: No. I have done it solo. I’ve done it in like an alternate tuning, like a DADGAD type of tuning, except it’s a whole step low.
JPG: Since we’re discussing that. The choice of material on funk, going from originals and covers, was it things that you were thinking about or was it “Okay, everybody knows this. Let’s give this a shot. Oh, it works.”
KW: Out of the set that we had put together for these five shows that we recorded from, the ones that made it were the best ones, the ones I felt best about pretty much. We didn’t learn anything for any specific reason. You don’t want to do this one just because we want to put it on the record. We’d do a song that we were playing, and this is the best version out of the ones that we do.
JPG: I’m seeing scattered dates at the end of 2013 of you and More Than A Little. Do you have an idea of how many shows you’ve played with this band?
KW: Let’s see…I’m gonna say about 12, maybe 13, and then there’s two tours coming up with 15 shows each or something like that.
JPG: I’m looking at the tour schedule and see that you’re going to be play a solo set and then a set with More Than A Little. Is it a matter of satisfying the old school Keller fans with a looping show and then having company onstage for the second set?
KW: There’s a little something to that. There’s folks that expect certain things, and I appreciate that. The solo acoustic thing is what I call my day job. That’s what I do the most. That’s what I’m most comfortable at. It’s kind of fun to do two totally different sets and, sometimes, we combine it all into one.
If there’s an opening act then I’ll come out and play solo and then bring everyone up, one at a time, and morph into the band set from the solo set. It wouldn’t be a set break. It would morph one into the other.
JPG: With all the different collaborations you’ve done in the past several years since the last time we talked, for you creatively, is it becoming more interesting and fun to have company onstage?
KW: Oh my God! Oh yeah! There was always the idea from the beginning to have the camaraderie and be in bands and play music and make something bigger than what you can create by yourself. In the beginning I couldn’t really afford other people, and then it started to work as a solo. So, there was no reason to bring other people in. But now, as time goes on it’s over-the-top rewarding and fun for me.
