KT: We’re joined with Keller Williams today, Keller Williams and well it’s not a band, it’s just Keller Williams, he’s comin’ to the Emerson Cultural Center on September 16th, Keller thanks so much for joining us today. You said you were travelling, where are you travelling from?

KW: I am just coming off vacation down in Cape Havers just off the coast of North Carolina, and luckily I was planning on leaving today because even if I wasn’t planning on leaving today I would have had to anyway as Hurricane Irene is closing in.

KT: What’s the situation down there? Give us an update.

KW: Well it’s a mandatory evacuation for all visitors in Dare County today, starting at 8am this morning, and then mandatory evacuation from all residents. So it’s coming, and its big and they are trying to get everybody out.
KT: Oh boy, so your getting out of there? Are you getting on a plane or are you driving out?

KW: I am driving to an airport to fly to Colorado today.

KT: Alright, yeah, we see from your tour that you have a couple of shows coming up in Colorado in just a couple days.

KW: That’s right.

KT: Alright, well lets talk about your new CD, it’s a collaboration with the Keels, how’d that all come together?

KW: Well, our first record ‘Keller and Keels’ together came out in 2006 and its called “Grass” and this one is a follow up to that one and it’s all covers and it’s just songs that are not necessarily, or not at all, Bluegrass songs but they’re done in the Bluegrass style with that formula. And I just really wanted an excuse to hang out with the Keel’s more and definitely, my wishes were granted.

KT: Have you guys toured together yet for this CD, you and the Keel’s?

KW: This particular record came out last spring I think and we did a whole bunch of festivals last summer and we’ve probably done about 20 shows since the record come out.

KT: Now this record has a lot of cover songs on it, and you’re kind of famous for doing some crazy cover songs. Like you’ve done Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”, what gives you the idea to cover a song and kinda put your own kind of twist to it?

KW: Well a lot of times the songs find me and they get inside my head and I often have to play them and record them just to get them out of my head, you know? It’s difficult for me just to pick a song and cover it, just like it has to find me, and that’s definitely how it happened with this record. A lot of the songs were road tested by me, or with me and the Keel’s over the years and they all seemed to work in a live setting so it seemed pretty obvious to have them on the compilation.

KT: Now you’ve collaborated with the Keel’s, I know you’ve collaborated with Bob Weir, who else have you had a chance to write with, play with and kinda jam with?

KW: Well the list is pretty vast, a couple years ago I put out a record called “Dream” and it took about 3 years to complete that. During the time of the recording I put out a DVD as well, but that record has me with as you mentioned Bob Weir, Charlie Hunter, Martin Sexton, Michael Franti, Steve Kimock, um John Scofield, Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, along with a couple other folks, and I’m real proud of that record. Like I said it came out a couple years ago, it’s called “Dream”. But most recently I just completed a record and is going to be called “Bass” and that’s coming out hopefully in December. And that has me on bass and my good friend Jay Starling on keys and my good buddy Mark D on drums and this

is kind of a reggae dub/funk record with me on bass and I’m really looking forward to that release.

KT: Who do you consider one of your biggest influences in guitar playing? Who’s one of your favorite guitar players? You just rattled off a list of just amazing people it would be a dream to play with any of those folks. Who do you think, who do you like? Who’s your favorite guitarist?

KW: Well I guess first and foremost my whole career is kinda based around the works of Michael Hedges.
KT: Uh huh.

KW: He’s no longer with us. Are you familiar with Michael Hedges?

KT: Oh yeah, most definitely.

KW: I got turned on to him at a very influential age, I was probably 18 and I just absorbed it like a sponge. At that time I was also deep into the Grateful Dead and their catalog and their music was slowly becoming a soundtrack for my life you know? And right at that time is when I got involved, or introduced to Michael Hedges’ music and he showed me how one guy could you know demand the attention of an audience with just a solo act on stage. Not only did I get a lot out of his style and his tunings and his playing style, but also how he was able to take a cover and make it his own to where you can still recognize the cover, but he put his own voodoo on it. So I would site him my main biggest influence.

KT: Kinda mentor, yeah, fantastic. I totally understand what you’re saying. Your guitar that you’re playing now, its been a long time since I’ve seen you play actually, you used to come here to the Zebra bar in Bozeman MT in 1996, I’ve got a few of your recording from back then, I played you on the radio after that. It’s really kinda cool to see your career flourish, and the list of people you rattled off, that you’ve had the privilege to play with. Your guitar now, do you play a 12 string guitar and its missing 2..just tell me about it I’d love to know about your guitar setup?

KW: Sure, a very long time, and its during that time frame that you mentioned from the early to late 90’s you know I was playing a 12 string guitar and I guess when I was in Telluride the guitar I was playing, the bridge was lifting off like where you put the strings in at the bottom if you have a right handed guitar if you look down to the right of the sound hole that bridge plate was lifting off. So I took some strings off and lowered the tension a 1/2 step or so and that stuck, and it was probably a good 8-10 years that I played with that configuration. It was a 10 string which was basically a 12 string with 2 strings missing, and since then the older I get the easier it gets to play a 6 string and its been a good decade that I’ve been playing a Martin HD28 6 string, and that’s kind of my main guitar. When I play with the Keel’s I kind of assume the role of a mandolin player and I play a little custom mini 12 string with 4 strings missing and I’m trying to get the whole mandolin sound. You know its kind of like a 12 string, small neck that has a higher pitch sound, but when I come to you I will definitely be with what I call the “Fly Rig” and its just equipment that we can do shows with, that we can fly with. And I’ll probably have my Martin as my main guitar and then there’ll be like an old Fender bass on the stand ready to go and then there will be a Gibson Chet Atkins which is thin body 6 string acoustic that has a synthesizer pickup on it so I can play the guitar but can get all kinds of keyboard synthesizer sounds out of it. And then there’s a variety of different electronic drum sample pads, and like usual nothing is prerecorded and I’ll be creating samples right there live on stage and layering.

KT: Yeah, that is one of the most unique things about your performances that I love is how you can reloop those improvisational things and then kind of grow on it, it’s really fascinating to watch.

KW: Thank you, thank you so much.

KT: I’ve seen a little excerpt about some of your kids shows that you’ve been doing lately and you go into explanation to the kids about how your looping systems works, can you give us a little example of how that works, you know how you record your little samples and then play them back so on the fly?

KW: Sure it basically is a foot pedal that is hooked to 3 different looping machines that are all tied together. There’s one machine just for the bass, one machine just for the drums and one for everything else; guitar, vocals, percussion, whatever. And what I do is step on the button and I play a sound or sing a sound and at the right moment I’ll step on that button again and it repeats what I just played and then I can layer a bass line on top of it and like layer on a drum beat on top of that and then you have like rhythm guitar and bass and drum and then I can sing solo or dance or do whatever. Entertain myself.

KT: Entertain us as well. Now you’ve put out a kids album before, do you have children?

KW: I do, I do, boy 3, girl 6.

KT: And was this album, did you put it out on their behalf, or what made you decide to put a kids album together?

KW: Well folks have always told me that my music is playful, and that their kids like it, but then there’s adult situations that the parents don’t want to subject their children to. So folks that have been coming to my shows that have kids have always asked me to try to put out a family friendly record and I guess I have about 16 or 17 records out now and just as someone who makes CD’s, to me I think it is just a natural progression to do at least one kids record. And that’s one cool thing about being solo I have many different concepts for records, just like the one I talked about before “Dreams” a dream about collaborating with all my heros and then the covers record with the Keel’s, and then the kids record just kinda goes in that series of being a concept record. And I guess I had written kids songs long before I had kids just for the sake of seeing if I could do it and then it took me about 7 years to come up with another 30 minutes worth of material. It’s done really well for me, I’ve gotten a lot of air time on the satellite radio on The Kids Place Live, channel 78 maybe, and they’ve done me really right and you know I’ve been able to be a part of the Yo Gabba Gabba Live Tour which is a tv show on like Nick JR, and just like the Disney on Ice or whatever its a similar situation with that. And that’s been really positive, and done a lot for the record and you know I’ve done well in the mommy blog world.

KT: Nice, did you ever see Raffi as a kid?

KW: I never did no, but my kids love him.

KT: Yeah, my kids love him as well. Hey Keller William’s so nice talking with you, got your brand new CD out with the Keel’s, and your coming to Bozeman September 16th, we are excited to have you in town, let me be the first to welcome you back to Bozeman, September 16th at the Emerson Cultural Center, its an all ages show so if you want to bring your kids Keller will play a kids song or 2 won’t ya? he, he, he.

KW: Nope, nope, probably not, definately I want to make it clear that even though the kids album is out there, that the kids shows and the night time shows are totally separate so think I’m gonna be playing a whole lot of kids music there’s been a handful of shows where we’ve piggy backed a kids show matinee and we’ve had a lot of fun with that and we put a lot of money into it bringing full video, and confetti and balloons and some stuff, but the Montana shows will not be kids shows.

KT: Not kid friendly.

KW: There won’t be a lot of…when I say adult shows I don’t mean triple X either.

KT: Ha, ha, ha gotcha. Right on. You can find out more about Keller Williams at kellerwilliams.com, hey and I wish you the best of luck getting out of there, and wish all the people the best of luck getting out of there for us, we’re thinking of them. And we’ll see you September 16th Keller, nice talking to you today.

KW: Nice talkin to you, thanks for the time.