Keller Williams is a singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist musician who is as beloved in the bluegrass and folk music communities as he is in the jam band world. He’s a free spirited, fiercely independent, highly prolific, and ridiculously talented one man band. When he is up on stage you’ll see him using looping effects, and an array of instruments, to layer sound atop sound until the result is a full blown composition. He is literally a one man jam band.

Although Keller is most comfortable doing his solo act, he has also collaborated with such musicians as Michael Franti, Bela Fleck, The Keels, Del McCoury and family, and all of the living members of the Grateful Dead. Keller grew up a deadhead and he has never lost his passion for Grateful Dead music. You might have even seen him at a show during the late eighties or early nineties. He was that hippie dude in the parking lot wearing a tie-dye tee shirt and playing the guitar. Remember?

Just recently Keller released a children’s CD simply called “Kids.” It’s a wonderful disc that prominently features Keller’s young daughter Ella. Before that there was Keller and the Keels with a CD called “Thief.” This is a disc of thirteen cover songs done bluegrass style highlighted by a guest appearance from Kris Kristofferson. “We’re in this gig together so let’s settle down and steal each others songs” sings Keller in the opening track called “Don’t Cuss the Fiddle.” And before that was Keller Williams “Live.” This hard jamming electric record featured Keller with Keith Moseley from the String Cheese Incident on bass, Jeff Sipe from Leftover Salmon on drums, and Gibb Droll on guitar. They called themselves WMD’S. Before that there are at least a dozen more recordings.

Keller’s current tour will bring him to Connecticut on Thursday December 8th when he comes to Norfolk to play at Infinity Hall. This phone interview took place on an early November afternoon from Keller’s Virginia home.

BH – My ten year old son and I have really enjoyed your new CD “Kids.” Are your own children the inspiration for making that record?

KW – “No, I think the original inspiration came from the ‘Not for Kids Only’ record by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. That came out in 1993 and my kids were years away from being born. But that’s when I knew you could make family friendly music that people without kids could enjoy. That’s what I was going for, trying to not sacrifice anything and do what I do but try to connect with the kids on their level but at the same time making the parents head pop.”

BH – But you’ve taken it a step further than Jerry and David did by having kids only shows.

KW – “Right, it’s a whole other world you know and one cool thing about doing these matinees is actually meeting folks that possibly would have met at my show ten years ago and now they have a kid. Those types of stories are really what I love the most about the kid matinees.”

BH – Before that you released the “Thief” CD with Larry and Jenny Keel. You must have been happy with that one. Why don’t you talk about how the whole thing came about?

KW – “I’m very happy with it. It was a lot of fun to make and really easy to make. Larry and Jenny to me speak volumes in the authentic department when it comes to bluegrass music. My love for the music is very strong but I like to put my own spin on things and obviously do different songs in that genre whereas Larry and Jenny are grounded in the roots of bluegrass music. We’ve been friends a long time and that record was a follow up of a record we did back in 2006 called ‘Grass.’ We have a good time playing together.”

BH – I love the way the opening song “Don’t Cuss the Fiddle” defines that entire CD.

KW – “It kind of does and I sandwiched the record with those Kris Kristofferson songs. I’ve never really heard Kris’s version of those songs. I actually got those songs from the Waylon and Willie record when I was a kid. That’s like one of those records that my parents had on eight-track in the car. And I’ve listened to that record and it’s a great record all the way through. It has ‘Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be Cowboys.’ I think that was the one hit from the record. So that’s where I got the Kris Kristofferson songs from, the Waylon and Willie record.”

BH – It sounds like Kris means a lot to you.

KW – “Kris Kristofferson definitely means a lot to me in the sense that he’s just the epitome of cool. I got a chance to meet him at a Pete Seeger birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden and I’ll never forget this, he said to me ‘excuse me if I don’t remember your name. My mind is that of a wounded soldier.’ So I thought that was really cool. That Waylon and Willie record is definitely a strong memory from my childhood. Willie’s got another record called ‘Willie sings Kristofferson.’ It’s got ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ on it. Kris is just an amazing songwriter.”

BH – I love the song selection, my favorite being “Uncle Disney.” How did you come up with that list?

KW – “We went in with fifteen ideas and came out with thirteen simply because we wanted to cut the record in real time. Pretty much everything was recorded live except for the harmony vocals and we knocked it out really quickly. You mention the Patterson Hood song (Uncle Disney), that’s probably my favorite song on the record too. He just does it solo but we really put the focus on the harmony on that tune and I love the way it came out.”

BH – You also cover the Amy Winehouse song “Rehab.” Has this song taken on a new poignancy since her untimely death?

KW – “Yeah but I didn’t play it any more or less when she was living but it is definitely one of those rock and roll stories you know? It’s a shame too because I really was pulling for her and wanted to see her bounce back and make another record that was as amazing as the other one. You know there were some folks from some different live video companies that asked if I wanted to remove these videos of me covering her song as if me doing it was a bad thing. I didn’t really understand that. It’s one of those things where at the time it was one of those songs that everyone knew because it got so much airplay simply because it’s such a fantastic song. It translated pretty easily into bluegrass for me like almost every song does. I didn’t put too much thought behind it nor do I still. It’s just a shame that she couldn’t pull herself out of it.”

BH – You had something on your website called “Once a week freek.” Now I guess you’re calling it “Whenever I feel like it freek.” Can you talk about that?

KW – That was me coming to grips with the whole download revolution. I guess Bob Weir said it best that downloading is simply just another form of medium for music to go out. I think it’s a way to get the music almost immortal. Whereas if it’s only on a record or only on a CD or tape, that CD or tape could break, but once it’s downloaded and digitized and up in the cyber world it kind of has a chance of being immortal. So that’s kind of where I was going with it. And also the short attention span of today’s listeners or buyers, at least in my world, it’s been proven to us that people go for the easy to their computers instead of going to the store. And plus, its fun for me to release songs that are live. There are a lot of covers in the series and I like to keep my brand new songs under lock and key and wait for an actual record for them to come out. So there are lots of new songs that have not seen the light of day on ‘once a week freek’ simply because I’m saving that for the next record.”

BH – The somewhat recent “Live” CD with Keith Moseley, Jeff Sipe, and Gibb Droll reminded me of why you’re so popular in the jam band world.

KW – “That is a very jam band record and I’m very proud of that record. It was a hand picked band of guys and I truly respect each of them. And when we came together and formed a group there was a bond that formed and we were able to communicate on stage without any kind of language. I’m really proud of that three disc record.”

BH – Right, the two discs and then the trippy DVD that accompanied it. It looks like a lot of work went into the making of that DVD. Am I right about that?

KW – “You are wrong about that! That was done by Scott Johnson and he was on tour with us. We did about eighty shows with the four-piece and Scott probably did fifty of those shows. His main job was to do the video and live projection. He had two cameras on stand in which he would control with a joystick. And he would mix that in real time. All that you see was mixed live at the show as you’re seeing it and it was being projected on the screen behind us. At the end of the night that’s what we had and that’s what we kept. There was a few minor after market things that we put in but they were just little miniscule things and I don’t even remember them.”

BH – That was an amazing “Little Wing” on the video!

KW – “Indeed and we went through hell and back with the Hendrix world to get that approved. There was actually at the end of the first track called ‘Same Old Thing’ where we ripped into a verse and chorus of ‘Manic Depression’ and that did not get approved! I had to edit that out. But they did approve ‘Little Wing’ thank god.”

BH – I know that you’re big into looping. There are some great videos of you on you tube doing this. Is looping as hard as it looks and could you explain to me how it works?

KW – “It’s tough if your timing is off. You have to have your timing down and you have to know where the one is. There’s not necessarily a trick to it but if your timing is slightly off then the loop will be slightly off. So over the years I’ve kind of figured out where I want the one to be and in that sense it’s easy for me. Once I actually started looping and incorporating the bass and creating a dance vibe, that’s when I noticed changes in ticket sales and people actually paying attention. Later on I got to see Victor Wooten and he, in his solo shows, really opened my eyes and ears on how it could be done with the correct equipment and the way he sets it up, his technique of laying a bass line and a rhythm line and then soloing over the top of it. I got a lot from Victor Wooten. It’s a concept that has been around for a long time. Jaco Pastorius did it back in his day when he was at the height of his world. So it’s definitely not like a new concept, it’s just the technology has gotten so amazing. I’m kind of behind in the technology with the stuff I’m using. Everything is turning towards laptops these days and I’m still using the out board gear. But I’m still doing the same thing, the techniques and the formulas, as what the guys with the laptops are using and doing so I’m pretty proud of that.”

BH – Keller, I know how much you love the Grateful Dead. Did you ever have a chance to meet Jerry Garcia?

KW – “No I never got to meet him. By the time I was 25 Jerry had died and I didn’t get to meet Bobby until I think it was 2001. I met Phil in 1999. I did a tour called ‘The Summer Sessions.’ It was with the String Cheese Incident, Gov’t Mule, moe., and Galactic and each band brought a solo act to do what was called ‘tweeners’ which we would play in between sets since there were four acts and three different set breaks. And then Phil & Friends was added to that tour. They did eight shows in the middle and I got to meet Phil then. Back when Jerry was alive I never really saw him from up close because I was always on the lawn or in the back or in the hallways or behind the stage or something. Back when I started going to shows in 1987 they had speakers in the hallways at shows and as a teenager experimenting with all kinds of different energies, that’s where it was for me! Of course I imagine it was an insurance risk and a violation of fire codes to have all these hippies spinning in the hallways so they took them out. But that was an era right there that I’m very familiar with and I try to mentally go back to that energy of those hallway speaker dance sessions.”

BH – I know you’ve worked with Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzmann too.

KW – “Sure I met Mickey first at the BrickFest in Oregan. I don’t think he was with the Rhythm Devils, I think it was a different band. Then over the years I got to see the Rhythm Devils with Billy Kreutzmann and Mike Gordon on bass and Steve Kimock on guitar. That was actually at the Gathering of the Vibes and Ratdog was there so Bobby sat in and Donna Jean sat in so it was just an amazing festival set. Like you said, it’s no secret that I’ve seen a lot of Grateful Dead shows and do a lot of Dead songs so to be able to play with anyone from that group at any time is surely an honor to say the very least.”

BH – I read recently that you’ll be involved with the New York Guitar Festival in January and that you’ll be scoring an old Buster Keaton silent movie. What’s that all about?

KW – “It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before. It’s brand new to me. It’s something that the New York Guitar Festival has been doing, having different guitarists score a silent film by Buster Keaton. And it’s really interesting. The one I’m doing is about twenty minutes long. There are other ones that are an hour long and other folks are slated to do their thing over the top of different movies. But it’s a bizarre thing and I really don’t know what to expect. I’ve been watching it and improvising but I have a lot of work to do.”

BH – I understand that you have a new CD coming out early next year?

KW – “I do and even earlier than that! December 13th is the release date of my next record called ‘Bass.’ No guitar was used for that record. It has Jay Starling on keyboards and Mark D on drums and me on bass. It’s a very reggae/funk type of record. There are nine originals and two covers. We cover a Beck song and a Morrissey song. We’ll be playing five shows at the end of the year to help promote it. We jokingly call the project Kdubalicious! But the record is going to be called Keller Williams ‘Bass.’ There’s also going to be a follow up to my Rex Foundation release that I released a while back called ‘Grateful Grass’ with Jeff Austin on mandolin and Keith Moseley on bass and myself on guitar. It’s all Grateful Dead covers done bluegrass to benefit the Rex Foundation.”

BH – I’ll see you at Infinity Hall on December 8th.

KW – “Yeah, it’s one of my favorite venues for sure. I mean just look at it! You can see the good vibes in that place.”

Keller Williams is right about Infinity Hall. Nestled in what is perhaps the most scenic area of Connecticut it really is the perfect venue for a righteous dude like Keller to work his magic. For more information about Keller, or if you want to download some of his music, you can simply log on to his website at www.kellerwilliams.net.