Keller Williams

If you’re even remotely familiar with the jam scene in America, Keller Williams should be a familiar name. After earning his stripes opening for String Cheese Incident, Keller has played internationally several times and has shared the stage with some of music’s biggest legends.

Now, Keller is ready to release a retrospective album simply titled 12, compiling one song from each of his previous 11 studio albums. We recently caught up with him to discuss his thoughts on playing with Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten and others, his new album and the most surreal moments in his career.

SSv: You recently spent some time back in Japan. How are those trips for you?

Keller Williams: It’s truly a blast to go to a place that’s so foreign. That’s as foreign to me as I get to perform. And the first two times I went was definitely surreal in the sense that I was playing in these cities and these people were singing along to the music – that’s definitely bizarre that these people know my music. The whole American jam scene is really liked over there. They’re really Internet savvy as most young people are, but even more so back in 1999 and 2001 when I went the first couple times.

SSv: So how does Keller Williams become popular in Japan?

Williams: I wouldn’t say I’m popular in Japan. I’m definitely playing small places that won’t sell out. It’s not a big ticket thing. It’s still very small. It takes time to go back and forth and the promoters over there really just want to kind of wrap it around some record release, and won’t have anything to do with you unless you’re doing a record release or some sort of festival. It’s a very different culture over there and I wouldn’t say I’m popular. But it’s a big Internet thing – the tape trading and that sort of thing of live recordings or e-tree or different sites that swap live shows. I think those are big over there.

SSv: One thing I’d like to discuss is wondering how did the WMDs come together?

Williams: Well, just my respect and love for all the players in different times of my life. I definitely hold them in high regard. Gibb Droll is 100% rock star in my eyes. When I was in college I met him for the first time. That was in ‘88 or ‘89 and we played together at the same open mic in Virginia Beach. He was this mad ripper, you know? He went on to play regionally all around between Virginia and Texas, just back and forth between the two doing the Southeast thing. He would fill these rooms and he would just be shreddin’ and ripping strings on his guitar. I just thought he was the coolest guy and I still do.

Now he’s settling into where he wants to be. I think he wants to step away slightly from the spotlight and he’s really an amazing guitarist in that sense, too. I would only see him as the front guy usually as guitar, bass and drums. Then later on he would have sax and keyboards. Now that he’s stepping into this group, he’s playing voicings or really tasty fills but then he will step up and play these monster solos. I’m just so grateful to be able to stand next to him on stage.

Then there’s Jeff Sipe, the whole cooland rescue unit hit when I was in a very influential stage in my life when I was going to see those guys when Jeff was on drums. That jumpstarted me into really liking Jeff Sipe and then following him through his different bands like Leftover [Salmon], Derek Trucks, Trey Anastasio and different one-offs he does with these amazing monsters of history like George Porter.

With Keith Mosely, I’ve been in the String Cheese family since the ’90s or so. We’ve been really good friends and been on vacations with each other’s families and such.

SSv: So when you approach these guys, are you pitching it as a temporary sort of thing?

Williams: Yeah. Knowing that everyone’s got different things going on and then I’ve got my solo career which is where I kinda thrive, too, so I didn’t want to say “This is it. This is what I want to do. This is a permanent thing.” It’s not that everyone is so locked into their own thing, but they have opportunities to do many different things and I didn’t want to strip that away from anyone nor did I want to put all my eggs in one basket and then have these guys want to do something else.

So we started out rehearsing a few times and then to play four festivals in a month – just to do one festival a week for a month. And it was great. It was so much fun on stage that now we’ve got three tours booked.

SSv: Was it all your idea or something you guys had previously talked about together?

Williams: I definitely called each one individually. These guys didn’t know each other until we got together. I think Jeff and Keith obviously had crossed path several times from their days in String Cheese and Leftover. They would have been at all the same festivals. Gibb and I toured with Cheese and Moe and Galactic in 1999. I guess they all kinda knew each other a little bit, but had never really spent a lot of time together.

SSv: How was the chemistry the first time you guys got together?

Williams: It was fantastic. Musically everyone is listening and excited. Then personality-wise, everyone shares the same love for similar kinds of music. Like a record that has totally changed Gibb’s life is Redneck Jazz by Danny Gatton. It’s a live record done in D.C. and it totally changed the way Gibb plays music and hears music. Then it turns out that Jeff was actually at that show. Little things like this that just brings us all even closer together in a mystic sort of way.

So I sent them a couple CDs a couple months prior to us coming together of my arrangements of different songs and things. Then everyone kinda learned it and came together and practiced for a few days and off we went.

SSv: Was it hard to schedule this?

Williams: No it was really lucky on the timing as far as people coming together for this. Plus even from my schedule, I had to plan it five months out. We had to say, “Hey it’d be great in five months to get together.” When you’re booking that far out, the other guys have more flexible schedules to commit. So when you do it that far out, you can make it work.

SSv: Now, Dream came out a little while ago. Are you still touring for that or looking forward to the next thing?

Williams: You know, I’m never really touring in support of any specific record. I just put out records to document where the songs are at that specific moment. Dream is more of a collaboration than it was to document the songs. I had been playing the songs on Dream for years and they had just never gotten recorded. It took years to pull that record together. I’m very, very proud of how that turned out. And I consciously try to play one or two songs from that at every show, but I’m not out to support that one record.

My sales aren’t over the top where I’m trying to sell records. My whole world revolves around live performance, so records are sort of an added bonus. It just happens to be eleven records that I’ve put out. My next one is coming out in December and it’s a retrospect of my eleven records, with one song off of each record and that one will be called 12.

SSv: Are you culling the tracks from each album and just pasting them or what?

Williams: No, I’m plucking one off of each and then remastering the whole compilation as one record to make it. Through all the years, the sound quality from 1994 is so different than 2007, so we’re remastering it to make it all even and level. And it’s really cool to take a trip down memory lane. It starts with a brand new song and then starts over from ‘94 up through 2007. I’m pretty excited about it and it’s fun to listen to that trip through my career.

SSv: Where’d the idea come from for 12?

Williams: I’m a big shopper of CDs. And you know now with the lack of indie record stores or at least in my area, there are just Borders and Best Buy and Wal-Mart. I was just flipping through and browsing through the CDs and I come across an artist I’m familiar with. Let’s say there’s a couple CDs there. Then I see the Greatest Hits and you see that’s got a bunch of songs you know on it. That’s the one I usually go for if I’m not too familiar. Then if I like it I go back and hit a couple other earlier releases. So without having any hits, you have to call it a retrospect. It’s the greatest hits with no hits. And it’s the final record I can call it a number and still only have one syllable. I just wanna use the number 12.

SSv: When you’re going back, did you instantly know what song to pull from each album?

Williams: I pretty much had a favorite tune from each album I wanted to showcase.

SSv: I’d love to get your slant on some people that have impacted you or that you’ve worked with, if that’s alright. Such as Victor Wooten…

Williams: Sure. Victor Wooten is the premiere bass player in the galaxy. As far as everything involved. He can sit tight in the pocket. He can just go out and play solo bass and get away with it. He’s a virtuoso in every sense of the word. And he’s the most down-to-earth dude in the world. He’s so grounded and focused and clear-headed. He’s just the coolest guy. You can just sit and talk to him about anything. He’s the best. I’ll actually see him tomorrow.

SSv: What about Martin Sexton?

Williams: On this record, I was a huge fan of a lot of these guys first before I ever met them. And then once I met them it took me a long time to get past the fandom into an actual conversation without going, “Oh my God! I’m talking to Martin Sexton.” It took years to be friends and to sit and hang out. It’s totally one of those underground guys I feel should be super-famous because his music is so perfect. His voice is so perfect. He’s such an amazing spirit and talent. It amazes me that he’s not at the top of the pop charts.

SSv: Bela Fleck?

Williams: That one was even harder to come to terms with actually hanging out with him. We’re hanging in the back of the bus and the first time I did that, I couldn’t deal. I couldn’t handle it. I was watching him for years and years on television and at festivals and he is just the coolest dude. He’s just so calm. You can tell by watching him on stage how calm he is. You know, playing that intense, intricate music and to have no real facial expressions or emotions coming through. It’s just so normal for him to play an incredibly intricate piece backwards. He is just the coolest dude. He just reeks cool.

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