Those who've followed Keller Williams' recording career to date know that he has given each of his albums a single-syllable title: FREEK, BUZZ, SPUN, BREATHE, LOOP, LAUGH, HOME, DANCE, STAGE, GRASS, DREAM, TWELVE, REX, LIVE, ODD, THIEF, KIDS, BASS, PICK, KEYS and FUNK. Each title serves not only as a concise summation of the concept guiding the particular project but also as another piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is Keller Williams. GRASS, for example, is
a bluegrass recording, cut with the husband- wife duo the Keels. STAGE is a live album and DREAM the end product of a wish list: Keller collaborating with some of his great- est musical heroes. THIEF is a set of unex- pected cover songs. And KIDS offers up, you guessed it, Williams' first and possibly only children's record.
The naming trend has continued with 2012's
BASS and PICK, respectively a set of songs
where Keller plays bass and William's col-
laboration with royal bluegrass family The
Travelin' McCourys. In 2013 – Keller re-
leased FUNK with his newest collaboration
– a six-piece funk outfit – More Than a Lit-
tle. What all of the titles reveal, when taken
together, is an artist of great stylistic breadth and infinite imagina- tion, a singer, songwriter and musician, always on a quest for the new. Keller Williams has never followed the prescribed path laid out by the conventional music business, nor has he taken the pre- scribed meds laid out by his team of conventional doctors. Instead, he has taken the A.D.D. path (Artistic, Determined, Dedication). It's a path that has served him quite well.
Since he first appeared on the scene in the early '90s, Williams has defined the term independent artist. And his recordings tell only half the story. Keller built his reputation initially on his engaging live performances, no two of which are ever alike. For most of his career he has performed solo. His stage shows are rooted around Keller singing his compositions and choice cover songs, while ac- companying himself on acoustic guitar. With the use of today's technology, Keller creates samples on the fly in front of the audi- ence, a technique called live phrase sampling or looping, With noth- ing pre-recorded, the end result often leans toward a hybrid of alternative folk and groovy electronica. A genre Keller jokingly calls "acoustic dance music" or ADM."
That approach, Williams explains, was derived from "hours of play- ing solo with just a guitar and a microphone, and then wanting to go down different avenues musically. I couldn't afford humans and didn't want to step into the cheesy world of automated sequencers where you hit a button and the whole band starts to play, then you've got to solo along or sing on top of it. I wanted something more organic yet with a dance groove that I could create myself."