By: David Schultz

Family Guy once lampooned Randy Newman by depicting him as a survivor of a Y2K apocalypse that sits in a field literally singing about what’s going in front of him. His droning narrative become so annoying, the Griffins leave him behind as well as a consistent source of food. On Odd, his eleventh studio album consisting primarily of road-tested live pieces, Keller Williams seems to be adopting the animated Newman philosophy, warbling in his soothing hushed tones about whatever seems to be at the forefront of his consciousness. The difference though is that Williams is legitimately funny.

Taking observational dialectic in a musical direction, Williams wistfully waxes philosophic over his inability to communicate with the household pests he’s about to poison (“Warning”), vents his spleen over a dishonest promoter who seemed like a decent enough guy (“Spartan Darn It”), gets paranoid in line at the airport (“Doobie In My Pocket”) and creates the senior-citizen’s version of “Margaritaville” (“Lost”). The most entertaining track, “A Day At The Office,” comes replete with irony as he worries, quite comically, about what Blender magazine might do if he gives his heartfelt response to their opinion that the best thing about him is that there’s only one of him. As it turns out, the answer to his question is “go bankrupt and fold.”

On Dream, Williams went overboard with guest musicians and put his prodigious guitar skills at the forefront. With the exception of “A Song For Fela,” Williams pulls a 180 on his latest and lets his lyrics carry the album, singing over relatively simple strumming or uncomplicated looped beats. Probably the most inventive thing about the album was its release, which Williams orchestrated through his Web site posting it one track at a time. Fortunately, Williams doesn’t need innovation to be entertaining and his penchant for observation goes well beyond “left foot, right foot; left foot, right foot.”

Labels: Keller Williams

By: David Schultz

With record labels losing their importance in getting music into the ears of people who listen to it, artists are coming up with new and different ways to release albums. Radiohead’s much-publicized, pay-what-you-want scheme may have been a shot across the bow of the establishment and inspired some imitators but it didn’t start a free music revolution. The new scheme, at least for the summer, seems to be a one-at-a-time plan

Beck, essentially a free agent as far as record deals go, will experiment with the idea as part of his newly created Record Club. Starting with Velvet Underground and Nico, Beck will invite friends like MGMT, Devendra Banhart and Jamie Liddell, into the studio to cover a classic album in its entirety with little rehearsal. The results will be released on a weekly basis on his Web site with Beck’s cover of “Sunday Morning” kicking things off.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

KELLER WILLIAMS WILL ALSO BE trying out weekly allotments of new music. As the calendar counts down to the release of his ODD, Williams will release it a track at a time as part of his Once A Week Freek. In addition to the new studio material, Williams will also make available live recordings and unreleased songs currently residing in the vault. The tracks will sell for 99 cents a pop with some coming bundled with free bonus material.

Labels: Beck, Keller Williams

By: David Schultz

On July 11, the Dark Star Orchestra returns to Governor’s Island to kick off the second season of The HighLine Ballroom’s concert series The Beach At Governor’s Island. Taking the concept of a tribute band to another level, the DSO has been recreating Grateful Dead concerts in their entirety for more than a decade, inspiring such similar acts like Strange Design (Phish). The Dark Star Orchestra – currently comprised of Rob Barraco (keys), John Kadlecik (guitar), Rob Eaton (guitar), Kevin Rosen (bass), Rob Koritz (drums), Dino English (drums) and Lisa Mackey (vocals) - performed the Dead’s May 1, 1977 set from Palladium in New York City on their last visit to the Island.

In addition to the Dark Star Orchestra, Keller Williams, who’s been known to include more than a couple Dead tunes into his wide ranging set lists, will bring his solo looping Freek show to the Island as part of the bill.

Labels: Dark Star Orchestra, Keller Williams

By: David Schultz

Over the past decade, Keller Williams has carved himself a nifty little niche as an incredibly creative and inventive live performer. On Dream, his ninth studio album, the man affectionately referred to as the one-man jamband doesn't try to go it alone, choosing to get by with a little help from his friends, including the String Cheese Incident, Bob Weir, Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten. Williams' penchant for looping machines and rotating between various instruments loses it appeal without the accompanying visual. Wisely, Williams doesn't even try to bring his stage show into the studio, working hard to create songs that can stand on their own without the use of any gimmickry.

On stage, Williams showcases his ingenuity, on Dream, Williams features his guitar proficiency, matching licks with banjo great Bela Fleck on "People Watchin,'" and guitar academician Fareed Haque on "Cookies." Williams works in a few of his customary guitar rolls that coast up and down the scale, but also stretches his guitar work to match prodigious masters like Haque, Charlie Hunter and Steve Kimock. His guitar makes up for his limited vocal range, which on past albums tends to manifest itself in a hushed monotone. Although he reverts to the style on "Celebrate Your Youth," and "Ninja Of Love," which features a similarly flat effort from Michael Franti, Williams works admirably to stretch his vocals as well as his guitar.

Intricate guitars plus serious guest stars could be a recipe for pretentiousness but the album's liner notes allieve any worries over Williams' ego: he seems just as amazed as anyone to have assembled Dream's all-star array. Plus, he deflates any astronomical illusions over his technological acumen in describing his amazement over recording with Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten and Jeff Sipe without ever being in the same room.

Williams' finger-plucking guitar style, though entertaining, can wear thin over the course of a few songs. In that sense, the inclusion of the wide array of guest stars gives Williams numerous interesting foils to play off of and keeps Dream from retrenching the same old groove. There's some straight-forward rock on "Play This," an "appeal" for radio airplay as well as some country on "Sing For My Dinner." On the latter, Williams joins his musical cousins String Cheese Incident for a lengthy tune that rotates between up-tempo bluegrass and sweaty, bluesy jamming. While Williams hasn't created a transcendent masterpiece with Dream, he has concocted his most varied, accomplished work to date.

Labels: Bob Weir, Keller Williams, Michael Franti, Steve Kimock, String Cheese Incident, Victor Wooten

by David Schultz

The one man tour-de-force known as Keller Williams swept into New York City this past Friday, invading the Nokia Theater, Times Square's newest music hall. Williams' unconventional stage show relies as heavily on his ability to play numerous different instruments of varying difficulty as it does on his proficiency with his looping machine. Throughout the evening, Williams, a prodigious guitar player, captured various guitar riffs with the machine, using the repetitive loop as the backbeat. The looping track frees Williams to mischievously scour the stage, allowing him to add a second guitar or mix different instruments into the loop. While this seems like a lot of work, Keller effortlessly mixes everything together with a practiced ease that obscures his impressive technical skills.

Williams' inventive stage shows have made him a darling of the jamband circuit. Even without strong record sales or radio airplay, Keller's well-deserved reputation for providing an entertaining show, based on his ever-changing set lists of original songs, improvisational jams and eclectic covers, make his concerts sold-out draws. Williams' easily identifiable originals, typified by flowing guitar riffs and sharp, bouncy staccato percussion, though eminently enjoyable, often sound alike. At times, but for the vocals, it's hard to differentiate one Williams original from another. During brief sets, this presents a minor annoyance: over the course of a 2 hour headlining act it can become infuriating.

At the Nokia, Williams deftly avoided the issue, shying away from his own material while devoting almost half the show to other musicians' songs. Williams skillfully adapted the covers to his own style. For the Beatles' Drive My Car, Williams incorporated a triangle and his own mouth-trumpet into the backing loop. In tackling the Steve Miller Band's The Joker, Williams accompanied himself on a traditional stand-up bass. Straight forward readings of Jimi Hendrix' The Wind Cries Mary and Cracker's Teen Angst sounded fresh without the Williams' gimmickry. Slyly acknowledging the spectacle taking place down the road at Madison Square Garden, Keller adopted Bonoish mannerisms to close his version of U2's Bad. Williams' cleverly interpreted covers are a trademark of his live shows. However, relying on them to the exclusion of his own material puts Williams at risk of becoming labeled a cover act, albeit a witty and entertaining one.

Keller included a good smattering of his own tunes, working longtime favorites like Sally Sullivan, Roshambo and Inhale To The Chief into the mix. With the exception of Celebrate Your Youth, Williams did not offer lengthy versions of his own material, preferring instead to move quickly from one to the other after only a verse or two. Disappointingly, Williams relegated Freeker By The Speaker, his most popular song, to an instrumental introduction to the Grateful Dead's St. Stephen. In addition to another Dead cover, Jack-A-Roe, Williams reached deeper into the catalogue of his jamband roots, finishing his first set with Phish's Runway Jim and Run Like An Antelope and closing the show with his Big Summer Classic tour mate Michael Franti's Stay Human, praising "all the freaky people making music in the world" before segueing into Bob Marley's Rastman Chant.

The mélange of sound created by Williams nicely filled the wide, spacious and inviting Nokia Theater. The Nokia, which opened last month, contains a wide expansive floor in front of the stage with small balconies overlooking the sides. For those who don't wish to stand for an entire show, the rear of the theater has approximately a dozen rows of unreserved seats, leftovers from the Nokia's prior incarnation as a movie theater, available for those who get to them first. Logistics aside, the sound system for the theater is truly first-rate with Williams' every note clearly heard throughout the hall. More evident during Steve Winwood's show earlier in the week, the sound quality problems that plagued Winwood and his band during their Bowery Ballroom performance weeks earlier were noticeably absent. With the ability to provide both size and intimacy, the Nokia quite possibly could be the best venue to see and hear music in New York City.

No matter how good the theater, the music on stage remains the important factor. To the uninitiated, Keller Williams' untraditional approach can be off putting. Without seeing how Williams concocts the music, you can't appreciate the genius of its creation. The description of a guitarist playing and singing along to a backing loop might give the impression that Williams should be dismissed as a quirky karaoke artist. To categorize Keller Williams in such a simplistic manner would be an injustice to an inventive creative performer. To grasp Williams, he must be seen and simply purchasing an album or downloading one or two tracks won’t give you the full understanding of Williams' music.

Labels: Keller Williams

At roughly 4:15, Umphrey's McGee, the Indiana based jamband took the stage at the Prospect Park Bandshell as part of the 2005 Big Summer Classic. The crowd, which was baking in the late afternoon sun, greeted the band by producing numerous beach balls and took great delight in batting them about while the band started to groove. The largest, a globelike green beach ball, made its way towards the sound booth and came to rest in an empty row. A squat bald overweight man came over and grabs the ball but rather than send it back amongst the crowd calmly pierces it with his lit cigarette. Fans O the Jamband: Welcome to Brooklyn!!

The Big Summer Classic is this year's top touring jamband festival. Finding its roots in Monterey and Woodstock, the Summer Classic's proper progenitor is the H.O.R.D.E. festivals of the mid nineties. Following the success of Perry Farrell's Lollapalooza concerts, John Popper and Blues Traveler created Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere. Gathering their musical comrades like The Spin Doctors, Widespread Panic and the Samples, the H.O.R.D.E. festival toured the country spreading good vibes everywhere.

Jamband festivals have maintained their link to their 60's ancestors by fostering social awareness and political activism. War protestors, environmental activists and marijuana decriminalization supporters gather with the purpose of rallying their brethren to support their cause and using the momentum to achieve social change. The politics and beliefs of the crowd were usually echoed back to them by the musicians on stage creating one big communal atmosphere of peace and love. It is in this respect that the Big Summer Classic separates itself. Despite an unpopular ongoing war in Iraq, Michael Franti was the only one to even mention it much less denounce it. The 2005 jamband crowd doesn't seem to want to their groove disturbed by the outside world.

That is not to say that there weren't some relics of the old hippie festivals. Concert goers were encouraged to proceed through the "Karma Wash" in which Karma technicians would ward off the bad vibes from your person through their proficient use of feathers and goodwill. Relix magazine had a prominent presence with spontaneous drum circles erupting between sets by their tent. Most entertaining were the twenty foot high inflatable Sumo wrestlers, the symbols of the tour, that towered over the back of the park grounds. Although there was a good smattering of tie dye, the clothing of choice of today's concert-goer seems to be a simple T and shorts.

Oh yes, there was also some music -- a lot of good music. With the sun beating down on the stage, the early arriving fans fell into two groups: those crushing up against the stage to get as close to the band as possible and those laying back on the lawn in the shade with a beer. As the concert progressed and the sun set, more and more people abandoned the lawn to the get closer to the music.

San Francisco based New Monsoon opened the show to an enthusiastic response. Possibly owing to its brevity, the band's 4 song set, heavy on percussion and middle Eastern rhythms, was the tightest of the day. Amidst band staples Blast and Daddy Long Legs, the band covered Pink Floyd's Echoes in its near 18 minute entirety, creatively employing a balloon and the sides of their drums to achieve the spacey interlude.

Umphrey's braved the mean spirited beach ball popping troglodyte but still played an underwhelming set. Distracting everyone from the music, the band marred their set by bringing out a horde of dancing girls in ill fitting bikinis and fishnet stockings to writhe around arythmically and unsexily.

Michael Franti and Spearhead attempted to enlighten as well as entertain. The Umphrey dancing girls were put to better use as they paraded throughout the crowd with placards containing aphorisms from the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Alice Walker, Ghandi, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Spearhead's set also contributed the only mention of the Iraqi war with Franti exhorting "Bush War 1, Bush War 2, Got a war for me and a war for you" during Everyone Deserves Music's We Don't Stop.

Musically, Spearhead brought the crowd to their feet with reggae infused socially aware songs like Yes I Will and Yell Fire. String Cheese Incident's Michael Kang joined the band halfway through the set, notably contributing his violin to a rousing version of Everlast's What I Got. In a stranger accompaniment, a large muscular gent with black militant shades joined the band -- for a flower arrangement solo, which didn't last long enough as it seemed there were some lilies to add to the mix.

Playing barefoot, Keller Williams brought his unique blend of acoustic guitar mastery and backing audio loops. Onstage, Williams is an overgrown child having fun with all his various bells, whistles and theremin. Like a talented and funnier version of Carrottop, he brings the instruments out at random intervals and adds them to the backing loop. The one drawback to the loops is that it is difficult to tell when Williams is playing and when you are listening to a recording.

Williams uses his technical and musical acumen to great effect and his "one-man band" is truly unique and something to see live. Quite likely, someone will eventually outdo Williams at his own game and gain a larger audience with a similar act. Hopefully, they will have the humility to acknowledge Williams as the progenitor of this inventive mix of man and machine. Until that time though, there is noone else doing this better

His set included his normal batch of eclectic originals as well as covers of Gin and Juice, Candyman and Fly Like An Eagle. The set also contained another standard of the jamband festival -- the seamless transition with the next act. As Williams wound his set down, he was progressively joined by members of the Yonder Mountain String Band. With the whole String Band finally on stage for the Steve Miller closer, Williams finished up, waved goodbye and without stopping the YMSB took off with an hour of their brand of bluegrass and country. The collaborations between the bands continued as String Cheese's Bill Nershi joined the band for last third of their set.

With the sun set, the show was closed by the undisputed headliner of the Classic, String Cheese Incident. While most of the Brooklyn crowd came to see the Cheese, a theory supported by the multitude of enraptured spasmodic arhytymic dancers, they failed to enthrall the entire crowd. String Cheese's studio sound is grounded in bluegrass but onstage their sound is reminiscent of Graceland era Paul Simon fused with an inspired jamheavy Miami Sound Machine with the whole conglomeration seeking Harry Belafonte's approval to use calypso.

This night, the band made some odd choices. In the musical equivalent of sitting LeBron James in the 4th quarter of a close game, Michael Kang, an amazing and inventive violin player, played mandolin and guitar for most of the set. The band was also ill-equipped to tackle their cover of Stevie Wonder's I Wish. Missteps aside, String Cheese does have moments where they command attention and did so during the closing tunes One Step Closer and Search. Frustratingly, the frequency of those moments pales in comparison to their predecessors like the Grateful Dead and Phish.

Bringing back members from Umphrey's McGee and Spearhead, SCI appropriately ended the show with an encore of the Beastie Boys No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Michael Franti came onstage mid song for a little free style before being joined by dancing trees who helped lead the crowd in a chant for MORE - TREES -- IN -- BROOKLYN!

Labels: Bill Nershi, Keller Williams, Michael Franti, New Monsoon, Spearhead, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band