It wasn’t long after this artistic transformation that Williams
made his mark in the jam-band
world, of all places, both as a
solo artist and also in collaboration with various luminaries
in that scene. His album Stage,
won a Jammy for Live Album
of the Year in 2005, and his
song “Cadillac” won a Jammy
for Song of the Year in 2008.
He also shared a Jammy with
the String Cheese Incident and
Umphrey’s McGee, among
others, for Tour of the Year in
2006. With these accolades,
Williams’ scenery changed from
inattentive, pot-bellied plumbers and sullen schoolteachers
at the local bar to completely
engaged crowds of happy-go-lucky hippies and their hirsute
companions at massive arenas.
Williams’ music is often goofy
and irreverent. In addition to
penning a huge number of originals, he’s also covered a broad
rage of hilariously incongruous
songs—from Ozzy Osbourne’s
“Crazy Train” to the Sugar Hill
Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” But
while his music can be fun,
make no mistake—Williams is a
serious musician who keeps serious company. His 2007 release,
Dream, counted icons like John
Scofield, Bob Weir (who played
on the Jammy-winning song
“Cadillac”), Béla Fleck, Charlie
Hunter, and Victor Wooten
among its many guests.
Several years ago, Williams
became a father, and this life
change is reflected in his writing and recent career choices.
In 2010, he released a children’s
album called Kids, and wrote a
book entitled Because I Said So
that’s based on the album’s song
of the same name. He recently
secured the highly coveted Super
Music Friends section of the Yo
Gabba Gabba! live tour. Even
with the grueling demands of
parenthood and these projects,
however, Williams is always looking to the next frontier—like the
songs on bass just in case. So I
learned 20 String Cheese songs
on bass—I worked on them for
40 hours in one week, doing
the 9-to- 5 thing, learning songs.
Luckily, the baby was on time
and Keith never had to leave,
but I was left with a love of this
new instrument and started to
incorporate that into my looping shows. That’s kind of when
things started to change for
me, as far as people coming to
shows and dancing. Low end
has a huge impact on music in
general. I can’t understand how
I went so long without it, as far
as my solo act.
Was it hard transitioning from
guitar to bass?
A lot of people say, “Oh it’s
harder to go from guitar to
bass, and to sing while playing
bass.” It’s not, because my guitar style has always focused on
the bass line, and now with the
bass there are two less strings
to deal with and tune. It’s just
glorious [laughs].
Keller grooves on his Fender Road Worn P bass at a 2011 gig at Pearl
Street Night Club in Northampton, Massachusetts. Photo by David Barnum
loop-free, bluegrass-tinged Keller
& the Keels and the Travelin’
McCourys. In December 2011,
he released Bass, his 17th album.
For this album, Williams eschews
the guitar for the first time in his
recorded career, teams up with a
reggae keyboardist and drummer,
and leaves the one-man-band
approach behind to pick up
the—you guessed it—bass!
Let’s talk about the newest
and most unusual thing for
you first—the fact that you’re
playing nothing but bass on
Bass. How did you get into
the instrument itself?
Well, I guess it started long ago
when I was on tour with the
String Cheese Incident. Keith
Moseley’s wife was due to have
a baby shortly after the tour
ended, and there was a possibil-
ity that the baby would come
early and Keith would have to
leave. So instead of hiring a bass
player, they told me to learn 20
How did you first get into
playing guitar?
A TV show called Hee Haw that
had these cats playing guitar.
You remember that show? [Ed.
note: The CBS variety show ran
from 1969 to 1992.] I think my
parents knew one of the girls
that would pop her head out
of the little hay field after the
jokes, so they would always have
it on. I wanted to be like Roy
Clark and Buck Owens, pickin’
and grinnin’. It was cool, so I
got a guitar when I was a kid
and just pretended to play it.
What kind of guitar was it?
One of those little 3/4-scale
guitars. I still have it. From that
guitar, I moved to the hockey
stick because it looked more
like an electric guitar [laughs].
It was easier to hold and “play.”
Then a friend showed me some
chords when I was, like, 12 or
