All Together Now!

Keller Williams Brought In Some All-Stars To Jam On The New Album Dream, And Continues The Trend With His Touring Band The WMD's

originally published November 14, 2007

Keller Williams' latest album Dream finds him collaborating with a host of notable guests, including Ben Harper, Bob Weir and Bela Fleck. The many contributions of other artists to the album, though, haven't kept Williams from being able to perform the songs from Dream (which was released in February) on tour, even in his solo shows.

"All of these songs were written as solo acoustic songs," Williams explains. "The album took so long to make, and I have very little patience with [new songs]. I can't hold onto it and wait for it to come out on a record before I play it live. All of them were played so many times before they were even recorded. So to me, it's easy to translate the material. For the people who are hearing those songs on the record for the first time and getting used to those arrangements, [when] they hear me live, I could see where it could be a drag, because it's something very stripped down from what they're used to. But those people that have been coming to see me live over the past couple of years know that those are all solo acoustic songs and they're kind of special versions on the record."

As Williams notes, the Dream project didn't happen quickly. In fact, he had begun making a list of artists he hoped to work with - including guitarist John Scofield, banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter, guitarist Steve Kimock and members of the band String Cheese Incident - several years ago, and recording sessions for the CD began some three years ago. "Everyone seemed really into it and said yes. The thing they didn't say was when," Williams says. "So that's where the extended time comes in. Instead of pressuring people for a date and giving them a deadline, I'd wait until they were good with it."

Williams' patience paid off in an album that is highly enjoyable and eclectic, with material that ranges from the pleasantly ramshackle folk of "Cadillac," to the funky "Life" (which features, of all things, talk-box guitar from guest Jeff Covert), to the reggae/ hip-hop inflections of "Ninja Of Love," a song Williams wrote specifically for his guests on the song, Michael Franti and Spearhead.

---

Williams found virtually all of the collaborations rewarding and exciting, but he says a few sessions stand out. "I love listening to all of the tunes, but I think my favorite memories are the ones where we were actually in the same room [recording] together," he says. "The String Cheese song ["Sing For My Dinner"]… it was so easy to work with those guys because we had worked together before. Sitting around in a circle playing music, it was fantastic."

Another highlight was the song "Twinkle," which featured Kimock and drummer John Molo. "That was kind of like a 20-minute improv, where I was playing bass," Williams says. "That's very rare, and I've always loved Steve's playing. And to have them cranked up in my headphones with me playing the bass, there's no rhythm guitar kind of crowding up, or keyboard, crowding up what Steve's playing, it was just very uninhibited music from what Steve was doing… I was just so happy to get what I got."

A third highlight was the session with former Grateful Dead guitarist-singer Bob Weir for the song "Cadillac." "It was definitely a surreal experience to go and hang out with him at his house and his studio and be able to record in his [place]," Williams says when asked about working with Weir on the song. "But he kept the track for long after I was gone and worked on it long after I was gone."

While Dream has only been out for nine months, Williams says his live shows won't really promote that album. "I don't really go out and focus on that material and try to play that material off of the record," Williams says. "This is my 11th record, so I can draw from tons of different material, plus I love playing covers and I'm constantly learning new covers."

---

Most of the shows this year have found Williams playing in the unique one-man-band format. Onstage, Williams augments the standard instruments of guitar and vocals with a variety of other instruments, including bass, keyboards and drums. Using a technique Williams calls "live phrase sampling," he creates the illusion of having several musicians onstage by stepping on an effects button to record, for instance, a keyboard part. By pressing the button again, the keyboard part gets played back, and Williams can then layer on another part on a different instrument. Repeating this process creates a multi-instrument backing track over which Williams can play and sing live.

But this format is likely to become an increasingly rare occurrence for Williams.

He has put together a band he's calling the WMD's, and it features drummer Jeff Sipe (who has played with Phish's Trey Anastasio, Leftover Salmon and Col. Bruce Hampton's Aquarium Rescue Unit), guitarist Gibb Droll and Keith Moseley (bassist from String Cheese Incident). Williams plans to gradually start doing more shows with the band and fewer as a solo act in the months ahead; his Nov. 16 show at the Georgia Theatre will feature the WMD's.

Williams, a native of Fredericksburg, VA, who self-released his first album Freek in 1994, notes that he only started exploring solo performing in the first place out of necessity. "I guess the thing that drove me to go solo was simplicity, affordability and logistics," he says. "I couldn't really afford to pay musicians what it takes for them to come out on the road, their salary plus their hotels and food and everything. The money wasn't there. And then things started to work as a solo act, and it started to work out that I could afford to bring them. But at that time, I was kind of under the philosophy of it's not broke, why try to fix it. Let's keep going on with this vibe that seems to be working.

"Now I just think it's time to maybe stray away from the solo thing and do something completely different and approach that with a total exciting freshness and kind of focus on that," Williams says. "Then maybe that will help me go back to my solo show with a rejuvenated energy. But I think right now we're taking it slowly."

---

Williams knows the direction he thinks his music will take in the full-band format, and he's curious how his songs will evolve along the way. "A lot of it's going to be reinvented," he says of his song catalog. "I'm kind of going for a positive, upbeat, danceable kind of world beat/ jazz/ funk type of thing. That's kind of what I'm going for."

In recruiting Sipe, Droll and Moseley, Williams says he achieved his primary goal in forming a band - finding a unit with a strong musical and personal chemistry.

"These are players I've admired for a long time," Williams says. "I'm extremely excited about collaborating with these guys live. First and foremost, they're just all great dudes.

"As a solo act, I'm definitely just a little picky about that because I'm just used to being by myself or with my own crew and my own show," he says. "Before any music is made, I'm just totally excited to hang out with the guys, and I think that's important."

Alan Sculley

WHO: Keller Williams & the WMD's

WHERE: Georgia Theatre

WHEN: Friday, November 16, 10 p.m.

HOW MUCH: $22