Keller's Corner

I had a surreal day in Nashville with the McCoury family.  I’m very lucky to be hooked up as a Travelin’ McCoury for a few select shows this fall. We are playing the Magnolia Fest in Florida as well as the VooDoo Fest in New Orleans. In case you don't know, the Travelin’ McCourys consists of Jason Carter on fiddle, Alan Bartram on bass, Rob McCoury on banjo, and Ronnie McCoury on mandolin. Rob and Ronnie are the sons of bluegrass legend Del McCoury and all 4 are Del's backing band. I’m also happy to announce that I’m a part of the Delloween weekend which will be in Covington, Kentucky at Madison Theater and the Jefferson Center in Roanoke, Virginia on 10/28 and 10/29.

I had the pleasure of seeing Todd Snider at The Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, Virginia. I was completely entertained. He is a true storyteller. In every sense of the word. It’s folk music of today’s generation, but with the respectful nod to the folk music of the ‘60s generation, which in my opinion, a lot of today’s music wouldn't exist with out it. Not only the style of music, but the subject matter in the lyrics.  As far as political and social issues go, Todd touches on some of this stuff, but it’s done in such a way that's not preachy. His songs are funny. Not like joke funny, but smart funny. Even his more serious songs have at least one funny line in it.

A word from Keller;

As I watch the dreamy royal wedding, I can't help thinking of the nightmare that is happening in the southeast. The devastation from the tornados has left me wanting to help in any way possible. So I'm auctioning off my Godin Multiac fretless guitar with synthe access. Her name is "lil' sexy". Please check out “Lil' Sexy Blues" from the Dream record ft. Sanjay Mishra on guitar, Samir Chatterjee on tablas, and me playing this guitar. It has nylon strings and sounds like a warm classical that's being played with a slide except your fingers are doing the sliding as there are no frets. The fret lines are in place so it plays easily. With a fretless, you simply press the string on the fretline for the proper note to be in tune. It’s a guitar player’s guitar. It’s not a cowboy chord guitar you sit back and strum tunes around the campfire. It’s a thin body guitar, but slightly thicker than an electric. It’s super sexy. The pick up system is very elaborate with many options. Each string sits in its own cradle. The signal is split two ways and has two separate out puts. One is a regular quarter inch guitar cable that controls the acoustic sounds with volume, treble, mid, and bass control faders. The other is a 13 pin gk cable that goes to the Roland guitar synthesizer. This unit is not included. But it’s bad ass. Hours of entertainment can be had with a plethora of different sounds. My favorites were the trumpet and fiddle. I would tune the guitar to chord and slide around the low notes on the trumpet patch and would sound like a sexy trombone with no spit. The fiddle is way more realistic sounding with the fretless aspect. Although it’s a thin body, there is a small acoustic port up by the controls that allow you to play and hear her in all her sexiness with out any amplification.  I’m letting her go because she was a one song a show guitar. Then when I started flying so much and had to choose who goes and who stays, I obviously chose the guitars I play the most. She is a luxury, specialty that deserves to be played.

I've recently put out a kids record. It’s been a long time coming and in the thought process for years. Folks would tell me that my music is playful and that their kids like it. They also say that it’s annoying to have to skip over the songs with the bad words in them. Then they forget to and the children are subjected to language that raises questions at school.