Events

[JAM] It’s been said before, and it’s a fitting description: Keller WIlliams a one-man-jam-band. He’s a bit of a deadhead to begin with, and his mix of musicianly chops with absurdist humor (not to mention various stints touring with Umphrey’s McGee, Ratdog, The String Cheese Incident, i.e. the Keller Williams Incident, and others) has kept the interest of the jam band community for two decades. His musical hodgepodge is something he jokingly calls ADM – Acoustic Dance Music. Williams’ oft-amusing tales hark back to Junta-era Phish but with a streetwise, urban spin. Over the years, he’s performed in a trio format, in his dance-y  quartet, Kwahtro, in More Than a Little, which is a more heavily r’n’b spiked outfit, and in bluegrass ensembles covering the music of both The Grateful Dead and Tom Petty. He’s also taken fellow deadheads to church with his Grateful Gospel revue.  When he performs solo, as he will at the Tralf Music Hall on Friday, 4/20, he builds each song with loops and pedals – not a new approach, but he does it better than most of his contemporaries, spiking the tunes with jazzy textures and funky panache with occasional forays into bluegrass. Not only is his musical dexterity astonishing, he’s damned entertaining to watch as well. The sheer volume of projects he has going makes for a prolific output, and last year was no exception — he simultaneously released the Kwahtro album Sync along with Raw, an acoustic collection of guitar songs inspired by a tour with Leo Kottke, which features just the man and his instrument, no loops, no pedals. He’ll surely be bringing the party for 4/20; you just need to show up in comfortable dancing shoes.