Imagine the G. Love’s funk mixed with the Bela Fleck and the Flecktones’ virtuosity. Keller Williams accomplishes that eclectic sound singlehandedly.
The Varsity Theatre plays host to Williams on Friday, Feb. 28 but don’t expect anything more than Williams, his eight guitars and a Lexicon Jam Man pedal. That’s all he needs to entertain for hours.
Williams’ current tour is in support of his sixth album, “Laugh,” and its official remix album, “Dance.” Williams said the remix album emerged from his live shows and his desire to develop the songs.
“I’ve been having so much fun exploring the songs during my live shows; there are just so many places to go with it,” Williams said. “That’s what I’ve done on ‘Dance.’ I took those same songs on ‘Laugh,’ broke them down, and built up entirely new songs around them … I’m driven by the desire to want to take it higher and to make my sound bigger.”
One hears a diverse mixture of influences in Williams’ sound. In a musictoday.com interview, he attributed the development of his style to a lengthy list of artists including Victor Wooten (who introduced him to the Lexicon Jam Man), Michael Hedges, Leo Kottke, Charlie Hunter and Ani DiFranco.
His long list of inspirations also is heard in his vast instrumental palette. In a statement, he affectionately names them, “There’s the Blonde, the Brunette, the Platinum, Bari, the Bari Twelve, the Big White Electric, the Mexican Fender bass, and the Zilla (a custom eight string bass and guitar in one).”
Williams’ live technique consists of slapping a drum beat on the body of his main guitar, which has an extra pickup and output that gives it a big sound, Williams told Guitar Player Magazine. He then loops a measure of it with a footswitch. He repeats this process with a guitar piece and a bass piece, adding harmonics, slides and whatever else he feels inspired to do. The result is the sound of a four-piece funk band with Williams singing over the loops.
“When you’re doing it in front of an audience, it adds to the adrenaline,” Williams said. “There’s a huge danger factor, because you have to hit the button at exactly the right time. But once you’ve set up a great loop, that’s when the beauty comes. You’ve created a huge band sound by yourself, using what you have around you.”
Besides his influences, Williams said his “one man band” looping style came out of “hours of playing alone … it kind of came out of boredom and wanting to do something different and keep myself entertained.”
Boredom will not be an issue Friday night; that can be promised.