Jamwich exclusive interview with Larry Keel

written by Taco

The first time I heard Larry Keel play it was as if I was listening to angels driving a locomotive powered on brimstone. It was the fast moving, rugged sound that was full of so many beautiful tones. I could not help but enter a trance-like state reminiscent of a lucid dream.

On the stage was what appeared to be a very plain man, but upon closer inspection, through his famously wild facial hair, I saw a grin and a glimmer in his eye signifying to all in attendance, that he was Larry Keel, and he came to play some music for you.

You were born in Manassas, did you grow up there?

I grew up a little bit south of there, my folks, when I was born, they were living there. From there we moved just south into the Warrenton area in Fauquier County. I grew up there for about 18 years I guess.

What kind of influence did growing up there have on your ‘musical future’?

Well, that whole northern Virginia area is very rich in bluegrass music. There were radio stations like WAMU, they were playing like 6 hours of bluegrass music a day. When the radio wasn’t on my brother would be pickin’ or my daddy would be picking, just people playing music all around me.

When you were in your early 20s you teamed up with Farmer’s Trust with Mark Vann. From that point Mark went to Colorado and started Leftover Salmon. What kind of issue was that at that time of your life? What was the next step for you at that point?

Me and Mark were working together for a while. We were doing landscaping work, things like building decks, retaining walls, customizing stuff you know. We also played music together a whole bunch and met a bunch of friends playing bluegrass in that area. It seemed like we were picking all the time and had a great friend John Flower with us. Well, Mark and John had known each other and went to college together and settled down in the Warrenton area doing the same type of work. Then we formed a trio doing bass, guitar and banjo. We started playing a lot of private parties in that area and all kinds of things. We were good at creating, we had a different sound. We weren’t just “bluegrass” we were creating our own kind of music at that point. Then Mark I think he went out to Telluride to do a festival and he ended up meeting Drew Emmitt and they got together and picked the whole time he was out there. When he came back, we were working and pickin’ and he got a call from Drew one day that he had a band that they were putting together. I think at that time they were calling the band the “Left Handed Salmon Spankers” or something like that. So Mark got together with Drew and decided that’s he wanted to go back out to Colorado and join forces with Drew Emmitt. They formed Leftover Salmon and became a concrete figure in bluegrass today

How did you guys manage to hook up with Keller Williams when you all worked together for the CD “Buzz”?

After Mark had left, Jon Flower headed out and we started playing different kinds of music, like the Grateful Dead and stuff like that. We had a band called “Destination Unknown”. We used to play at a little bar and we liked playing Fredericksburg. While playing there, we noticed this guy Keller Williams was everywhere! He was running an open mic one Monday night at this place called the Irish Brigade. Well, we played, Keller and hit it off, got to talking, hanging, and after a year or two we started playing music together at open mic in Fredericksburg. Then McGraw Gap formed. We had a great sound and found this amazing mandolin player named Danny Nicely. One day we played the same place Keller was playing, and being great friends with Keller already; we joined together and started doing a few shows together. Keller always wanting to come out with new CDs, was making one and we got to play on it, and we’ve been playing together ever since.

From there you went on to form LKE, what brought that on?

Well, Jenny and I were together and McGraw Gap was changing directions and I wanted a change of direction myself. I wanted to put my name on a band with my own ideas. I knew so many musicians that I met that were available to play, and at that point in my career I thought it was really cool and spontaneous to have a different members when I played different places, always able to surprise the fans. I think it really worked and kept people coming to the shows ‘cause they didn’t know what they would see next. All the musicians that played with us were really great musicians so I was quite honored.

Now is that the same kind of reasoning that brought the changeover to Larry Keel and Natural Bridge?

Well, when we did that we had had a four piece bluegrass band. Fans like seeing a group of musicians grow and change and develop styles and there’s security in that as far as the business goes, to see whether a band can stay together. So we formed Larry keel and Natural Bridge. There were a few changes throughout, we had Andy playing the banjo for a while, which you know is sort of cosmic in a way, Mark Vann did that, and now we had Andy, who’s the disciple of Mark’s style and we were glad to have him the time that we had him, blazing musician and wonderful person so I’m glad the way things are going for him. We changed banjo players and had another great banjo player from the west coast named Jason Flournoy. We recorded the Backwoods album with him. Of course now we have my old friend, Will Lee who I’ve known for 28 years? He’s a powerful force and the type of person you want to be on the road with.

Lately you’ve been catching fire with the jam scene crowd, what do you think led to that and is this what you always wanted?

I never want to exclude anyone, whether it’s an old person or a little kid, if my music can touch them, and I can play for them and evoke a response, then that’s what I want to do. In a bluegrass music market, my style is very progressive, compared to a lot of traditional bluegrass and I could play to that crowd and have an ok crowd every time, but I like playing a little bit of everything, I like playing reggae music, I like playing rock n roll music, I like playing stuff that’s very different you know but I like being able to present that to anyone and have them appreciate it, and if they don’t appreciate it that’s acceptable too, but it seems like the jam crowd really likes it, and thy’re really enthusiastic, they wanna dance, they wanna holler, they wanna have a good time, they want to be moved by your music and to me, that’s what I’m playing it for…

I’ve been a fan of all of your playing, being on the jam scene now, you’re definitely more accessible for me. Besides your brother, who influenced your playing?

I would definitely have to say Tony Rice ‘cause honestly he is the epitome of what bluegrass or I would say acoustic guitarist should be. He’s a star, he’s classy. His playing is super jazzy, just the whole package. I’d also have to say Jerry Garcia. When I was growing up I was a tremendous Jerry Garcia fan. I love his fearlessness and how he would approach his music, it just worked, it was just beautiful! Definitely Bill Monroe, and definitely Miles Davis; tremendously so. Jimmy Hendrix for sure. Django Reinhardt absolutely!

Everyone who hears your music is amazed by your music and your ability and the most common question I hear is, well, how does he do it? So Larry, how do you move your hands that that fast?

(laughs) Well, let me think here, I love to just go, I love the music I play, and when we’re playin’ and the energy is so high, I just want to rise to that occasion and do what I know and then go into areas I don’t know and it’s just a beautiful thing to just work yourself into a frenzy and be able to come out of it, too.

Where are you living now?

I live in Lexington, Va. It’s a beautiful place very quiet, not much going on and I like it that way. I’m 5 miles from an amazing fishing lake and I spend my time going fishin’ and trying to write songs, and chillin’ on top of a mountain.

Everyone who knows you also knows you love to fish. Could you tell us about this Trout and Tunes event that’s coming up?

I would love to. It’s May 17^th -20th.There at the base of Snowshoe mountain on this windy spot in the road called Slatyfork, WV. The fishing there is incredible and it’s the perfect time of year. We decided to combine these two loves of ours, we love music and we love to fish. Jenny said, “well pickin’ first, then fishin’ second” and I was like, “no, fishin’ first and then the pickin’…that’s why we call it fishin’ and pickin” It is held at the Elk River Inn, the fishing on the Elk is amazing! It’s a great laid back atmosphere for our weekend. We have music workshops, answer questions, instruct. The whole time there’s live jamming going on you know whoever’s there that wants to do live pickin and also what we do on the river, seminars on how to fish, what the fish are eating and their habitat. We have a whole experience there, and all the food’s free. In between all that, if you just want to be a spectator and listen to the music you can do that, or mountain bike or hike. It’s a wonderful place and highly successful. It’s grown tenfold since last year and I’m very happy about it. We do another one in Georgia called Bass and Grass. That’s about 20 minutes from where the world record biggest largemouth bass was caught. It’s all bass and you wouldn’t believe how many fish you can catch in one day. You know that’s what I want to do, that’s where I want my career to go, be able to do about 20 of those things a year and that would be what I would do, and hopefully it will work out that way (laughs)

Who have you always wanted to collaborate or work with but haven’t yet had the chance?

Wow! Let me think… if I could name one right off the top of my head there’s several that I would love to play music with… Bruce Hornsby. I really dig his style and being from Virginia and I’ve always been a great admirer of his style and his piano style. Wow…out of all the people that are out there let me think… I also love…Chris Thile, he’s an incredible writer and one of the greatest mandolin players on the planet.

Any venue you’ve always wanted to play but never have?

it would be nice to play red rocks sometime. I would like that. that’s a wonderful place. I’d love to play at the coliseum in rome. that would be awesome. (laughs)