A one-man symphony

Even through the phone lines, Keller Williams' genuinely happy tone is infectious, a clear indication of his enthusiasm and passion for music. From his hotel room in Bridgeport, Conn., Williams is eager to explain what he loves about his musical career.\nWilliams, though difficult to classify as a musician, began as a solo folk artist in 1986 at Virginia colleges and coffeehouses. Experimenting with different types of performance, he began to tour with other musicians but returned to the solo scene in 1993, unsatisfied with the dynamics of group performance. After opening for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and observing bassist Victor Wooten, Williams grew fascinated with the looping machine, whose influence is unmistakable on Williams' latest album, Loop.\n"The folk need the folk music," Williams says of his roots, which also include -- but are not limited to -- The Cure, The Grateful Dead, R.E.M. and also reggae, bluegrass and jazz. "But (the looping machine) has added a lot of excitement for me, because after playing several years with just a guitar and mic -- which is good and there's a lot of freedom in that -- but as far as my life goes, the looping has opened up different avenues for me to go down. It adds a total element of improvisation, which is completely exciting for me … I felt it was something I could do by myself and create a dance vibe, which I personally love so much in the field of music. One of the main reasons I wanted to get into music was to be able to play while people were dancing."\nIn addition to his unique use of the looping machine, Williams also has used creativity with his guitar style. Though he plays a 12-string guitar, he modifies it to have only 10 strings to give him a sound trademark.\n"As the story goes, it started as a saving technique for one particular guitar that I had when I was playing in a small bar in Telluride in 1995," he says. "I wanted to do some serious thinking on how I could save this one breaking guitar, so I took off a couple strings, lowered the tension and it sounded great."\nWith his 10-string guitar as his guide, Williams says he typically writes music involving life events but sometimes his lyrics have more carefree tone to them.\n"Sometimes I write songs because the words sound good together even if they don't particularly mean something," he says. "It's using words as an instrument. Sometimes the words sound silly but also good together … I love the fact that music is a universal language, it is an energy all in itself, a release, and it gives me an excuse to be freaky."\nAs a musician, songwriter and also a performer, Williams says he always aims to get his audience off their feet and dancing to his "acoustic jazz/funk/organic techno grass" stylings, but admits sometimes a milder crowd can be just as invigorating.\n"If it's a sit-down crowd, like a listening crowd, it can almost be more intense," Williams says. "You've got a number of people hanging on your favorite note, every word, every breath. If they're totally silent and listening, that's intensity in itself. But not as intense as a bunch of people crammed against stage and jumping and sweating on you."\nDoing about 200 performances a year, Williams seems to be surprisingly not tired. Laughing, he tries to explain where his endless energy stems from.\n"The love for the performance, it's a release when I get on stage, it's the happiness that comes to me from people, people come up to me and express happiness about the music, the energy that comes from folks in audience, it's the use of the audience," Williams says in a single stream-of-consciousness, without taking a breath. \n"But one of the main things that keeps me going … I got nothing else to do," he says, laughing.\nJunior Max Sirak seems to be grateful Williams has nothing else to do. A big fan of Williams' work, he says if talking to a non-fan, he would describe Keller as "just a hippie with a guitar, a drum, some looping equipment and no shoes." Sirak owns several of Williams' CDs, has attended three concerts and says he is so familiar with the evolution of Williams' music he has a tremendously hard time choosing a favorite song.\n"When you see him perform you get a real appreciation for what he's doing," Sirak says. "He is just one man, but he creates so much music that it's incredible. I think one of the best parts of his show is how he covers other music. He totally rearranges songs to fit his style, making them his own, yet still managing to stay true to the song."\nSophomore Jen Grossman is equally as enthusiastic as Sirak when describing Williams' performances. She says she left his summer concert in New York in awe.\n"I think the way he doesn't really bring out a band and it's just him is really unique -- most artists can't perform by themselves and need the help of others, but he doesn't and that's really impressive," Grossman says. "I think he's amazing because he's able to perform as an entire band with just himself."\nAlthough Grossman attests to the effortless vibe he conveys during performances, Williams admits it takes a lot of brainpower to create all the music that he does.\n"I don't use set lists, so there's a small percentage of thoughts that are going into the next song, but when I don't think of the next song enough, I start doodling around almost on verge of stress," Williams says, apologizing for the slowness of his words, as he admits it's very difficult to explain what transpires in his mind while he performs. Satisfied with his brief silence, he continues, "There's another small percentage that's thinking of the words of that particular song that I'm doing. And then, there's the thoughts of the people and what's going through their heads, and I'm kind of getting eye contact with people, and that's whole different mind-set too … It's something totally normal because I've been doing it for a while now and it's a familiar thinking process."\nSirak says he is constantly impressed by Williams' ability to multi-task while still having fun on stage.\n"He's just one man with a guitar, doing what he loves, and you can definitely see this when he's up on stage," Sirak says. "You can tell he's having a good time playing, which makes it that much easier for the crowd to have a good time dancing. The crowd sees him up there having a blast and gets more into it, then he sees the crowd dancing and having fun and plays harder. It's really quite amazing -- it's a very intimate experience.\n"I have to say it's incredible to see a man create a drum beat with his mouth, then a bass line, then a rhythm with a guitar and then maybe solo with a mouth trumpet, all without ever leaving the stage," Sirak adds. "I never knew one man could create so much music until I saw Keller with my own eyes"