As much as Smile Politely loves real estate, this article isn’t about that Keller Williams. Sure the real estate company is great for buying and selling your home, but can it put on an unparalleled one man show?
Keller Williams, the man, will step onto Canopy Club’s stage with only the support of a loop station and a variety of nearby instruments. He jumps between acoustic guitar, keys and various percussion instruments, improvising parts to push his songs to new levels in the live setting. He’s a one-man jam band.
Williams’ acoustic guitar playing is anything but expected. Far from folk strumming or picking, Williams attacks the strings in a way that manages to tie reggae to rock to bluegrass together seamlessly. The mixture of sounds created by his loop station and the mixture of genres exhibited in his song writing have earned Williams comparisons to a mad scientist on guitar.
Though there is an element of Frankenstein piece work in the barefooted musician’s work, there isn’t anything too crazy about him. Bobbing his head as his fingers dance up and down the fret board, there’s something calming about watching him play his energetic style of music. Listening to it, it’s hard not to physically respond to the swirling scales and polished riffs that run through his songs.
Tickets for Williams’ Friday night show are $20, but Smile Politely wants you to have a chance to go for free. To enter to win, send an e-mail to: contests [at] smilepolitely [dot] com, type Keller Williams in the subject line, and include your full name and e-mail address in the body of the e-mail.
Thursday night we’ll be e-mailing the winner of the drawing. But don’t just sit around refreshing your inbox, check out Champaign-Urbana’s own version of Keller Williams, Connor Grant. This Thursday, and every Thursday, Grant will be showing off his own looping skills by playing guitar, bass, mandolin and keys at Geovanti’s.