Back in December Cloud 9 Adventures brought together Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, The Infamous Stringdusters and Leftover Salmon for the first annual Strings & Sol destination music festival, which was held at Dreams Tulum Resort and Spa in Tulum, Mexico. Cloud 9 has just announced the second installment of Strings & Sol with a few of the same bands and a few different acts.

The four-day Strings & Solo 2013 brings Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, Greensky Bluegrass, Leftover Salmon and Keller Williams and the Travelin’ McCourys to the Now Sapphire Resort in Puerto Morelos, Mexico from December 11 – 15. Yonder will play a total of three performances with RRE and LoS signed up for one closing show and one additional performance. Keller Williams with The Travelin’ McCourys and Greensky Bluegrass are set to perform twice a piece.

All-inclusive packages go on sale to the general public beginning April 17 at noon ET at www.stringsandsol.com. Those who attended the inaugural event will be able to take part in a pre-sale on April 16.

One-man-band Keller Williams has released albums on which he plays guitar, bass and a variety of other instruments, but a new benefit album finds the Virginia native performing Grateful Dead covers strictly on piano. The simply-titled KEYS contains 10 Grateful Dead classics and is available now via iTunes. All proceeds from the album will benefit The Rex Foundation.

You can stream Keller’s version of Terrapin Station from KEYS…

Williams discusses the new release on his website, “It’s no secret I have an unhealthy fascination with the Grateful Dead. Whenever I sit down at the piano it seems the only thing that comes out are Jerry ballads.  Even though these songs are not all Jerry ballads, I have sort of made them that way.  The lyrics, although I’ve been singing them most of my adult life, are not 100% perfect. Like any other music I play, I’ve taken liberties.  All of the proceeds from the sale of these songs goes to support the Rex Foundation, which was started by the Grateful Dead, in the 80′s, so you can feel good about that!”

Here’s the tracklist for Keller Williams’ KEYS…

READ ON

It’s been a while since we’ve mentioned the name Give Us The Money Lebowski around these parts as the band’s guitarist (and HT contributor) Nick Setteducato currently resides in New Zealand, but we’re excited to see GUTML will make their triumphant return, complete with “special guests,” on January 4th at Mexicali Live in Teaneck, New Jersey.

The gig is a fundraiser for the Rocking Out Cancer foundation, an organization founded by GUTML guitarist and cancer survivor Chris Cartelli which aims to raise funds which support clinical trials in cancer research through live music events. GUTML always peppers their set with plenty of covers and in the past they’ve torn through Godzilla, First Tube, Psycho Killer, Carini and Helicopters among other rock staples. Tickets are available here.

Here’s a look at six other stories of note this Monday…

• Rush will issue a deluxe version of 2112 next month
• INXS may have played their last show this weekend
• Stanley Jordan sat in with Phil & Friends last night
• Def Leppard will play entire Hysteria LP in Vegas run
• Jeff Ament chats with Glide for the mag’s My Roots
• Dog Gone Blog announces late-night New Year’s shows

You can always count on Keller Williams to make contest winner announcements interesting. Such was the case for the one-man-band’s contest to win an all-expenses-paid trip to Nashville to watch K-Dub perform with The Travelin’ McCoury’s. Watch as Keller, aka The Lone Ranger, picks the winner…

The number of projects to which Keller Williams is devoted as both a solo artist and collaborator would make most musicians’ heads explode, but for Keller, they’re all steps — very necessary steps — into what the irreverent guitarist and singer calls “the world of different.”

That’s part of what’s preserved Keller’s long-held reputation as one of the scene’s singular presences, and endeared him to an ever-growing list of friends and collaborators that stretches to the farthest reaches of the jam scene and elsewhere. In the past few years alone, he’s toured and jammed with countless musicians in a dozen genres, made a children’s music album, made an album entirely focused on his under-heralded skills as a bassist, and recorded at least two more albums’ worth of music that hasn’t even been released yet because there just hasn’t been time to properly slot it.

Keller still has plenty of 2012 dates left, including an appearance at the Jomeokee Music & Arts Festival, Sept. 14-16 in Pinnacle, North Carolina. But his next project — details of which he revealed to Hidden Track in a recent interview — may be his most intriguing yet. Read on for those details, what brought Keller together with the fabled McCoury clan among other recent co-conspirators, and why that “world of different” continues to hold so much appeal.

READ ON

Longtime jam favorite Keller Williams has made his career for being a one-man-band, but on occasion the singer-songwriter-looping-master has teamed up with other musicians to record and tour. For his latest studio effort Williams has decided to go bluegrass, recruiting the Travelin’ McCourys, to collaborate and record with. On July 3, Williams and the McCourys will release their 12-track debut together – Pick, via SCI Fidelity Records. K-Dubs and the Travelin’ McCourys will team up for a handful of festival appearances together this summer, which continues this weekend at Mountain Jam, and will also feature appearances at Wakarusa, Electric Forest and more. The two acts will come together again at the end of the year for a New Year’s Eve gig at Marathon Music Works in Nashville, that will feature sets from the Del McCoury Band, Keller Williams and Keller Williams with The Travelin’ McCourys.

If Keller Williams and the Travelin’ McCourys aren’t hitting your favorite music festival this summer, then maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• Howlin’ Rain: Summer Tour (7/19 – 7/28)
• Everest: Summer North American Tour (6/2 – 7/29)
• John Anderson: Acoustic Evening With Tour (6/1 – 7/7)
• King Khan & The Shrines: World Tour (6/16 – 9/8)
• The xx: Summer North American Tour (7/23 – 8/2)
• The Sadies: Summer Tour (6/15 – 7/9)

[via kellerwilliams]

We were surprised Mike Gordon and Keller Williams didn’t spend any time together on stage earlier this month at Jam In The Dam. The two made up for it last night at Higher Ground in Burlington, where Keller welcomed the Phish bassist Mike Gordon for a pair of covers and an interesting jam that linked the two tunes at the end of the first set. Cactus emerged on guitar at first while Williams handled bass duties for a take on I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. Take a look…

Keller Williams and Mike Gordon – I’m Yours

Following the Mraz cover, Gordon took a solo on one of the guitars Keller had set up on a stand that was tied into a horn-like effect as Williams scatted and beat boxed along. Finally, Mike and Keller teamed up for a cover of Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild in which they played bass and guitar respectively.

Keller Williams and Mike Gordon – Jam > Born To Be Wild

Next up for Keller Williams is a performance at Fools Fest in Clemson on March 31.

[Videos by Myconid]

Another journal entry from European jam fan Josh Bogen in Amsterdam…

Jam In The Dam 2012: moe., Mike Gordon, Lotus, Keller Williams and Dark Star Orchestra

Thursday, March 15

Our omen for the day was served with at breakfast, in the form of a “LOTUS” inscribed biscuit to accompany coffee, or maybe it was just a coincidence. The weather had improved and I was finally able to take out my shades, for a perfect day to see more of the city.

[All Photos by Jon Derow]

One should realize that Jam In The Dam is not Phish at Merriweather with the band’s fans taking over the city. Amsterdam is a major city and the festival is small. Add to that the fact that Amsterdam has more than its share of resident bohemians and backpack slinging tourists, as well as lower temperatures which keep the tie-dyes covered up by jackets, and it’s hard to even notice that we are here. It’s also possible that with the shows ending around 2 am, people are just barely managing to get up in time for the next night’s festivities. However, when you do arrive at the Milky Way, you are met by an unmistakable jam band crowd, tie-dyes bared and more than few over the top outfits.

Entrance has been smooth into the venue, so it’s really just a lot of old and new friends hanging out in the vicinity. Today, however, the line stretched out into the street an hour before the start time, as cardboard tube-wielding fans waited to get their official posters signed by their favorite artists. This is one of the perks, I guess, of an intimate destination festival like Jam In The Dam (try that at Bonnaroo; the line would stretch to the next state). All of DSO and moe. were on hand, as well as Keller. Lotus was still busy with soundcheck, and Mike Gordon’s crew didn’t seem to have made it.(In their defense, they did have the latest start time of the night and I am sure most of the festival-goers can sympathize that getting anywhere on time here is a struggle after a late night out.)

READ ON

Joshua Bogen of JamBandsEurope doesn’t get to catch many jam acts in action as a European resident, so he’s taking full advantage of Jam In The Dam. Each day he’ll provide a diary of his experience in Amsterdam watching DSO, Mike Gordon, Lotus, Keller and moe.

After a busy day on Tuesday I woke up late, which I think will pretty much be the case for the duration of Jam In The Dam. The weather has been unchanged, overcast but not uncomfortable, with more than a touch of grey. A quick breakfast/lunch and off I went into the city to actually see something today. We were now relatively oriented and it did not take too long to arrive at the Van Gogh museum, probably the can’t miss sight for Amsterdam. An amazing collection, well organized to make the tour really easy to follow. And in the middle, we discovered a little gem, an oil painting by Van Gogh titled Skull of A Skeleton with Burning Cigarette. If you haven’t seen it, here it is…

[Public Domain Image]

Yet another good omen for the festival, and possible evidence that Van Gogh himself may have attended the earliest incarnations of Jam In The Dam. After that, and despite a drawn out quest to try what are apparently considered possibly the best french fries in the world, which ended in failure as the place was closed, we made it the Melkweg on time.

At this point I should mention that the Jam In The Dam schedule is printed out in what, for me, is a completely backwards way. For each day’s schedule the times for the “headliner” of the day, the last band to go on, is printed first, and the start and end times for the “opener,” the first band to play, is printed at the bottom, with the other bands’ time slots listed in reverse order. If you can follow me, that means that the first time you see on the schedule is when the last band goes on, a set at midnight, and the last time you see, at the bottom, is the time that the first band is supposed to finish their set, at 9:30 PM. However, when I first glanced at the schedule, reading in a logical fashion, i got the idea into my head that each night started at 12 midnight and ended at 9:30 in the morning. (which actually if you think about it, would be quite convenient for the people coming over from the U.S., who would basically never have to adjust to European time). Thankfully, that is not the case, and the festival got rolling right on time at 8 PM.

READ ON

One-man-band Keller Williams opened for jam stalwarts moe. last Saturday night at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. Guitarist Al Schnier of moe. emerged during Keller’s set to help out with a cover of Birds of a Feather by Phish. YouTuber Smasher69 was on hand to capture the whole song…

Keller Williams w/ Al Schnier – Birds of a Feather

You never quite know what you are going to get with Keller Williams. It might be jamming to a crowd of kids at the Life Is Good Festival, rocking with jam bands, playing bluegrass, singing about a doobie in his pocket, covering the Grateful Dead or playing with the Keels. Regardless of the environment, album or stage that he shares or solos on, one thing has been constant: stellar guitar work.

That all changes with the release of Williams’ latest album, Bass. Not a single lick of six-string guitar is on Bass’s 11 tracks. Here, Keller displays his virtuosity as a bass master and proves he is just as adept on it as the guitar. He says of the album:

In my never ending quest to do something different, I present you my first release containing no guitar. Not a single guitar was used in the making of this record. To me, that’s different. And that’s what I’m going for.

This record has no looping. This is a document of songs and the overall, open air, spacious vibe created by this trio we call Kdubalicious…

Free the bass, and your mind will follow.

Keller and Kdubalicious (Jay Starling on keys & Mark D on drums) succeeded in creating an album with an “open air” and “spacious vibe.” Fluidly and effortlessly blending reggae, funk and rock with a small dose of jazz, the album displays Keller’s signature sense of humor and style throughout.  A perfect example is Super Hot, with lyrics telling of Keller’s observation that “for every super hot girl in the front row, there’s a super insecure dude standing behind her, holding on to her waist…”  Quintessential Keller but played with a bass fronting the band and not a guitar.

Keller said that this album was yet another “self indulgent musical journey,” yet nothing could be further from the truth, with the LP’s nice balance of keys and percussion and no egocentric soloing. Bass is quite an enjoyable listen from the opening jazz infused The Sun & Moon’s Vagenda through the full blown reggae-fied Positive.

Bass was released yesterday on SCI Fidelity Records.

One-man-band Keller Williams has teamed up with The Travelin’ McCourys to play a number of upcoming festivals including Magnolia Music Festival, VooDoo Music Experience and Delloween. Williams recently visited the McCoury family in Nashville and penned a poignant blog entry about the experience. Keller and the McCourys spent some of that time recording and have released a video documenting that session. Take a look…

Keller Williams & The Travelin’ McCourys – Broken Convertible

Have you ever imagined seeing one of your favorite bands back in the day? You know, when they were playing bars and frat parties for anyone that would listen? Seeing them now, it’s hard to imagine that acts like Phish or Dave Matthews Band ever played for 50 people and a case of beer but they did – and they weren’t as polished as they are now. So when Keller Williams announced the Keller and the Keels Play Your Couch contest (in support of their album Thief), the possibility of winning was pretty damn exciting.

[Poster block hand carved by contest winner Nick Dellinger]

In a YouTube announcement last September, Keller’s daughter picked the winners name from a salad bowl. That winner turned out to be Nick Dellinger from Richmond, VA. The prize? A private 90-minute performance for Nick and 49 of his friends by Keller Williams, flat picking champion Larry Keel and his beautiful bass playing wife, Jenny Keel.

The complexities of Keller, Larry & Jenny’s schedule are neither subtle nor mutually dependent. It took about seven months for everyone to find a date that worked. Logistics, on the other hand, turned out to be pretty simple: Nick, Keller, Larry & Jenny all happen to live in Virginia. As for the “couch”, everyone lucked out because Nick happens to be a family friend of the Campbell’s, who own a farm right outside of Fredericksburg, VA  (Keller’s Home). READ ON to find out how this intimate show went…

In this week’s audio and video recap, we lead off with a section from Big Sam’s Funky Nation that taper Z-Man pulled in Cambridge, MA. Z-Man is one of the tapers with the quickest turnaround, and he recently has moved to Massachusetts, so expect to see more uploads from that area. Also, we’ve got a rarely played cover from Gov’t Mule that Warren likes busting out in Caribbean climates it seems, a recording from a concert by Keller Williams showcasing his children’s songs, Umphrey’s McGee laying down a fantastic jam on an old classic and a crisp recording from Yo La Tengo.

If you don’t want to stay on the site for an hour streaming the individual tracks, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast. Click here to download.

[Thanks to AHappyHourHero for this week's photo]

Big Sam’s Funky Nation – I Came To Party > Big Sam Funky Nation > Gimme That Funky Horn
Date & Venue: 2011-02-03 – Middle East – Cambridge, MA
Taper & Show Download: Z-Man

Fresh off wowing fans on Jam Cruise, Big Sam’s Funky Nation delivers this 19+ minute segment to start us off this week. Big Sam’s Funky Nation [tour dates] plays tonight at Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar in Houston, TX.

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Video from Saturday’s For the One Month to Mardi Gras party in NYC:

READ ON for tracks from Mule, Keller, Umphrey’s and Yo La Tengo…

I apologize that you have not seen a new addition of Last Week’s Sauce in nearly a month, but I have recently switched coasts and am now a resident of San Francisco. I’m settled in and excited to get back to my regular HT columns. This week, we’ll take a listen to a new song from the moe. side project Disgrace, Keller Williams, Jimmy Herring Band and a great acoustic segment to close from Little Feat members Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett.

A reminder, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to RobC for this week's photo]

Disgrace – Little Miss Cup Half Empty
Date & Venue: 2010-11-09 Southgate House – Newport, KY
Taper & Show Download: K.C. Cadwallader

moe. has got a new side-project titled Disgrace that features Al, Chuck and Rob on acoustic instruments. In addition to a lot of moe. songs and covers, the project debuted an original at this Kentucky show titled Little Miss Cup Half Empty. Disgrace [tour dates] plays tonight at 8×10 in Baltimore, MD.

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READ ON for tracks from Keller Williams, Jimmy Herring Band, and the Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett Acoustic Duo…

In one of the cutest videos we’ll probably ever post on the ol’ HT, Keller Williams performs My Neighbor Is Happy Again from his forthcoming children’s album, Kids, along with his daughter Ella…

Keller Williams – My Neighbor Is Happy Again

K-Dub will perform his first show for kids on November 27th at the State Theatre in Falls Church, VA starting at 12:30PM local time.