GRASS
2006 / KELLER & THE KEELS
Grass was the first, of which I hope are many, recordings done with my good Virginia bluegrass buddies Larry and Jenny Keel. I have known the Keels since the early 90’s when we all gathered at an open mic night, at a small venue in Fredericksburg, called the Irish Brigade. Larry was in a band called Fizzawah, which was a side project to his normal bluegrass band called Magraw Gap, whom I was a huge fan of (still would be if they ever got back together). Eventually, his wife Jenny became his bass player (and we crossed paths many times, at festivals, on co-bill, and even a couple times at convenience stores…which was very convenient to our friendship). They seemed like the natural choice for my debut bluegrass trio, plus they share a hotel room, which is always…a plus.
As for this album, it began my adventure of being a poser bluegrass mandolin player. Without the motivation to learn the proper techniques of the mandolin, I took a small neck twelve-string guitar and removed the two high strings, thus creating a sonic replica or at least my interpretation of a mandolin. The music to all these songs was recorded live at Wally Cleaver’s recording studio in Fredericksburg, VA, with the vocals being over dubbed shortly after. The entire recording process took two and a half days to complete the tracking. It was easy, fun, lighthearted and completely natural…so much so that we did it again in 2010 for the all covers album, Thief.
I didn’t like what the professionals said, but I will keep this tag line – GRASS makes it better. –KW
