“It’s so good to see you here, my Florida friends / Even if you don’t stay to the end,” Keller Williams sang warmly with his usual amiable charm and shortly after my crew and I strolled into Jannus last night a few minutes late. Then he proceeded to make me smile and get down throughout the two-set show.
The stage was set up as if it were a music store, with Keller’s few dozen stringed instruments mounted behind him along with scattered signs featuring messages like “You Break It, You Buy It” and “Please Ask Before Touching,” tab books, guitar cords, even a cash register. Keller (aka K-Dub) did his one-man band thing, jumping from instrument to instrument, creating looped beats or chord progressions or background texture to perform against, or simply playing one of his variety of instruments – six- and 12-string acoustic guitars, acoustic, electric and upright basses, mandolin, a keyboard, a drum pad controlled by quick finger strikes, a miniature upright bass, a large hand drum, a bongo, each with its own neon green price tag hanging from a string.
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2009.
