The Red and Black

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: COURTESY KELLER WILLIAMS AND THE WMD'S Keller Williams (second from right) visits Athens tonight with his new group, The WMD's, featuring members of numerous other high profile jam bands. [Click to enlarge]

Since the early 1990s, self-taught musician Keller Williams has been awing audiences with his innovative and unique playing styles and collaborations.

This year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival marked the first live performance of his new band, Keller Williams and The WMD's, which will visit The Georgia Theatre Friday night as part of its first tour.

"We're pretty much just looking at it as a live project and then maybe putting out a live record if this tour goes well," Williams said. "[The WMD's] is primarily my project, and we're focusing 99 percent on my material."

The WMD's consist of Keller on rhythm guitar, Jeff Sipe (Aquarium Rescue Unit, Trey Anastasio) on drums, Keith Moseley (The String Cheese Incident) on bass and Gibb Droll (Marc Broussard) on lead guitar.

Despite being made up of mostly his original material, Williams said the tour is not solely intended to promote his most recent studio album, "Dream."

"Records are put out to document the songs I've written - I go out and play whatever I want, not necessarily what's on the most recent release," he said.

Although not all songs at Friday night's show will come from "Dream," the album certainly should not be left unnoticed. It took Williams nearly three years to complete and features Bob Weir, Béla Fleck, John Scofield, Charlie Hunter, Victor Wooten, The String Cheese Incident and Steve Kimock.

"I set the goals pretty high and pretty much stuck with it," said Williams. "It was very surreal."

For Williams, the recording process was a chance to work with personal heroes.

"A lot of these people I was a fan of before I even got to meet them - collecting their albums, listening, studying their music and being able to meet them at different festivals," he said. "I'm very lucky to be able to work on a project and have people interested enough to collaborate."

But what motivates this talented musician, who has opened for The Allman Brothers Band, toured with Bob Weir and Ratdog and collaborated with Umphrey's McGee, The String Cheese Incident and so many remarkable others?

"Instrumental songs just kind of appear when my mind drifts to something else while I'm playing guitar," Williams said. "A lot of the lyrics come from conversations with some of my more intelligent friends."

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