{"id":496833,"date":"2016-02-24T14:54:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T19:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.fredericknewspost.com\/playlist\/?p=496833"},"modified":"2016-02-24T14:54:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T19:54:53","slug":"larry-keel-experienced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2016\/02\/24\/larry-keel-experienced\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Keel: ‘Experienced’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"keel\"Larry Keel has been at this for a bit. Head over to his website, click on the \u201chistory\u201d tab, and you\u2019ll find a timeline that begins in 1968, when he was born in Manassas, Virginia, and ends with the 2015 holiday season. In 1986, he landed a gig at Tokyo Disneyland for a year. Throughout the past three decades, he\u2019s won more awards at more bluegrass and guitar festivals than he can even count. \u201cExperienced,\u201d his latest set, is his 15th release, and on it, you\u2019ll find friends like Keller Williams and Del McCoury popping up every now and then.<\/span><\/p>\n

One more time. Larry Keel has been at this for a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it should come as no surprise that \u201cExperienced\u201d is a better-than-good trip through almost every aspect of his influences and capabilities. Even at a mere seven tracks, there isn\u2019t any type of bland uniformity that Keel settles into; rather, he keeps things interesting by offering genre-bending novellas that demand attention and then subsequently, if not inevitably, satisfy it. The guy is simply too good to allow anyone a sense of comfort. Don\u2019t dare click the stop button \u2014 you never know what might be coming around the playlist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost fittingly, it begins with a six-plus-minute opus, \u201cRipchord,\u201d which essentially throws gallons of water onto any hate-fueled fire before as much as a spark could even formulate. A rocket ship of pickin\u2019 and playin\u2019 blasts into the sky, and not even something as tedious as words could possibly get in the way. That\u2019s because there are none. Coming out of the gate with all of the talent and putting each inch of it on the table for listeners to judge is the correct move when you\u2019re this good. It\u2019s great bluegrass for people who actually care about great bluegrass.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same tone paints \u201cFill \u2018Em Up Again,\u201d which is aided by a wildly fun chorus that sounds as though it were sung by a gang of back porch players who might have eight teeth between them (and that\u2019s a good thing). \u201cHot dang, boys, did that taste good \/ let\u2019s fill \u2018em up again\u201d is how it goes, and from the second you hear that phrase kick the song off, devoid of all music behind it, you know you\u2019re in for a treat. The tasteful bolt of fiddle lightning that weaves its way through the verses only makes this a storm in which you\u2019d be so lucky to be caught.<\/span><\/p>\n

Slowing things down serves him well, too. \u201cMemories,\u201d perhaps the closest thing to a radio single here, is delicate, Keel\u2019s voice proving to be both haunting and accessible. The secret weapon here, however, is the background banjo that provides a tenderness paramount to the track\u2019s affectation. Underneath a deceptively driving acoustic guitar, the song\u2019s structure pulls off the trick of always moving forward while providing the perception of musically standing still. The guy\u2019s lower register doesn\u2019t hurt, either.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other side of the ballad equation isn\u2019t as kind. \u201cAnother Summer Day\u201d veers a little too much into soft rock territory, even if the writing and performances are adequate. Try as he might, a line like \u201cCouldn\u2019t have a better friend \/ I wrote this song for you and me\u201d is one in a group of squeamish passages that Keel offers up here. Where \u201cMemories\u201d feels like it\u2019s made for a major motion picture, \u201cAnother Summer Day\u201d adheres more to the Lifetime movie crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n

But let the record show that when Larry Keel wants to be great \u2026 well, hot damn, Larry Keel is great. \u201c\u2018Lil Miss\u201d is acoustic funk-blues in the vein of Earl Thomas\u2019 take on \u201cGit Me Some.\u201d The singer opts for a more raw and rugged approach to his vocals, and it matches the swampy groove that the guy creates with his six-string. Shoot, it even rivals the Spin Doctors as Best Song With A Hook That Uses The Phrase \u201cLil Miss Can\u2019t Be Wrong.\u201d Throw in some intricately tasteful banjo picking between verses, and what you have is something close to perfection.<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, perfection is something that Larry Keel is probably closer to than a lot of his contemporaries. Because, again \u2026 well, he\u2019s been at this for a bit. That\u2019s why \u201cExperienced\u201d means so much more in this equation than a mere album title \u2014 it\u2019s also the very adjective that should force these seven songs onto your radar. He\u2019s tried and true, a trusted veteran of the blues\/bluegrass\/Americana world with a voice and a level of talent that explains precisely how he\u2019s made it this far.<\/span><\/p>\n

And after these seven songs, it should be a treat to see how much further he\u2019s willing to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

*** 3 1\/2 STARS OUT OF 4 ***<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Larry Keel has been at this for a bit. Head over to his website, click on the \u201chistory\u201d tab, and you\u2019ll find a timeline that begins in 1968, when he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}