Keller Williams with The Travelin' McCourys: Pick

photo: Casey Flanigan

Guitarist Keller Williams is a one-man band and a collaborator. The new album Pick is joint effort with bluegrass band The Travelin' McCourys. They really clicked in the stuio, tackling well-tried covers and originals showcasing Williams lyrical sense of humor, most notably during I Am Elvis and Mullet Cut. The McCourys stick close to the original when they play The Graveyard Shift, a song by Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band from the album The Mountain.

Pick has plenty of the weirdness to satisfy the Williams fanbase and is straight enough to get a thumb's up from the hardcore bluegrass fans. It is a true collaboration, not a band backing up a solo artist. With a drinking song like What A Waste and an open mind described as the stuck top of a Broken Convertible they have found old ways and new to keep in tune with the downhome, but slightly twisted poetic imagery that us is such an essential part of this kind of music.