Alternative-folk-and-dance-music singer and songwriter Keller Williams is a musical chameleon.
His influences started with the TV show “Hee-Haw” with country greats Buck Owens and Roy Clark. Then he discovered the power-rock of Kiss and AC/DC, which led him to the punk rock of the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, Dead Kennedys and Circle Jerks.
“All that steered me to the ’80s college rock bands like the Cure, the Smiths and REM,” Williams said during a telephone interview from the East Coast. “From there, I got into the Grateful Dead when I was 16 or 17, so all that stuff played a big role in my life before I was 16.”
While the Dead became the soundtrack of Williams’ life through his 20s, he still sought out new, innovative music.
“I remembering discovering (the late guitarist) Michael Hedges and loved the way he took cover songs and made them his own, without abandoning the integrity of the original,” Williams said. “He put his own spin on them, and I got a lot out of that.
“In fact, that’s where everything started to change for me,” he said. “I have a lot I owe to him as far as my music style and career.”
These days, Williams cites along with the Grateful Dead and Hedges the Flecktones bassist Victor Wooten and multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and Grammy Award-winner Bobby McFerrin, who, by the way, is a former University of Utah accompanist, as his major inspirations.
Williams never thought twice about making music.
“I never really had a plan about what I wanted to do,” he said. “All I knew is I wanted to do music for a living, because I didn’t want to drive back to an office job after playing a weekend of shows. I wanted to continue and play music every day.”
Williams kicked off his career by playing little coffee houses and clubs.
“There were years and years of guitar-and-microphone gigs where I would set up in a corner,” he said.
Then came the looping technology that allowed Williams to record a riff or beat and then use the recording as his back-up music during a live show.
“I’ve been doing that for the past 12 years or so and that created new avenues to venture down,” he said. “It allowed me to bring in more instruments and use them in the same groove and create more of a dance vibe.
“I think that’s when people started buying tickets and coming to my shows,” he said. “I try to keep a dance groove going, because most of the places I play don’t have seats. I create the dance grooves to keep it interesting for myself and hopefully it gets interesting to the audience.”
Thinking about the audience is like second-nature to Williams, who tries to play the types of songs he would want to hear if he were an audience member.
“I keep everything on the light side and don’t venture off into anything really political or plays those tear-in-my-beer love songs,” he said. “I can relate to people who are writing songs in a tempo that totally drags and is slow. That’s good for them, but if I were an audience member, I would want the show to be up and moving.
“I like to think there is a connection between me and the audience.”
Since Williams has seen more and more families coming to his shows, he knocked around the idea of making a children’s album called “Kids.”
He said David Grisman/Jerry Garcia 1993 album, “Not for Kids’ Only,” which was comprised of child-friendly, acoustic-folk tunes from the Southeast, strengthened the desire.
“When that came out, I didn’t have any kids, but I listened to it all the time and memorized the songs and really liked it,” Williams said.
The songwriter looked at his back catalog and felt doing a children’s album was a natural thing to do.
“There are several records I made in the past that have a theme,” he said. “When I would think of making an album, I would come up with a them and I try to write songs to fit.”
So, Williams began writing children’s songs, but then dragged his feet when it came to recording them.
“It took me years before I wanted to record them,” he said. “Then I had kids and started listening to all this other family-friendly music with my kids. I found there was a lot of music out there that my kids liked that I didn’t.”
So Williams returned to his own songwriting and tried to write songs that connected with kids on their level, but were also digestible by adults.
“I didn’t step too far out of my comfort zone when I wrote the songs,” he said. “It was fun, and some people have told me when they drop their kids off at school, the CD stays on, and that’s a big compliment.”
The record caught the ear of the producers of Nickelodeon’s “Yo Gabba Gabba” tour.
“I was offered the Super Friends slot for the tour,” Williams said. “My kids loved that show and I knew what it was about, but I didn’t think there was anything on my album that was cool enough or funky enough to go play at these arenas, so I went back and made up a song called ‘Hula Hoop Through the Loop,’ where I set up a musical loop with a Blue-Man-Group type of groove. I sing it and then my six-year-old daughter would come out with a lighted hula hoop.”
The song was an immediate hit.
“Kids Place Live on Satellite radio played the track three times a day for six months,” Williams said with a laugh. “My music doesn’t get played on the radio all that much, and it’s something I’m not quite used to, but getting the royalty checks is quite cool.”
Alternative-folk-and-dance-music singer and songwriter Keller Williams will play Canyons Resort’s outdoor stage on Sunday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.tickets.fteslc.com or at the venue the day of the show. Visit www.mountaintownmusic.org for more information.