Larry Keel is a young veteran musician who combines a deep connection to Bluegrass heritage along with his highly developed ability to play and compose music ranging from classical-sounding to heavy metal energy, all the while paying respect to any style of “roots” music and music with taste. Keel, like many of the incredibly talented musicians whom he integrates into his acoustic ensembles, has benefited from growing up in a family that plays Bluegrass. Raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia Larry was surrounded by the stories, secrets, techniques and “rules” of how to make music with people and have a good time. Larry’s father and brother (themselves skilled and versatile acoustic musicians) influenced the younger Keel to thoroughly master the foundations of playing acoustic guitar (tune, timing, tone) before venturing into improvisational territory. From a very young age, then, Larry made it his goal to honor and preserve the discipline of the older roots music he knows and loves while expressing his own original ideas through acoustic music.

Over the years Larry Keel has not only developed a singular style of flatpicking the guitar, but he has used that vehicle to launch his original brand of songwriting and singing. Keel’s individual songs span virtually the entire emotional and thematic spectrum, be it a purely instrumental tune or a lyrical piece. Currently, Keel is matching up his sometimes explosive, sometimes delicately subtle and floating musical energies with his wife, Jenny, on upright bass and vocals and including revolving appearances by banjo and violin virtuoso Rex McGee, by dobro master, Curtis Burch (founding member of “Newgrass Revival” and currently featured on the Grammy Award-winning release “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”) and also David VanDeventer (Fiddle), Danny Knicely (Mandolin, Guitar, Fiddle, Vocals), Jason Krekel (Mandolin, Vocals), and Will Lee (Banjo, Guitar and Vocals). In 2001-2002 the Larry Keel Experience band included variously Vassar Clements and Tony Rice, as well as special “jam” events during the year that involved Darol Anger, Michael Kang, Sam Bush, Jeff Sipe, Joe Craven, and John Molo and John D’Earth (from Bruce Hornsby’s and Phil Lesh’s bands) to name a few. And the network of musical family that represents Keel’s “Experience” is always expanding.

Larry Keel has had for a very long time a very clear vision of what he wants to do with his musical talents, and the guiding principle is this: nurturing and preserving our American musical heritage while letting inspiration take his own original acoustic music into any realm that serves it well. While Keel pays his deepest respects to the masters who invented their music, as in the case with Bluegrass, he is becoming a master himself of his own music. Larry Keel is a true heir to the Bluegrass legacy, and his talents as a guitar genius, as an innovative and soulful singer-songwriter and as a bandleader place him on the cutting edge of the musical and cultural energies of our time.