JACKSON, Wyo. — Since 2008, Keller Williams has been shredding Grateful Dead music with some of the top instrumentalists in progressive bluegrass. Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass now features The Hillbenders, following a tradition that has also staged The Keels, Jeff Austin, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Vince Herman.
Through his thirty-five years of being a solo artist, Williams has largely performed as a one-man jam band while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, bass, guitar synth, and drum samples using live phrase sampling. His pioneering use of this looping technique inspired many artists after him, and he often incorporated The Dead’s music into his setlists.
His Grateful Grass project makes it clear with a fun definition of how they perform “loose interpretations of Grateful Dead songs done in a bluegrass style. Take my fascination with Grateful Dead songs and mix it together with my love of psychedelic improvisational bluegrass music and out burps this project. WARNING: If you like your Grateful Dead songs performed in their original way, or if you prefer traditional bluegrass, this is not the project for you. If you like singing along to Dead songs in that song’s normal tempo but dancing double time to the music, this is definitely your jam. A lot of people seem to dig it and I dig them for that.”
Hailing from Missouri, The Hillbenders are not newcomers to making cover material their own. They made a commercial breakthrough in 2015 with Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry, which was an interpretation of The Who’s lendaray rock opera. They’ve also released three albums of original music, including 2018’s self-titled release that was recorded live in the studio.
Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass now featuring The Hillbenders, 8 p.m. Sunday at the Center Theater. Tickets are $42-$62, or buy a livestream ticket for $15. JHCenterForTheArts.org.
