Keller Williams
Dream
Sci-Fidelity Records
Keller Williams is exactly who I wanted to be growing up. I wanted to write quirky fun music and make millions of dollars while befriending absurdly talented musicians along the way. On his latest Dream Williams makes the album I envisioned myself making except much better.
The opener “Play This” is an ode to the radio-friendly song complete with a killer guitar solo and obligatory censored f-word and begins the fantastic lyrics that permeate the 16-track masterpiece. He proves just how easy it is to write a pop song: “I just speed it up and throw some fuzz on it.”
“Restraint” has one of the best lines about being incredibly horny: “I wanna jump your bones/ Every single one of the 11 hours that I’m awake/ And I’m quickly becoming the master/ The master of restraint.” And this is after he becomes the “Ninja of Love.” According to Williams “Life” is several things including “A roller coaster with a big ass line” and “A dumb song that gets stuck in your head.”
In the liner notes, Williams writes that “the concept of this recording was to collaborate with my heroes and make a record that I would be proud to crank in my pimped out golf cart when I’m 80.” Crank away Keller. Although he is a brilliant one-man show, this album is littered with special guests including Bela Fleck on “People Watchin,’” Bob Weir on “Cadillac,” the String Cheese Incident on the folky “Sing for My Dinner” and Martin Sexton (on acoustic guitar, guitar percussion, vocal percussion, vocal muted trumpet, vocal distorted guitar, and vocal vocals) on the lazy ode “Rainy Day” among countless others.
One of the best things about Dream, besides the 76 minutes of audio bliss, is that Williams has a write-up on each song, either why it’s on the album, what it’s actually about or how it came about. I often wonder how certain songs came about or why they are the way they are. Maybe because I’m really bored, but this feeds that need to know the obscure details of a song or an album.
Keller Williams is a musical genius and Dream is just another masterwork to add to an already brilliant collection of material and killer live show. This album solidified me as a die-hard Keller Williams fan.
Keller Williams: http://www.kellerwilliams.net
