{"id":10501,"date":"2016-04-07T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T05:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=10501"},"modified":"2016-04-01T16:43:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T20:43:04","slug":"larry-keels-asheville-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/07\/larry-keels-asheville-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Keel’s Asheville Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI grew up playing bluegrass; it’s in my blood like crazy,\u201d says guitarist, singer and songwriter Larry Keel<\/strong>. \u201cBut these days when I’m writing, I don’t hear bluegrass anymore. I’ve written and performed music that is, I think, unclassifiable. And that’s where I want to be.\u201d Keel continues to defy pigeonholing with Experienced<\/i>, his 15th<\/sup> self-released album. Keel and his band performed at Asheville Music Hall on Friday, March 25 for an event he describes as \u201ca CD celebration and a ‘family reunion’ at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That reunion commemorated a musical connection with Asheville going back many years. \u201cI was playing with a group called Magraw Gap<\/strong>,\u201d he says, \u201cand we started playing in the Asheville area about 20 years ago.\u201d He has fond memories of shows at storied \u2013 albeit long-gone \u2013 venues like Be Here Now. \u201cThe first place Magraw played was Barley’s Taproom. We played about every venue in town. And man, we had great success right off, meeting people, and having wonderful musicians from the area coming out and playing music with us. It truly felt like a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keel says that his band has been \u201csort of loosely based out of Asheville for awhile.\u201d But he hasn’t relocated here, preferring instead to remain in his Virginia home. \u201cI definitely like the mentality, the surroundings, and all the progressive thinking that goes on\u201d in Asheville, Keel admits. \u201cBut I’m sort of rooted up here in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. I’ve got family up here.\u201d Still, he keeps his options open on the prospect of eventually moving to Asheville. \u201cIt’s quite an epicenter for the whole east coast, for acoustic music, for original music. And the arts in general. So, who knows? Maybe one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Larry Keel also endeavors to keep his options open with regard to the business end of his music. That’s why as far back as the start of his professional career, he made the decision to self-release his music. While it’s a common strategy for musicians in 2016, two decades ago it was revolutionary. \u201cWhen we started self-releasing,\u201d Keel recalls, \u201cthe music industry was totally different. You didn’t have the internet, and [with it] the capability to promote yourself as you do now. I just wanted to keep the big industries and big companies out of my music. Self-producing something, I kept all the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it wasn’t only about the money: \u201cJust seeing the way that other bands had their record deals structured with record companies, I didn’t want to go that way. And I didn’t want anything interfering with my musical vision,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was sort of an instinct issue with me.\u201d<\/p>\n