Marc Horowitz is probably the most informed Keith style player around. He talked about his time with Bill and Bill's musical genius and could play anything Bill did. I've been to several picking parties on Staten Island with Marc and Bill...Now that was a treat...I'm sure Marc feels this loss a lot...Jack
Wow, I'm just now hearing about this. Bill Keith was a huge influence on my playing, especially when I was transitioning from a straight "Scruggs player" to more of a "Melodic player". Years ago, I phoned Beacon Banjo to ask about some tuners I owned. To my surprise, Bill answered the phone and we talked for a bit. I sent the tuners in for some maintenance, and when they were returned to me there was a full-page letter from Bill, talking about some people and places we had in common. I still have that letter. Very, very sad to learn of his passing.
What sad news, Bill was an absolute gentleman, fantastic Banjo player and wonderful technical musician. I met Bill a few times over the years way back but not in the past few years sadly. The first time I met Bill he encouraged me to study modes and scales and he gave me some great advice too. Then, another time when I asked him how to go about arranging music he said 'well, the tunes can't defend themselves very well' I took it that he meant that people should try to do justice to whatever they were working on. Bill will be missed by all of us but we have his legacy and great memories too to hold onto. Sad news.
One of the first melodic pieces I ever attempted was from Bill's early 70s book of transcriptions. The tune was called My Love is but a Lassie Yet, in drop C tuning. Bill had recorded it in Woodstock along with the Happy Traum crew at Mud Acres.
We often first get acquainted with our banjo heroes through their recordings and, when available, banjo tabs. This was what happened to me with Bill Keith. By the time that I found myself in a Greenwich Village coffee shop with him in the late 1970’s, I had been familiar with his music and his technical breakthroughs for a few years. However, it was something else to get to know the person behind the recordings.
There we were, on a Sunday afternoon, just before he was to play Gerde’s Folk City with the Music from Mud Acres revue, sitting in the window seat in a busy coffee shop, and Bill is mapping out the circle of fifths for me on a napkin. He got many refills of that coffee that afternoon.
I was just barely out of college at the time, maybe 23 years of age, and I was too young to fully appreciate his generosity of spirit: that someone of his stature would spend this much time with a younger player, just before a gig, expounding on one or another aspect of the mystical depths of music theory.
I hung on to every word pretty well that day, as I had been spending time pouring over theory and jazz books on my own. Our relationship deepened when I invited him in 1979 down to Charlottesville, Virginia, where I lived at the time, to teach a weekend of workshops to my students. I got the full dose of Bill’s depth of knowledge that weekend, and my head truly was spinning. He signed for me a copy of banjo tab – in French – to the “Something Auld” Rounder LP. I had already tried to learn every break on this recording by ear and I was grateful to see what I had gotten correct and what I had gotten wrong. Moreover, I was struck by the elegance of his note choices and the powerful logic of his fretboard moves.
In subsequent years, we shared many weekends at banjo camps from Massachusetts to Washington and he would frequently be the last banjo player standing, jamming with anyone and everyone and taking time to show something to anyone who asked. A cup of coffee would always be nearby, and usually a cigarette. His fashion sense at these banjo camps was always something that would attract attention. Whether he was wearing his “Sex, Drugs & Flatt & Scruggs” or his Warhol-ish “Wonder Bread” t-shirt, Bill’s hipness was of a stature that eclipsed all other hipness. He was the coolest of the cool.
More recently, he flew into San Francisco from his home in New York to be a part of the 2012 California Banjo Extravaganza. His flight arrived at around 11 p.m. and it was close to midnight before we had arrived close to my home in the San Francisco East Bay. As we pulled up to the door, he asked if we could get a bite to eat. We soon found ourselves at a upscale tapas joint, the only place I could find open on a weeknight at 12:30 a.m., discussing music and devouring steak tacos, as Bill sipped a cappuccino.
We arrived back at my house at about 1:15 a.m. and I showed off to him my own espresso maker, promising to make him a cup in the morning. Bill got a gleam in is eye and expressed interest in having a cup – right now. So I fired up the machine, made him a cup and went to bed, knowing that my own household would spring to life as early as 5:15 a.m.
At around 3 a.m., I stirred in my bed, hearing the low volume of the television emanating from our adjacent living room. I got up and found Bill sitting on our couch, facing the television, delicately holding the cappuccino saucer and cup in his hand – and he was sound asleep. This posed a quandary. I was worried that if I suddenly stirred him, the cappuccino would go flying across the room. However, I wouldn’t be a very good host if I left him in this suspended state between sleep and wakefulness.
I gently spoke his name and thankfully he opened his eyes without upending the cup. He apologized – and then asked if I could make him another cup, indicating that he enjoyed watching television late at night and that the cappuccino was very good.
I handed him another cup at 3 a.m. I think he finally climbed into his bed around five in the morning but he was soon up with my wife, visiting with her in the kitchen with another cup of cappuccino in his hands. When I awoke a few hours later, we were both hungry. He wondered if I had the fixings to make omelets and I proceeded to rummage through the bottomless pit of the refrigerator finding eggs, onions, mushrooms and peppers. I admitted to him that I wasn’t the best cook in the world, and he proceeded to show me his method of making an omelet, drinking yet another cup of cappuccino as he worked – and taught.
Like his music, it was a well-thought out cooking approach that resulted in one of the most perfect omelets I have ever eaten. I am proud to say that while Bill has taught thousands of banjo players, I might be the only banjo player who learned how to cook from him.
Back in the late 1950s and early 60s, musicians and singers would gather around a big fountain in Greenwich Village, NY on Sunday afternoons.. There would be folksingers in one group (Bob Dylan often showed up there), blues players in their group, and bluegrassers in another.
Once in a while Bill would show up there and blow away all of us banjo players with his virtuosity. This was around the time he was tabbing out the material for the Earl Scruggs instruction book and he would play all of Earl's tunes with stunning clarity and precision. We'd gather around him open-mouthed knowing we could never hope to play that well. It was like he was some kind of banjo god. And, indeed, that is just what he turned out to be.
I was in the process of having my banjo neck rebuilt and decided to order Keith D-tuners so instead of ordering on line I called Becon Banjo co. I was talking to this gentleman about the tuners and was really getting into the conversation and that's when I found out I was talking to Bill himself. OMG I was so super excited that I actually got to talk to the man. It's a conversation memory I will never forget. Rest in peace Bill.
RIP Bill Keith, I already miss you. I remain a Bill Keith tyro. Once, in 2001 at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, I found myself as 1 of only 4 banjo players there including Bill Keith. He was teaching and I was listening. One story he told was a day when he placed a cigarette underneath the 4th string, right behind the nut above the head stock; he got busy playing and the cigarette burned down to the celluloid tension rod cover-it caught fire! Now, fact is Bill told me this story, but I cannot remember whether it was him or another, but it is still a representative story of Bill's humor. What a great guy. Sincere condolences to Bill's family. I look forward to another time together.
I, too, am a Bill Keith fan. I studied his melodic style in books and from his instructional DVD called Play Bluegrass Banjo By Ear. He has innovative, original techniques and you can tell what a genuinely kind person he was. I've been able to transfer to clawhammer what I've learned and know he was key in my learning journey.
I first heard about Bill Keith and his innovative style of banjo playing a few months after I started playing (in November of 1964). I remember another young banjo player (I think his name was Mike Singer or maybe Mark Singer) who I had run into at Fretted Instruments (located near West 4th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan and operated by Mark Silber) telling me all about the banjo style of a great banjo player Bill Keith, who I hadn't heard play yet. I think I had just a couple of bluegrass records, and they were by Flatt and Scruggs and Reno and Smiley. I looked for an album that Mark (or Mike) mentioned, which had Bill Keith on it (with Red Allen and the Kentuckians). When I first heard New Camptown Races, Catnip, Deep Elem Blues, and a bunch of other great songs played by Bill, I knew my banjo playing world had been changed in a big way. I got some other albums that either had Bill on them (like "Living on the Mountain" with Jim Rooney), or which had other players playing in Bill's style (like "New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass", with Eric Wessberg and Marshall Brickman). I heard stories about Bill's great musicianship (compared to other mere "mortal" banjo players) from people like Winnie Winston (a great banjo player himself, and my main banjo instructor - I took maybe a half dozen lessons from him).
I finally got to meet Bill in person when he was visiting NYC in the summer of 1965. I had a broken leg at the time and full length cast, but I managed (with my father's assistance) to go to Jack Baker's studio located above Fretted Instruments and take a lesson from Bill (who was giving lessons at Jack's while he was "in town"). Bill offered a few suggestions (which put me on the right path towards playing better Scruggs style banjo) and we started up a friendship that I really valued.
Now and then, our paths would cross. Bill invited me to visit him in Boston (or Cambridge - somewhere in the metro area) in the summer of 1968, and it was great listening to tapes he had of gigs he had with Bill Monroe, or with him and Peter Rowan, Richard Greene, David Grisman, etc, or of him playing with Bobby Thompson when they first met. We also played some tunes together, and he was supportive of my efforts. Bill also took me around town in his souped up Jaguar sedan (license plate JAG 327) in which he had installed a Chevy V8, and which he drove really fast (making me a nervous passenger for a while) but under control (like a race car driver or maybe cab driver). Bill also was into other kinds of music, and he was interested in going to a concert by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, so he took me along to the show. Bill also told me about his interest in the powers of pyramids (you could use a miniature model of a pyramid to sharpen razor blades that were placed within the model) and about a machine into which you could insert a picture of a cornfield, and somehow, the machine would eliminate the corn blight that was present in the field (through some kind of "woo woo" process). I wasn't sure if I bought the idea, but Bill was so smart, that anything he said had to at least be considered seriously.
In the years afterwards, I'd run into Bill now and then at music events, banjo camps, or just if he was passing by in the area where I lived (and he had some time to visit). He was always friendly, open to conversation, and full of interesting ideas and lots of knowledge about all kinds of stuff. I didn't see him often, but it was always fun to get together when the opportunity presented itself.
I'm really shocked by the news of Bill's passing. It seems like it was just yesterday that I purchased the set of Keith tuners that I still use, that were made when Bill was still a vibrant
young man and also the year (1977) I graduated high school. I expected him to stay around for a lot longer.
Another passing caught me by surprise this past July, Buddy Emmons-The World's Foremost Pedal Steel Guitarist. By the way, Bill also played (and taught) Pedal Steel Guitar.
He co-authored along with another great pedal steel (and banjo) player, Winnie Winston (also departed), the first practical, in-depth instruction method for this instrument, and the one I started with.
Bill was a true legend in every respect, as well as a great person. May God bring comfort to his family and close friends, may Bill grace heaven with his wonderful music!
I remember those days so well. Bill offered me lessons in exchange for studio space from me so that he could give lessons when he visited the Village. Marc Silber gave me the name of Fretted Instruments when he moved West to California.
I then changed the name and carved out from Walnut wood, that hand made wooden sign which stood for many years at 319 Sixth Ave. I called it "Fretted Instruments School of Folk Music" and I rented out two studios to different people over the next few years.
Bill was very gentle but quite a perfectionist when it came to all things Banjo and music. This is a terrible loss for me and I'm sure you and many others who knew Bill and worked with him or took lessons with him. I'm still in utter shock really and quite sad that Bill is gone.
I remember meeting you and getting together with you Pete over the years and you are simply a wonderful player and very modest about it all...be well Peter...your very good friend...Jack p.s. I will definitely call you very soon.
I stopped by Bill's campsite, he was sitting having a cup of coffee. I managed to knock his coffee into his lap. What a way to meet this musical genius. Years later, I took a private lesson from Bill at his home. All hand written sheets. I didn't mention the coffee.
It also has been a long time since I last posted here, but I heard this news today and it really struck me.
My own story is that I had called and talked to Bill about a set of his D-tuners that I had purchased that really needed to be refurbished. We were going on a trip shortly after that and he suggested that I drop them off on the way by. My wife and I stopped at the prescribed time and unbeknownst to me, we would then spend the next three hours talking to Bill about all sorts of things, from banjos to computers to how he actually "refurbished" his tuners using a hot plate and a coffee can. We then talked about banjos, he gave me an honest evaluation of my banjo and it's set up as he picked on it for a while and gave me some suggestions to make it sound better, along with a few pointers to improve my playing. We talked about his book, The Natural Way to Music, for quite a while and I could see the passion in his eyes as he spoke. He was nice enough to autograph a copy for me and when I got home I started to read it. It didn't take long before I realized the true genius of a man that Bill was. A musical genius, an intellectual genius and a man of such clarity, it was refreshing and energizing.
He was also a member of the best band that Bill Monroe had ever assembled and to think that they never recorded an album together. I listen to the Newport News recording every chance I get.
God Bless you Bill and may the good Lord look over your family during this difficult time. I'm sure Bill is drinking coffee, playing music and having a grand ole time with all of the other greats that have passed before him.
My heartfelt sympathies go out to Claire, Martin and the rest of his family.
Bill once told me he developed his melodic style years ago when he would sit in with two elderley ladies who were from Nova Scotia and living in the Boston area. One lady played fiddle and the other piano. They played jigs and reels and that downcast music. Bill said that he knew all the notes they were playing were on the banjo to, so he developed his style so he could play the melody with them. Sad to see him move on!!
I remember Bill at the great Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival in Ireland, in 2004. Bill, Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick and others were there in the company of Earl Scruggs in what I believe was one of the very few times Earl had performed outside the USA. What a coup for the Festival organisers! Naturally I went to all the workshops, but Bill's was an utter tour de force. People earlier mentioned his taste in T shirts and love of good coffee. That day he was wearing "Drink coffee - do stupid things faster, with more energy".
The first thing he did in the classroom where his workshop was held, was to draw an absolutely perfect circle freehand - and I guess you all know what came next for the rest of the workshop. I remember my jaw hitting the floor as he played a sequence of jazz numbers whilst analysing the strange (and, to me, unrecognisable) chords, with tremendous left hand stretch, and simultaneously pointing out the sequence on the circle of fifths he'd drawn on the blackboard. I would give almost anything to relive that hour.
A lot of people have mentioned their favourite Keith performances. Mine is the great version of Home Sweet Home he played with Richard Greene on "The Grass is Greener" album. Cheekily he played a stirring version in D tuning using the tuning pegs and then, after some other instrumental breaks, there was a key change and he played a lovely rendering of Earl's version.
What a wonderful, kind and generous man - and a great, innovative musician. He will be sadly missed, but remembered always.
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Bill Keith. What a great banjo virtuoso, pioneer, picker, and teacher. He was also a prince of a guy.
I only had the opportunity to meet and learn from him one time. It was at the Suwanee Banjo Camp in March of 2009 at O'Leno State Park in Florida. I had the awesome to jam with he and Bill Evans one night and I'll never forget their kindness and willingness to answer any question that me or the one other advanced jam student had that evening.
Bill was the one who told me that Pike County Breakdown was actually an instrumental version of the old tune "Sweet Betsy from Pike". As I recall, he said that Bill Monroe, being from Pike County Kentucky wanted to write a tune with his county's name. After listening to "Sweet Betsy from Pike", he developed the upbeat instrumental version.
I've enjoy reading all the tribute posts to Bill. I was tickled to see that Bill Evans mentioned the Wonder Bread T-Shirt that Bill was wearing in the attached picture.
I had the great privilege to meet and study banjo and actually pick with Bill Keith back in 2010 at Suwanee Banjo Camp in Florida. It was a truly amazing experience. The highlight of the camp for me was having dinner at the same table and innocently asking him how someone from New York found the five string banjo. For the next ten minutes he told the greatest story. He was kind enough to sign his page in Tony Trischka's melodic instruction book. What a giant he was. Last night while picking with some friends his name came up and we did Devil's Dream and Sailor's Hornpipe not knowing at the time that he had passed. He will be missed.
Bill was to me was first a banjo god when I watched him win the 1963 Philadelphia Folk Festival banjo contest, then my banjo hero throughout my bluegrass years, and ultimately, a friend. When I was operating my banjo-centric music store, ZEPP Country Music, Inc., I proudly sold Keith Tuners, Keith Tuning Pegs, and Bill Keith-branded strings.
One evening, while chatting on the phone, he lamented that he had recently been at a bluegrass event also attended by Earl Scruggs, who was to be honored one evening. He told me that he had taken with him all his hand-written transcriptions for the book to show Earl and mentioned even taking along his first edition hardcover copy of the book, all in hopes of reestablishing communication with Earl.
He then told me that his was a "rare" copy of the book whereupon and wherein Earl’s name had been misspelled! I was curious, so he explained that in the first printing, “SCRUGGS” had been printed in a rather stylized font, and no one had noticed that it had been misspelled “SGRUGGS” wherever that font had been used.
That happened to be the cover, the dust jacket, and the title page inside (I still have the dust cover, but it's in pieces).
According to Bill, the first person to notice was–naturally–Mr. Scruggs himself.
While Bill was telling me his story, I had wandered back to my teaching studio where I kept my personal hardcover copy of the book. Guess what? Mine, too, is the misspelled edition. I took it with me the next time Bill and I would be together, and asked him to sign it. He pulled his copy from his car trunk and showed me not just Earl’s signature in it, but the stamp where it had been registered as evidence for the suit that had been filed against Scruggs seeking remuneration for Bill's work.
As he signed my book, he laughed and said: “Be sure Earl doesn’t see this, or he’ll never sign this copy!”. I had figured that I’d simply present it to Earl with a blank page open, but I just never had the chance, I’m afraid.
Bill and I shared a good laugh over the fact that I’d had--and used extensively--my copy of the book for over 30 years at that point, and I had never noticed the misspelling!
Adieu, Bill, my friend; you shall be sorely missed.
I am saddened by the news of Bill's passing. He was a wonderful man, a true gentleman and an exceptional musician and I do not believe anyone has contributed more than Bill to the evolution of five string banjo playing. I have wonderful memories of our conversations over the years. I am truly grateful and honored to have known him.
I met Bill Keith in the mid 1970's in Ann Arbor, MI at the Great Lakes Banjo Company. He showed up with a banjo with 4 Tuners on it. We had been talking previously about the addition of 2 tuners for the 1st and 4th strings. I remember him handing me a banjo with 4 tuners on it and saying "now, what are you going to do with it".
I was in awe of Bill's playing but more I loved the tuners. I went on pursuing the use of 4 tuners and along the way would get encouragement from Bill. In the 80"s Bill was constantly trying to push me to apply the tuners to guitar. I at the time thought it was a crazy idea.
Finally one phone conservation pushed me over the edge. "Vince, I wonder if you could do anything with the tuners on the guitar?' I saw it as a challenge and ordered 6 tuners. By the time the tuners arrived I had already written songs for them. In the 90's I was doing clinics for Guild and Fender, demonstrating the use of the tuners on the guitar.
There was a show in New Jersey and lo and behold Bill showed up to check me out. He drove down from Woodstock, New York, how cool. We went out afterword and got a chance to talk.
Bill was so supportive of what I was doing musically and constantly pushing me on.
I lived in Paris for a few months in 1975, and most days I was playing banjo in the Metro for tips. One day a French guy walked up and listened for a bit and then told me that he knew some other French guys that played Bluegrass. I arranged to meet them later that day. Three of us started playing for tips around the cafes on the Left Bank. They told me that Bill Keith had recently recorded the Paris Sessions album, and some of their friends had played on the session with Bill. I wound up with a copy of the LP, but when I came back to California, I loaned it to another picker and never got it back.
In 2012 when Bill came out to play the Freight and Salvage show in Berkeley with Alan Munde and Bill Evans, I went backstage and asked him to autograph my copy of his "Something Auld, Something Newgrass, Something Borrowed, Something Bluegrass" LP. He was just as easy-going and friendly as everyone else here has said.
Bill Keith was a musical giant. He changed the landscape of bluegrass music and banjo playing in so many wonderful ways and spawned so many amazing disciples that his contribution to American music is incalculable. He also was my dear friend for over half a century and a mentor and colleague. I was fortunate to have a final visit with him the day before he left to receive his well deserved award. I am so privileged to have known him and will cherish the years of music we shared until the end of my days. — David "Dawg" Grisman
A few years back, after spending time with others getting our heads filled with information by Bill at the Suwannee Banjo Camp, I sat with Bill for Easter breakfast prior to my long drive back to Pennsylvania. Talking with Bill on a personal level was a pleasure. His work was done there, and I didn't want to bother him with fan small talk, as we were all were "burnt out on banjo" after the long weekend. We parted company after being sure he had his ride to the airport, and I started the long ride home. As I head up through South Carolina, I could help but to think that he was flying overhead zooming back to New York as I was heading up Route 95 northward. He had spoken about the travels years ago prior to R 95 being constructed, driving Rt 15 with the Bluegrass Boys. So many stories he shared. With limited radio reception in areas, and there not being a whole lot on the radio due to the religious holiday, I periodically scanned my car radio for bluegrass music. What did I land on? A station with Bill playing Blackberry Blossom. Go figure. Years since, I always made it a point to always spend a few moments talking with him at the Grayfox Festival in New York. Truely a nice guy to me as someone he had very little contact with, but he always took time to be a friend, complete with corny jokes, and other laughable moments. I'll miss Bill.
About 20 years ago, I had a pretty mediocre banjo that needed a setup and strings. I had botched a few attempts at it, so I searched the area and found a guy in Woodstock, NY who installed special tuners, etc. Yeah, I had no clue. I dropped it off, and a few hours later picked it up. He charged me $15. While he was out of earshot, someone staying with him said, "Do you know who he is? He's Bill Keith, one of the best banjo players in the country!" Hmmm ... I didn't know anything about him except he didn't charge much for restringing and tweaking my banjo. Nice guy, I thought.
Since then, I've seen him play a dozen times or more; Rosendale Cafe, Opus 40, Grey Fox, etc. RIP, Bill.
The first time I met Bill was at the Tennessee Banjo Institute in the early nineties and I was pretty green. At a large jam, a tune was being played that I wasn't familiar with. I guessed it to be in A. Bill kept looking at me and nodding toward his fretting hand. I finally figured out it was in D. He never said a word out loud.
Robyn and I where very fortunate to meet Bill Keith about 16 years ago . He liked our Banjola and wanted to try out flat top OB-250. So after he received, we didn't hear from him for awhile . Next year at IBMA he came to our booth, unannounced, and apologized for no reconnect .. but said he had used the Banjola often, especially for jazz pieces and he'd be glad to offer his endorsement. So we took the advertising pic, and continued our dialog...
He mentioned he had never been to a NAMM show so Robyn and I invited him (as our guest) for a trip to Anaheim .
So for 3 days we hung with Bill, he met all our dealers and I think really enjoyed his first show. One memorable event is when Future Man ( Flecktones percussionist) dropped by and Bill and him conversed about the universes' planets being lined up in a particular formation, that the energy generated by this " planet arrangement" caused music inspiration, and they both agreed it was for real . By this time at least a dozen bystanders gathered listening in and we all looked at each other wondering how we could learn about this mystical secret
The next night we took him to a Thai restaurant, accommpigned by a student of his that moved to Wood Stock for personal lessons with Bill. Bill told us stories of Bill Monroe, inventing the tuner, the Earl Scruggs book and shared many of his musical memories.
Robyn and I will always remember his cordial companionship and the friendship that developed.
Later throughout the years I would meet him at banjo clinics . 4 years ago at the Suwanee camp , there was an extremely cold morn, in the 5O's .. Bill I think was the only one with an outdoor class, which happened to be next to my booth.
Only two students braved the cold, I sat in the class and Bill patiently instructed us 3 on jazz chording .. His teaching was remarkable, there was always a gleam in his eye as he literally was shaking with the cold
( with his constant cup of java).
About 5 years ago I read "Can't You Hear Me Calling" the biography of Ralph Stanley . Then I continued on the bluegrass legends and read Bill Monroes book. After hearing just a few of his stories at the Thai restaurant, it dawned on me Bills' history was as remarkable and would be a great book. I immediately called him, asked if anyone had ever mentioned a biography. "I guess I might be interested" he said. So we discussed possible authors, I recommended Bob Carlin and we made the contacts. So for those that may not know, Bob made multiple visits to the Keith home and after about a year the book was completed. Release date is still unknown, but we are all in great anticipation of this volume.
Bill was never about himself, the music spoke his legacy and he will be missed by many
I was fortunate to hear "Brad" playing with Bill Monroe. (Surely everyone knows about the use of "Brad" while he was with Monroe.) I also tried to get his French album published in the US --to no avail at the time. I met him at Bean Blossom in 1970 and had dinner with him here in Orange County where we discussed French culture and banjo music. He was a true innovator and a gentle soul. RIP.
I am not very good at writing my feelings, but Bill was a special guy! Besides his musical talents he was a very nice, genuine guy!! I am not surprised to see so many here with the same exact experience as I.
I always loved Bills playing. Old and in the way was my first bluegrass album, probably because of the fact that record stores in the '70's carried it not because of bluegrass, but because of Jerry. Sure is easier to get music these days. Second album I got was Something Bluegrass by Bill. I wore that album out!! Love Bill's melodic playing from the man himself, but I liked his 3 finger playing just as much if not more. Love his background approach to Jim's vocals, the best of any backup I have ever heard. What musicality and bounce! What amazing chord choices.
Many many years ago my wife contacted Bill and gave me a lesson for my birthday. Woodstock was over 3 hours from my home then, but I was in the area for a ski house for a few years. First lesson lasted 3 or 4 hours. Had many after that!!! He treated me as if I was a good friend. What a great guy!!!!! He obviously loved people. When I saw him him at shows he was always warm and generous.
My second son is named Brad. Bill's use of his middle name when he was with Monroe influenced our decision to call him Brad. My son loves it, I am glad.
I lost contact after I stopped coming to the area, I am really sorry I did.
He was a special man, as is evident in this thread!!! I have seen tributes to the greats that passed. None were like this.
Bill took no part in the trappings of celebrity. There was never the “And you are…?” moment with him. Modesty and humility were his watchwords and he lived by them. Unfailingly available and cordial, he had time for whoever asked for it—more time than anybody expected, as told in many of the stories here. He gave me his time in 1963, taking me places in Nashville and sharing important things about banjo picking and bluegrass. The fact that I wasn't a student of the melodic style was irrelevant. He encouraged my guitar and banjo playing and was a mentor and generous teacher. In the years following, whenever I’d see "the other Bill" (Monroe) he would unfailingly ask, "Have you seen Brad? How is he doing?" I spoke with him by phone two days before his passing. His voice was weak as he explained his situation. He asked, "How are you doing?" Then—he told me a joke. Still the old Bill, right to the very end. A rare human being I feel honored to have known.
In my earlier post I stated that Bill told me about Pike County Breakdown being the same tune as Sweet Betsy from Pike. I mistakenly said that Bill told me that Bill Monroe was from Pike County. There's no doubt that Bill knew his former band leader was from Ohio County . Pike County is in his home state of Kentucky . Thanks for another member pointing out my mistake.
Bill Kieth’s sound and in particular, Fiddle Tunes for Banjo, always rang true to me. By the time I made it up to Bill’s house for my first and only lesson with him (back around 2000), it was more like a pilgrimage to the shrine of a hero rather than a banjo lesson. In one single one hour lesson that ran for two and half hours, Bill forced me into my banjo wall. I knew what it would take to climb over and I knew what was lying on the other side.
Bill was quite intense and very “real” that day. I remember hearing about his son, and how he was playing in his son’s band from time to time. I remember how determined he was to not only share with me but to drag me along with his style, his stories, his enthusiasm. He may or may not have known that I was “immovable” at that time in my life--going through my own artist’s block, I simply was not going to “get it.” It may have made him try harder, I don’t know.
But I know that this day, This single lesson has stayed with me to this day, and really any day that I’m in banjo mode, I think of Bill Kieth (as I do John Hartford). Bill he was and is a bit of an enigma as any true artist is. Anyone who is doing something unique--truly original will be this way. Bill’s banjo sound was so unique, so purely original, that I was drawn to it. I needed to seek it out. I needed answers. However, only in hindsight and with years more life experience--such a meeting would be doomed to incur more questions than answers. I would not leave more satisfied, I would leave more confused. I would not feel at home, I would feel like a interminable guest.
He is Bill Kieth, one of the purest artists in any medium--his was the banjo. And I love the banjo.
Here's to a great, GREAT legend in the Bluegrass world as well as a major hero and innovator in the Banjo world. I don't need to repeat all the immense co tributes so he has done for us, but what a super human being as well.
I had the repeated good fortune to speak with him in person when I worked with him, either ordering or repairing the wonderful highest quality tuners he was known for. I had the wisdom to digitally record his voice mail when he called me back to give me an update and now I will forever cherish that sound clip in which he addressed little ole me by saying "hi Dan"...I remember I thought to myself..."Bill Keith just said 'Hi' to you!!!!...wow!"
He will be greatly missed, but never forgotten!
Thank you Bill...may you rest and pick in peace....
Bill Keith was an exquisite human being, period, and the world (not just the banjocentric world) was so lucky to have him.
Several months ago, someone had posted a video link. It was Bill Keith playing at a French venue. In the beginning of the video Bill is running a sound check and speaking with the engineer in French.
Back when Bill was playing with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, I was playing in a Boston/Providence band. We opened for the Jug Band at Rhode Island School of Design one night. We used to play New Camptown Races (Frank Wakefield), and I knew Bill had played it on a recording. So I asked him if he'd join us onstage for the tune. He did, with no hesitation; just checked the key with me.
I don't believe my playing was on a par with his, but it was just so wonderful to stand next to him and hear that tune come out of his banjo!
A few weeks later he asked me to join him and Jim Rooney onstage at Club 47, but unfortunately Rooney vetoed the idea. Ah well.
It's redundant, I know, but Bill was so generous with his time and kind to other musicians; I remember that even more than I do his music.
