Larry Keel

Larry Keel is an award-winning innovative flat-picking guitarist and singer/songwriter hailing from Appalachia and currently residing in historic Lexington, VA. Raised in a musical family steeped in the mountain culture of the region, Keel began from an early age to forge a distinctive sound, taking traditional music and infusing it with modern light. With the acoustic guitar Keel has brought the flat-picking form to its highest level of sophistication and sonic power with his muscular, yet refined style of playing. As a composer and singer, Keel integrates raw honesty and charming grit to form a unique brand of music he considers ‘experimental folk’, songwriting that is filled with reality, imagination, imagery, and mood. He has appeared on over 20 albums, 12 of which he produced, and has written songs that have been recorded and performed by distinguished artists including Grammy-award winners Del McCoury and The Infamous Stringdusters. He continues to merge creative forces with some of the greatest artists in modern roots music such as Tyler Childers, Billy Strings, Keller Williams and Sam Bush, to name a few. Keel has been revered by critics at Relix, JamBase, Bluegrass Today, AXS, and Rolling Stone, who dubbed him “one of the finest flat pickers around” and described his unparalleled live performance “taking songs up a notch with psychedelic hillbilly shredding.”

Spring 2024 finds Keel in the midst of a song-writing surge, penning and recording a profusion of new music to cast to audiences and listeners everywhere. Some writing collaborators Keel is currently working with include: Peter Rowan, Jeremy Garrett (Infamous Stringdusters), Colby T. Helms, Mason Via (Old Crow Medicine Show), Adam Aijala (Yonder Mt. String Band), Charles Humphrey III (Steep Canyon Rangers / Songs from the Road Band) and John Weisberger.