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Larry Keel and Natural Bridge
 Connecting traditional songs of
yesterday with their own original and inventive sounds of today,
Larry Keel & Natural Bridge create
astonishingly powerful acoustic music rich in heritage, heart and hot licks!
With a style that evokes both atomic rock energy and dynamic tonal purity, Keel
and his ensemble are intent upon taking their instruments and their voices to
their fullest potential for emotion and amazement. While paying respect to the
legacy left by the forefathers of bluegrass, Keel bridges the gap between
traditional and contemporary
American
Mountain Music.
Larry
Keel &
Natural
Bridge includes flatpicking
guitar master Larry Keel (guitar, vocals), Jenny Keel (bass fiddle, vocals),
Mark Schimick (mandolin, vocals), and, Jason Flournoy (banjo,
vocals).
Born and raised in the
Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
Larry Keel is a young veteran musician who has always been immersed in
the traditional ways and etiquette of playing mountain music. Both
Larrys father and brother (themselves skilled and versatile acoustic
musicians) influenced the younger Keel to thoroughly master the
foundations of acoustic guitar (tune, timing, tone) before venturing
into his own original territory. From a very young age, Larry made it
his goal to honor and preserve the discipline of the
Traditional Bluegrass music he knows and loves, while expressing his own ideas through acoustic music.
At 18 years old
Keel became a contracted musician to play Bluegrass at the Tokyo
Disneyland theme park in Japan for 7 months (6 shows a day, 6 days a
week). Back in the States Larry joined up with like-minded Bluegrass
pickers young and old to travel the festival and fiddlers convention
circuit of the entire east coast. Keels long time friend and banjo
player Mark Vann (Leftover Salmon) encouraged him to travel to Colorado
to attend the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and compete in its
prestigious guitar competition. That year he won first place, and by
1995 he and long-time Bluegrass peer
Will Lee (son of Ricky Lee from Ralph Stanleys band) led their string band
Magraw Gap
to victory in the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band competition.
Moreover, Larry again competed in and won first place in the guitar
competition at Telluride that year. In fact, the band and all its
incredibly talented members won awards in the competitions in 1995.
Over the years
Larry Keel has become a world-class flatpicking guitarist, and that
talent has earned him legendary status with fans and the highest
respect amongst his musical peers. In recent performances Larry has led
bands involving such industry icons as
Tony Rice, Jack Lawrence,
Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Curtis Burch (New Grass Revival), Vassar
Clements, Joe Craven, Jim Lauderdale, Eddie Adcock; in addition he has played specialty sets with
Darrell Scott and
Sam Bush and guitar workshops along side
David Grier and Norman Blake.
Keels distinct style of flatpicking the guitar is the tool with which
he creates his original brand of songwriting and his peers have taken
notice. Both
Del McCoury and
Acoustic Syndicate have
recorded Larrys material. The Del McCoury Band recorded Larrys
Mountain Song on their 2005 Grammy award winning release,
The Company We Keep. Acoustic Syndicate recorded Long Way Round as their title track for their 2004 release.
Jenny Keel
met her soon-to-be-husband, Larry, while attending a Bluegrass show in
Lexington, Virginia where she has lived since 1985. For years a devoted
volunteer and staff worker at various music festivals and venues in the
Shenandoah Valley, Jenny has always been active in supporting the
Bluegrass and Old Time music scene. Meeting Larry and his talented
group of musician-friends sparked the latent ability in Jenny to
play upright bass. Now she has been playing bass with her husband
and virtually all of his specialty projects for over 10 years, has
advanced into a player known for impeccable timing and solid, yet
imaginative bass lines. She also adds much of the tenor harmonies to
the bands vocal pieces.
Mark Schimick
was raised in central North Carolina and frequently visited his
extended family in Southwestern Virginia. Like Keel, Mark was exposed
at an early age to the music of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and
by listening to Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers and Flatt &
Scruggs on the radio and in family members record collections, Mark
became familiar with the songs and stylings of Bluegrass. Marks early
love of this music stayed with him as he pursued formal musical
training in sacred choir singing and classical piano. Later he became a
drummer in a variety of contemporary music bands, and it was this
penchant for percussion that led him to learn the mandolin. Marks
approach to mandolin has rapidly advanced him to one of the most
versatile and fiery pickers on the acoustic music scene. Moreover, Mark
has a clear and powerful singing voice, reminiscent of the best of the
first-generation, high-lonesome style Bluegrass singers.
 Banjoist,
Jason Flournoy
has been a solid force in the bluegrass circuit for quite sometime. For
the past 5 and half years he helped lead the Colorado jamgrass
phenomenon, Shanti Groove, to major festivals and concert halls across
America. Now Jason joins flatpicking legend and progressive bluegrass
alchemist, Larry Keel and his band, Natural Bridge. With the addition
of Flournoy, Natural Bridge has not only retained the services of an
incredible banjo player, but also a seasoned songwriter. Jason penned
many of Shanti Groove's instrumental songs heard both live and on their
release, River's Mould. Born and raised in the Southeast, Jason
attended college at Brevard College in North Carolina. It was in
western NC that he got his first dose of "real" banjo picking thanks to
spending time with the likes of Billy Constable and Mark Shimick, and
their band at the time, Sassagrass. After a few years in Alabama
performing with the Dixie Slam Mob, Jason relocated to Colorado and
joined Shanti Groove, with whom he performed over 600 shows. As life
tends to go in full circles, Jason crosses musical paths with Mark
Shimick again as members in one of today's most important touring
acoustic acts.
Larry Keel
has had for a very long time a very clear vision of what he wants to do
with his musical talents, and the guiding principle is this: to nurture
and preserve our American musical heritage while letting it inspire
Keels own original writing and playing. As he pays his deepest
respects to the masters who invented Bluegrass, Keel has become
a master himself of Bluegrass, as well as of his own music.
Larry Keel is a true heir to the Bluegrass legacy, and his talents as a
guitar genius, as an innovative and expressive singer-songwriter and as
a bandleader place him amongst the best of the purveyors of American
Mountain Music.
Official Website
Show Schedule
MP3 Sample Tracks:
Mark Vann's Song
Roanoke
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