Click here to see the photos.

Keller Williams returned to Harrisburg on 03-18-2009 at the Whitaker Center on Market Street as part of his “Guitar Store Tour”.

The last time Keller Williams took stage at the Whitaker Center he was with a full band, the WMD’s.  This time he played solo as a one man show.  His solo shows are humorous, give nods to his heroes like the Grateful Dead and are chalk full of loop station goodness.

The stage was set up like a guitar store and was a pretty cool concept.  They propped up fake walls that hung guitars, he had a guitar tech table/cash counter complete with rows of guitar pedals below, and the stage was complete with “open” and shoplifter warning signs.

Keller continually switched out the guitars he was playing with those on the walls throughout the set.  He also used guitar stands to hold a bass and a guitar that was filtered through a processor channel.  The electric guitar channel was processed such that it sounded like a saxophone or another horn instrument.  In addition, Keller also played an electronic drum pad for rhythm as well as some sort of DJ machine that looked about the size of a large ipod.

Keller’s music is typically polarizing in that people love it or dislike it.  He can be a little over the top or seem like he is goofing off the whole time and yet have just enough sincerity to keep you interested.  He even built a critical review into one of his songs.  He sung about a poor review in Blender magazine said the best thing about Keller Williams is that there are only one of him.  Everyone has to work, but there is no reason you can’t have fun while doing it and I believe that is Keller’s M.O.

Click here to see the photos.

Theresa Andersson played a set of great music at the Appalachian Brewing Company on 03-11-2009.  Once again the masterminds at ABC have picked a great talent to play at the brewery.

Therersa Anderson is a one woman show that travels around the world leaving awe-struck fans in the wake.  Her gear set up is not too different than other big looper acts such as Keller Williams, Howie Day, or even Trey Anastasio in Phish.

Theresa Andersson employs the use several instruments, a whole host of pedals, but most importantly two Boss RC-50 pedals to layer multiple loops over top each other to create her amazing music.  One of her RC-50 pedals are for her vocals and one for her instruments.  She plays an assortment of instruments including drums, guitar, dulcimer, violin, tambourines, her amazing voice, and a record player.

Having seen some looper extraordinaire in the past I knew what to expect but what I did not expect was her refreshing new sound and the perfection of her performance.  Her voice was amazing – strong, on key, and a great tone and her timing was flawless.  What was more surprising is she is also a very good musician and plays instruments different than the norm loopers (Theresa plays violin, dulcimer, as well as real drums instead of an electronic Drum Doctor or beating on an acoustic guitar like other loopers).  Her ability to play the array of instruments and control all the other parts of the song with her feet simultaneously was at times even taxing for me to watch.  You really have to sit back and take it all in.

Throughout the night you could look around and watch some of the people around and you could always catch at least one person stop what they were doing and just stare at her performing.  Within a weeks time I got to see Theresa Andersson and Keller Williams do their solo looper thing and while music is  not some sort of contest, I personally think that Theresa Anderson won this round hands down.

Visit Theresa Andersson’s myspace and view some of the videos she has posted of herself playing and you will only begin to understand what it is like to see her live.