Bill Keith

• Genre: Progressive Bluegrass
• Hometown: Boston

About

Much like Doug Dillard, Bill Keith revolutionized Bluegrass music with his signature style of banjo playing. He is famous for approximating a fiddle's melody through various stringed instruments, which eventually led to his unique style of banjo picking. The "Keith" style is now used by many Bluegrass musicians who prefer to bust out of the genre's purist margins and into Progressive Bluegrass. Like Clarence White's B-bender playing or Chris Hillman's mandolin picking, Keith's instrumental style is virtuosic and pioneering. He began playing in the late 1950s with a college campus set of folkniks known as the Connecticut Folklore Society, and he continues to perform today with Alt Country/Bluegrass band Long Overdue.

- Eric Shea