Larry Keel is one of the most popular and richest Guitarist who was born on November 25, 1968 in Manassas, Manassas, . Larry Keel was born in Manassas, Virginia in 1968. He was taught guitar by his father James Keel, who played banjo. His brother Gary, who played guitar — and was twelve years older – bought him one when he was seven. He began playing seriously in 1975. Between 1976 and 1985 he performed bluegrass music in a number of “semi-professional situations”, e.g., bluegrass and fiddler conventions, community events, barbecues, etc.
As Keel relates, Jennifer “Jenny” Newmark “was always a huge supporter of the live music scene in our area of Virginia,” but somehow they’d “never crossed paths at all those jams and festivals.” They met “at a little tavern in (his) town” where she came to see “one of her favorite local bluegrass heroes (Gary Ruley) play” in March 1994. When Keel “got up on stage with Gary to pick a tune,” joining Will Lee who was also sitting in that show, she was “blown away” by his musicianship, particularly by their take on the David Grisman tune “Eat My Dust”.
In September 1996, Keel split with Magraw Gap and formed the Larry Keel Experience, made up of himself on guitar, his wife on bass, and other musicians he’d worked with over the years. Over the next several years the group would record a number of “adventurous albums”.
Larry Keel Experience released “Larry Keel, Curtis Burch & the Experience” with Billy Constable in 2002. Keel’s 2004 “Journey” CD, recorded at his home in Natural Bridge, included guest artists David VanDeventer, Danny Knicely, Will Lee, Gary Ruley, John Flower, Robert Mabe, Slinky Cobblestone, and Morgan Morrison. In 2009 Larry Keel and Natural Bridge released and almost entirely original “Backwoods”, co-produced by Keller Williams and mastered by Bill Wolf. The album received highly favorable reviews. The Wounded Messenger noted, “Perhaps no song better encapsulates the group’s sound than the constantly shifting ‘Crocodile Man,’ which meanders through steep, jazzy terrain often explored by progressive acoustic acts but perfected here.”
In 1990, Keel and “long-time musical friend” Will Lee – son of guitarist Ricky Lee from Ralph Stanley’s band in the 1970s – founded a “progressive string band” named Magraw Gap. Through 1993 the new group traveled throughout the Shenandoah Valley competing in bluegrass competitions, winning first place at several festivals. In 1993 Keel entered the guitar competition at Telluride Bluegrass Festival and won first place. In 1994, Magraw Gap began touring regularly. In 1995 it won the bluegrass band competition at. Keel won the guitar competition there again in 1996.
