‘Shut the Folk Up and Listen'

Featuring: Keller Williams and Leo Kottke

When: 7 p.m., Feb. 3

Admission: $21.75-$49

Where: Carnegie Library of Homestead Music Hall, Munhall

Details: 412-462-3444, librarymusichall.com

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Updated 37 minutes ago

If Keller Williams had his way, the current tour with Leo Kottke would have happened years ago. But there was one point of contention from which neither guitarist would budge.

“The reason it took so long was he was always adamant about playing first,” says Williams, who appears with Kottke Feb. 3 at the Carnegie Library of Homestead Music Hall in Homestead for the “Shut the Folk Up and Listen” tour.

For Williams, the idea of one of his first guitar heroes serving as the nominal opening act was unfathomable.

“I have such respect and love for him,” Williams says. “I really wanted to play first, but as time and years went on, I realized that he likes that opening show energy. And it makes perfect sense. I am just grateful that he has allowed me into his world.”

Kottke is one of the most revered fingerpicking guitarists performing today. His first album, “12-String Blues,” was released in 1969. Known for unconventional tunings, eclectic song titles such as “Vaseline Machine Gun” and “When Shrimps Learn to Whistle,” and vocals Kottke once compared to “geese farts on a muggy day,” the guitarist has a devoted fan base.

At a few shows last year, those loyalists weren't quite sure what to make of Williams, whose onstage presence is dynamic compared to Kottke's laidback presence.

“I thought they would give me a chance, but it wouldn't last long,” Williams says with a laugh. “About halfway through a couple of those shows you could see the polite exodus, which kind of opened a relaxed vibe for the folks who were staying. That kind of made it interesting as well.”

As the tour progressed, particularly during shows in the Pacific Northwest, audiences began to stay for Williams' portion of the show. What they heard was a performer who specializes in “acoustic dance music,” a mix of traditional folk and loops and samples he spontaneously creates.

Williams recently released two new albums, “Raw” and “Sync.” “Raw” was supposed to be released in 2011 as 12 songs on 12 different guitars. But Williams wasn't pleased with the results and only kept three songs from the original sessions, adding seven new tunes.

“Sync” captures Williams at his musical mixologist best. Recorded with the band KWhatro (Gibb Droll, Rodney Holmes, Danton Boller), Williams seamlessly fuses genres and styles on the release.

“I wanted to do a live record, but everyone was so savvy in the studio and had their own techniques and ways of making it good,” he says. “Instead of going live I just went ahead and did my own tracks and sent them to Rodney the drummer, then Gibb and Danton. The technology is there and these guys are so savvy and good that it really, to me, sounds like all four of us are in the same room. Hence the title 'Sync.” Four different people in four different parts of the country, and yet somehow they all come together.”

The “Shut the Folk Up and Listen” tour has similarly gelled, despite Williams' initial trepidation. The origin of the tour name is murky now — “It could have been my wife and I, a very sarcastic response on the treadmill to ‘what are we going to name the tour,' ” Williams says — but it does fit.

“It was kind of looking at this as a project, like the others,” he adds, “except the other projects, the bluegrass, the funk and the rock and the Kwhatro, were all dance oriented in some way. This (the title) makes it very clear that we're going for a night in a theater.”

Rege Behe is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

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