The Jim Keltner Interview

This program has been dedicated to the unsung. Those who lie below the surface waiting for the phone to ring and the calendar to fill up.

It's these unsung folks that made careers for the pop stars that most people are familiar with.

It's a quarter past 10 and my guest is disassembling his kit for the 4th time that day. He had a commercial in the morning, a game show in the afternoon, a bluegrass record date and then playing jazz for free in Larry Gales coffee house with the Afro Blues Quintet.....

My guest today is one of the most versatile drummers in the world. He adapted to the changing musical landscape using his first love of jazz to swing into the melting pot of the psychedelic era. He's been knocking on Heavens Door with Bob Dylan, female soul groups with Wilton Felder or burning gypsy music with Gabor Szabo. He was a Constant Pulse with John Klemmer and lives in the Material World with the late George Harrison while Ringo looks at the North Star peppering the high hat in the vaunted studio scene of LA. Soundtracks, Gospel, Funk, Folk, World, the Traveling Wilbury's, Booker T Jones and John Lennon.

His impact on music is unquantifiable. How many albums did he swing the band on like Mickey Roker or Elvin Jones. He is the same master drumming discussion as Bernard Purdie, Earl Palmer, Bill Lavorgna and Hal Blaine.

I believe that my guests heart is full of love. He tries to fit into each musical setting as an accompanist just like Emil Richards and Victor Feldman, Henry Franklin and Hal Gordon. He's not interested in showing off his monster chops because often times it's the space within the music that helps it transcend to a spiritual language of the cosmos, dripping with the poetry of Levon Helm, Leon Russell and Elvis Presley all the while helping average people wash away the dust of everyday life.

Jim Keltner welcome to the JFS.