Larry Keel (born November 25, 1968 in Manassas, Virginia) is an American bluegrass musician. He co-founded Magraw Gap in 1990, and records and performs with his wife, bassist Jenny Keel, in The Larry Keel Experience, in Larry Keel & Natural Bridge and in Keller Williams & The Keels.

Born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, both his father and brother (themselves skilled and versatile acoustic musicians) influenced the younger Keel to thoroughly master the foundations of acoustic guitar (tune, timing, tone) before venturing into his own original territory. From a very young age, Keel made it his goal to honor and preserve the discipline of the Traditional Bluegrass music he knows and loves, while expressing his own ideas through acoustic music.

At 18 years old Keel became a contracted musician to play Bluegrass at the Tokyo Disneyland theme park in Japan for 7 months (6 shows a day, 6 days a week). Back in the States Larry joined up with like-minded Bluegrass pickers young and old to travel the festival and fiddler’s convention circuit of the entire east coast. Keel’s long time friend and banjo player Mark Vann (Leftover Salmon) encouraged him to travel to Colorado to attend the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and compete in its prestigious guitar competition. That year he won first place, and by 1995 he and long-time Bluegrass peer Will Lee (son of Ricky Lee from Ralph Stanley’s band) led their string band Magraw Gap to victory in the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band competition. Moreover, Larry again competed in and won first place in the guitar competition at Telluride that year. In fact, the band and all its incredibly talented members won awards in the competitions in 1995.

In September 1996, Keel split with Magraw Gap and formed The Larry Keel Experience, made up of himself on guitar, his wife on bass, Jenny Keel, and other musicians he'd worked with over the years.

In January 2005 Keel created a new band, Larry Keel & Natural Bridge — consisting of himself on guitar, his wife Jenny Keel on bass, Mark Schimick on mandolin, and Will Lee on banjo – who have toured and recorded extensively together.

In 2006, Keel (and his wife) began the collaboration Keller Williams & The Keels. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.