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Keith Grimes’ first instrument was a treasured Mickey Mouse music box guitar complete with side crank. From these humble musical beginnings, he has emerged as one of the top rhythm & blues guitarists on the D.C. scene, these days favoring his Fender Telecaster, no side crank necessary.
Lessons began at age 10. Once he got beyond his pop-folk Kingston Trio days and obligatory crush on the Beatles, Keith fell in love with Soul and the Blues. He came of age listening to the likes of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and Sam & Dave. As a teenager he connected to the aching emotional depth of such Soul classics as Redding’s “Pain in My Heart,” while it was the Blues that delivered inspired solos by B.B, Freddie and Albert King.
Keith is a fortunate musician, always able to support himself through his art, both teaching and performing (though he did once pull an eight month stint on a survey crew amidst the gator-filled Louisiana swamps – but that’s another story). On stage he plays electric guitar, preferring acoustic for at-home jam sessions.
In the 1970’s, Keith played the East Coast hotel circuit with a show band, “The New Censation.” The 80’s saw him making music with blues/soul man Billy Price. Of career highlights, Keith is quick to point to his work on Eva Cassidy’s “Live at Blues Alley” CD. And indeed, playing for audiences provides the truest highs in the business – moments of brilliant improvisation when the music is at its most raw and unrefined and the sheer physical, adrenaline-pumping nature of the show guides everything.
Keith first connected with Mary though a mutual friend, bringing drummer Raice McLeod on board to form the Mary Shaver Band. By Keith’s own description, the band “grooves on the corner of blues, funk and soul, with fluid guitar lines wrapped around Mary’s vocals, which are by turns tough and tender.” It is a musical partnership they, and their fans, are clearly enjoying.
Musician, voracious reader, and duckpin bowling enthusiast; Keith is a renaissance man. Born and raised in Washington, DC, he now resides in suburban Maryland and is father to a 20 year old son.