HUNTINGTON -- Friday, Nov. 21, the area's music festival season gets stretched a little longer.

Keep the lantern in the garage though, the good newgrass vibes are heading indoors.

Virtuoso Virginia flat-picker Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, a band that kept the midnight fires burning under many a summer moon from Scottown, Ohio's Appalachian Uprising to Terra Alta's Sunshine Daydreams, brings its bag of new and old mountain music and fast-and-fresh-baked picking to the stage of The V Club, 741 6th Ave., Huntington.

An Indiana-based band, The Goldmine Pickers, open.

Doors open at 8 p.m. for the 10 p.m. show. Cover is $10.

A superb mountain-grown, world-traveled songwriter, and an often collaborator with such artists as Keller Williams and Tony Rice, Keel has enjoyed a nice, natural slowdown post festival season with his wife Jenny, the band's bassist.

"It's been good to have a little time to slow down and see old friends and have a little bit of a home life," Keel said by phone from his Virginia home.

Typical, Keel, who has put out a dozen CDs and has been featured on nine others with a huge list of musical friends from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to Acoustic Syndicate, hasn't just been raking leaves, chopping firewood and watching woolly worms for signs of the coming winter.

The Keels and their partners in Natural Bridge (Mark Schimick on mandolin and vocals and Jason Flournoy on banjo and vocals), have been putting the finishing touches on "Backwoods," a well-named new collection of originals, and songs by friends such as Jim Lauderdale and Steve McMurry from Acoustic Syndicate.

"It really is original, which is cool," said Keel, who has had some of his mountain-soaked story songs cut by such artists as Del McCoury. "I have sort of taken on a different life than music today and the times today. It's not really bluegrass music, it's original music and we have some Marley in there and the styles and songs of a lot of friends of ours."

Keel said they've recorded "Backwoods" over the past couple years at several places including a studio in Pulaski, Va., as well as at Wally Cleaver's in Fredericksburg, Va., where good friend Keller Williams records.

Williams also performs with The Keels on a side project showcased on their CD, "Grass," that spent three months on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts.

So it was a natural for him to help produce "Backwoods."

"It is quite a crazy CD with a lot of good energy," Keel said. "He definitely lent his creative ear to everything to help influence certain situations to be the best they could be. Definitely he is an awesome guy and we admire him tremendously."

Keel said "Backwoods" is a real portrait shot of Natural Bridge since songs came from all the members in the band, which has been together as a unit since super-fluid banjoist Jason Flournoy, formerly of Shanti Groove, joined the band a couple years ago.

Keel said Flournoy's picking and energy has tightened the band's circle and caused everyone to rise up.

"It's good to not worry if people know the music," Keel said. "You know they do, it's right there with them, and you can take it to a different place and a little higher place. It's an altering magic moment and we've been loving it, and we're trying to take each note to where it can be."

Keel said they hope to have a national release of "Backwoods" by February and hopefully will have some copies in before Christmas.

In the meantime, Keel is excited about heading back to the Mountain State, home to many a good recent memory. He played Mountain Stage last winter and played last year on Jerry Garcia's Birthday Bash in Terra Alta with Tony Rice.

And Keel has worn a welcome over-the-mountains path to a clubs in Morgantown, Canaan Valley, Charleston and at Huntington's V Club, which has already hosted The Keels a couple times in the past year or so.

"We've been rehearsing some and coming up with new ideas and writing new music and feeling really good about it," Keel said. "It's a crazy world, and we feel really blessed. We're very blessed people and love making music with the really good people out that way who love the music."

Courtesy of Larry Keel

Flat-picking guitarist Larry Keel & Natural Bridge will perform at 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at the V Club, 741 6th Ave. Cost is $10.

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