Courtesy C. Taylor Crothers

Keller Williams performs Friday at the Fox and opens for Yonder Mountain String Band Saturday at Red Rocks.

Keller Williams is a one-man band, but he’s going to be playing two of the hottest venues in Colorado this weekend. Friday, the inventive guitarist will play a solo set at the Fox Theatre, and then he’ll head out to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, in Morrison, to open for Yonder Mountain String Band on Saturday.

“It’s been a long time since I played the Fox,” said Williams. “The Fox is one of the coolest venues in the world. I’m coming to Boulder after playing all these festivals this summer. Rothbury was an amazing site for a festival, and High Sierra was one of those classic, crunchy California hippie fests. I had the best time there.”

However, Williams really likes to be part of a band, and he’s hoping to play a lot more shows with the group featured on his new record. The enterprising guitarist and his group just released a new CD dubbed “Live.” Williams didn’t enlist just any pack of musicians – he went for the best, and the group features Keith Moseley (String Cheese Incident), Gibb Droll and Jeff Sipe (The Aquarium Rescue Unit).

Williams has been busy putting out a slew of new records this year. The master of the one-word CD title, the musician fused key elements of folk, electronic, funk and jazz into the albums “Dream” and “12” in 2007. Now, Williams is getting ready to wow fans with his live band project titled “Live.”

“The ‘Live’ project was all about the timing,” said Williams. “I’ve always wanted to have a band and put together and tour, but I couldn’t afford it. There was nothing that needed fixing with my solo career, so I stuck with it. The timing was just right to do something different, so I got together with Keith, Gibb and Jeff. It was very tight from the beginning and we built it from there.”

“Live” features 17 tracks that span William’s career. The songs were captured by the musician’s “dream band” on last winter’s tour, and the project really allowed the A-list players to improvise on William’s eclectic tunes.

“These are great, great players,” said Williams. “I’ve been playing solo for awhile, but this band really lets me live out my childhood fantasy of being in a band. This is a dream come true. We do everything from full-on disco, to jazz, to house-techno vibe, bluegrass, reggae and funk.”

JJ Grey and Mofro

Boulder always wants to hear mo’ of JJ Grey and Mofro. Thursday, the Florida swamp-funk band will be playing a FREE show on the Hill in Boulder as part of the Triple A Music Summit.

Mofro’s full-blown blues and rock show is fused with roots and country soul, and Grey’s resonant vocals bring this band’s sound home. The group has been building up a huge buzz around the country and the Boulder show is being touted as “the” local concert of the week to check out. Did we mention free?

Grey and Mofro have been getting lots of airplay on Triple A radio stations and this summer the band’s been asked to play key music fests in the country. The group even packed a tent full of people at the recent Mile High Music Festival in Denver. Mofro is now on the road promoting its newest CD “Orange Blossoms.”

“We’ve been touring non-stop,” said bandleader JJ Grey. “I already had the songs for the next record done. This is our fourth record and I really wanted the arrangements to work on this CD, so I added more strings, horns and bass lines. This is a really groove-inspired record – I wanted ‘Orange Blossoms’ to groove harder.”

Grey and his band plan to hit the road to promote the new CD. The group plans to introduce the new tunes to radio programmers and locals at Thursday’s show on the Hill.

“I can’t wait for us to get out to Boulder,” said Grey. “We just did a quick three-week run – we want the people to dig on the new songs.”

Rev Theory says 'Hell Yeah'

“Hell Yeah” is the hit single by Rev Theory and the tune’s been rocking the airwaves and national sports shows. The irreverent tune is now propelling the hard-edged rockers into the national spotlight.

“We’re based out of New York and we’re a feel-good rock band,” said lead singer Rich Luzzi. “We play high-energy rock ‘n’ roll, we have lots of melodic tunes and we have great lyrics. We’re touring now with our new record ‘Light It Up.’ I think we’ve grown and matured as musicians on this record – I think we did a pretty good job on it.”

Rev Theory is proud that “Hell Yeah” has been one of the most added songs on rock radio, but Luzzi said the group never planned the unorthodox song title to take off like it did.

“Hell Yeah’ kind of just happened,” admitted Luzzi. “It was the last song we wrote for the record, but it’s been used all over ESPN, baseball games and the Fox network. It’s been a big deal and it’s all over the place! It’s a high-energy song and it gets people really pumped up!”Saturday catch Rev Theory and Puddle of Mudd at the Ogden in Denver.