Impossible to pigeonhole, John Paul Keith getting his due

John Paul Keith marks the release of a new album, "The Man That Time Forgot," with a show Saturday at the Hi-Tone Café. (Photo by Jim Herrington)

It's taken him nearly two decades, but John Paul Keith has arrived.

During the course of a labyrinthine career, one that's found him turn down major label deals, have albums shelved, seen him ripped off by managers and record companies, and even quit playing briefly, Keith's managed to keep his music and integrity intact.

"Although I always tell people: I've tried to sell out, it's just that nobody was buying," says Keith, laughing.

On Saturday, the 35-year-old roots singer/songwriter/guitarist marks the release of a new album, The Man That Time Forgot, with a show at the Hi-Tone Café.

Although it's his second release since moving to Memphis and forming the band the One Four Fives, the album is the first credited under his own name. It's partly a concession to the revolving nature of the One Four Fives lineup, but also an acknowledgement that Keith has finally come into his own.

An East Tennessee native, Keith got his start as a teenager, amid Knoxville's fertile mid-'90s music scene, co-founding the alt-country combo The Viceroys (who later changed their name to the V-Roys). Nashville maverick Steve Earle signed the group to his E-Squared label, but Keith bolted the band before the deal was finalized. "I'm the kind of person, if everybody's doing something, I'm gonna wanna do the opposite. Just 'cause I'm a dumbass that way," says Keith, chuckling.

Keith then moved to Nashville in 1996 where he teamed up with a couple of Knoxville ex-pats, and formed a mod/garage-styled group called the Nevers. Within months, the band had signed a deal with mogul Seymour Stein's newly revived major label imprint, Sire Records. The Nevers recorded a big budget album that was shelved and the band soon broke up.

Keith then formed Stateside, a rock band that also backed budding star Ryan Adams. Soon, though, Adams had the band to himself, without Keith.

After stops in New York and Alabama, and further business trouble ("I got ripped off by a manager in Nashville and a record label in Europe") Keith arrived in Memphis in 2005 with a mind toward quitting music forever. But Beale Street soon beckoned and Keith began gigging again.

He began his career anew by forming the One Four Fives. Since then Keith and company have become one of the city's most buzzed about bands, releasing a brilliant debut, 2008's Spills & Thrills, and signing up with Bruce Watson's Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum label.

Armed with a batch of new songs, Keith along with his core One Four Fives lineup — bassist Mark E. Stuart, drummer John Argroves and keyboardist Al Gamble — recorded The Man at Watson's Water Valley, Miss., studio during downtime from touring in 2010.

Much of the material on The Man is autobiographical, focusing on Keith's nocturnal existence on the stage and on the road, as heard on tracks like "The Last Last Call," "Never Could Say No," "Anyone Can Do It" and "Afraid to Look."

"One of the things that happened since ( Spills & Thrills) is that I lost my job. I was working at an office of a tire warehouse," says Keith. "So for the last two years I've been making a living playing. Not just playing, but working the door at the Hi-Tone. That's been my surroundings. That's the world I've been in. It wasn't a conscious decision, but after writing two or three songs with that as the theme, I just kept going."

Although the record is dominated by Keith's white hot country Telecaster playing, he expands his palette, delving into several other genres.

"The older I get the more schizophrenic I get in what I listen to and the less I care," says Keith of the influences that color The Man. "One day I'd be listening to Mose Allison and trying to come up with something like that. The next day, it'd be the Everly Brothers. Another day it'd be Sonny Burgess. That's basically how the whole thing got written over time."

"The country-slash-rockabilly thing I do is my default mode, but that's not the only thing I like," says Keith of numbers like "Somebody Ought to Write a Song About You," a sweet soul number that could've been a '60s hit for Tyrone Davis or Brenton Wood, and the jazzy mood piece "I Work At Night."

With his stylistic approach expanding, it only makes the question of where Keith fits in the larger musical landscape more confusing.

He admits that he doesn't quite get the latest roots music trend, the "old weird Americana" of groups like Mumford & Sons. "Personally, I prefer Sanford and Son," jokes Keith. "But really, all those bands have beards; I don't, and I couldn't grow one even if I wanted to."

Although Keith got a good response opening up dates for local heroes Lucero, it's clear that his music and style aren't suited for heavily tattooed rock-oriented crowds either. "See, I only have one tattoo," says Keith, raising the sleeve of his T-shirt to reveal a tiny American flag on his arm. "And I passed out when I got it. Isn't that sad?"

If Keith has found a home anywhere it's been under the local Goner Records/garage-rock banner. Over the past three years, he's toured with Goner acts Jack Oblivian and Harlan T. Bobo, barnstorming across Europe multiple times. "Both those guys ... are probably my two favorite songwriters working under the age of 60," says Keith. "The fact that I got to play with them has been cool as hell."

"Ultimately, I can't worry about where I fit in," says Keith. "The one lesson I've learned doing this for so long is that musical trends are temporary. Always. Even the good stuff is temporary. It's gonna change.

"If you wanna be in it for the long haul, you just have to keep doing what you feel like doing."

John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives

Saturday at the Hi-Tone Café , 1913 Poplar Ave. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $7 at the door. For more information, go to hitonememphis.com or call 278-8663.

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