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Over the years, Keller Williams' live show earned a reputation as something to see, a one-man jam band with looped tracks and trippy, winding tunes and crackling energy.

But there's another side to his music, the spare, stripped-down songwriting material, that gets over-looked. So Williams and one of his musical heroes, Leo Kottke, have spent the last several months revisiting that territory in a series of acoustic sets that they bring to The State Room in Salt Lake City on Thursday night.

"This is definitely a really refreshing kind of branching out, but also kind of returning to the start, to the beginning, to the days of playing in the corner of a restaurant, except this time people are actually paying for tickets to be there," said Williams.

It was as a kid in Virginia, exploring any new and different variations of solo guitar music he could find, that Williams got turned on to noted guitarist Michael Hedges, who died 20 years ago, and then shortly after Leo Kottke.

Kottke is noted for his picking style of guitar, but more so for his artsy sprawling, psychedelic jazz-infused explorations and virtuoso skills. Even after two dozen shows, Williams said it's still a thrill to see Kottke play, and he is "completely dialed in."

"When you're on a co-bill, it's really easy to fall into your own thing and once your turn is up, you go and do your thing," Williams said. "But I've really made it important to listen to every single note and every story that Leo plays when he's onstage."

Kottke was enough of an inspiration for Williams that he wrote as song, "Thanks, Leo," back in 2004 that he finally put on his most recent album, "Raw," released earlier this year, which again pares back the musical loops and goes with a more straight-ahead songwriting feel.

Another track off the album, "Short Ballad of Camp Zoe," for example, comes across as a Todd Snider-esque riff on a law enforcement sting at a Missouri music festival called "The Schwag" that Williams said literally wrote itself.

"The DEA and the IRS, FBI and the ATF they all carpooled one day to the show," goes the song — which actually happened. The bass player for a Grateful Dead cover band ended up behind bars in the aftermath.

It's that kind of storytelling that will be featured in the all-acoustic sets at The State Room, in a show titled "Shut The Folk Up and Listen." Williams said he and Kottke each take a turn on stage, then play several songs together.

"I've been really lucky to be part of so many different projects, many different humans, many different styles of music and this is something different," Williams said. "A lot of the material I've covered with Leo gets overlooked and abandoned … and if I do play it, it doesn't really fly, so I get to bring out different material I haven't been able to touch on in a while."

Williams said he will usually sprinkle in a cover or two, whatever earworm he has stuck in his mind at the time — recently it was U2's "Even Better Than The Real Thing," and "Closer," a big hit by the Chainsmokers, that he was playing just to try to get it out of his head.

Tickets for Thursday night's show are still available for $65, with a VIP early entry on sale for an additional $25. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the music starts at 8 p.m. —

Keller Williams & Leo Kottke — "Shut the Folk Up and Listen"

When • Thursday, March 30, 8 p.m., doors at 7 p.m.

Where • The State Room, 638 S. State St., Salt Lake City

Tickets • $65, with a VIP early entry on sale for an additional $25; Ticketfly