Billy Keane

A self-described wanderer, Berkshires-based indie-folk singer-songwriter Billy Keane has cultivated more than his share of lived-in experience. Australia-born and Connecticut-raised, he began singing in church, with an early draw towards any instrument he could get his hands on. “I’m a person who feels most authentic relative to other people when I’m communicating through music,” he says. Over the last two years as a solo artist, Keane has paved his way as one of the most exciting new acts in the indie-folk genre through extensive touring with his backing band The Waking Dream, bringing an open-format and psychedelic footprint on Keane’s catalog, supporting acts such as Molly Tuttle & The Golden Highway, The Gin Blossoms and Town Mountain, receiving regular play across Sirius XM’s The Spectrum and critical acclaim in American Songwriter, No Depression, Under The Radar and Relix Magazine.

Eking his way out of high school, Keane traveled, spending time in Brooklyn, Africa, Seattle, and working as a commercial deep sea diver in Louisiana. Years spent globetrotting honed his keen observations, a trait deeply infused in his music.

Keane is constantly sifting through the details, searching for a better understanding—of himself; of meaning, broadly; of the world at large. His sophomore album, Oh, These Days, is a collection he describes as the most authentic capture of the sound he hears resonating in his own heart: sonically, this translates to an amalgam of guitar, piano, synth, organ and harmonica weaving through his smooth, country-tinged vocals as he wanders through open-ended transition, reflection and contemplation. His superpower as a songwriter and storyteller is identifying the threads of connection between us all—whether the experience of simply observing the beauty of fresh flowers in a vase, finding a deeper understanding of unconditional love, or saying goodbye with admiration.

“I’ve always tried to walk my path authentically, but that path has led me to all kinds of interesting, foreign, strange places,” he says. “Along the way, I’ve certainly made mistakes, wrong turns, sometimes staying too long, sometimes leaving too soon. But somehow, throughout all of that, a thing lands on my shoulder over and over again, a thing with so much power and depth and breadth that everything else seems to not exactly fade away but to take its place in the proper order of things.”

“I think that thing is the present moment, mixed with a dose of gratitude and a pinch of wonder,” he continues. “That thing can take many forms, and sometimes that form is a bunch of fresh flowers, sitting right in front of me on the table, beautiful and humble and entropic and fleeting.”

Now settled in Massachusetts, Keane gained notoriety touring with The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow prior to his solo project. The five-person collective of songwriters garnered acclaim for their live shows melding Americana, rock and folk music and touring along both coasts, earning slots at acclaimed festivals and receiving critical praise from Rolling Stone and Paste among others. Over the years, Keane has performed at venues and festivals around the US, in many formats, from Nateva in Maine, FreshGrass at Mass MoCA to SXSW in Austin. He has shared stages with such notable names as James Taylor, Yo Yo Ma, The Gin Blossoms, Blues Traveler and many more.

“Even within the heavy moments, the melancholic edge to some of my tunes, there is a foundation of joyful grace,” he says