Keith Greeninger

Keith Greeninger paints intricate portraits of the human condition with powerful melodic images, deep engaging guitar rhythms and warm heart wrenching vocals. He is a multi award winning singer songwriter and this year’s winner of the prestigious Telluride Troubadour National Song Writing Competition. A third generation Northern Californian, Keith grew up at the edge of the vanishing orchards of the Santa Clara Valley. He got his first guitar at the age of 13 and wrote his first song the same night. For Keith, the guitar had provided a creative catalyst; and the words and music began to flow.

He continued to write songs and played in local bands throughout his high school years in Santa Cruz California. At 19 he packed up his truck and headed for the Mountains of Colorado. It was during this time that the thriving cross- pollination of the Boulder music scene introduced him to a whole new genre of acoustic music. Using his skills as a carpenter to help support his musical stock and trade, his solo travels took him from California to Vermont, from Alaska to Central America. All the while he was learning to craft soulful, honest, music.

In the mid 1980’s at the height of the US backed Contra war in Central America Keith traveled down to Nicaragua to help build schools and housing for people who had been displaced by the tragic war. This experience enriched and altered the course of his life and his music in a very deep way “ I can no longer claim innocence form the things that I have seen “ he would later write in the song Juanita. With his days spent building small shelters for the people who lived in the Northern mountains, his nights were spent listening to stories and beautiful songs of the local Compesino’s he was working with. Before leaving the country Keith had the good fortune of building strong musical friendships and alliances with some of the most influential young writers of that countries revolutionary Nuevo Cancion movement. Those experiences and relationships still continue to be a part of his life and music today.

In 1989, Keith settled in San Francisco and eventually joined forces with Kimball Hurd and Roger Feuer, two other talented Bay Area musicians, to form City Folk. City Folk was an acoustic trio known for their rich introspective song writing; tight three part vocal harmonies and expanded musical arrangements. The group quickly rose to the top of the Bay area folk scene and was soon enjoying immense popularity on the National Folk and Americana circuits. They performed at festivals, concert halls, and an uncountable number of watering holes from coast to coast. City Folk recorded and released three albums and, in 1995, won KFOG's Best of the Bay music award. That year would also mark the end of City Folk and their final national tour.

For the last ten years Keith has been touring internationally both as a soloist and with a band. He has released three acclaimed CD’s with his most recent Glorious Peasant set to introduce him to an even larger audience as it highlights his gospel and R&B influences while staying true to the soulful and award winning song writing his fans have come to expect. His husky heart-felt vocals and aggressive acoustic guitar style offer more than the standard bill of fare for most folk singers and more musicality and sensitivity than today’s average rock band. As a writer and performer he has long been a welcome voice in the music world for his themes of justice, reverence for nature and the resiliency of the human spirit.

2005 1st place Telluride Troubadour National Songwriting competition
1997 Kerrville New Folk Songwriters Award
1997 Napa Valley Song Writers Showcase
1995 KFOGS Best of the San Francisco Bay Music Award