“I built a very humble studio business,” he says, “while working in country dance bands in the Central Valley and taking every gig I could manage.”

Now, with 40 years in the rear-view mirror, Little’s career resume is nothing less than brilliant. He has recorded as a side musician on nearly 100 albums—with Frank Wakefield, Claire Lynch, Laurie Lewis, Kathy Kallick, Nell Robinson, and others—and was featured on the Chieftains Grammy-winning Another Country (RCA, 1992) and Dolly Parton’s Grammy- and IBMA-winning The Grass Is Blue (Sugar Hill, 1999). He has performed and toured with the Vern Williams Band, Grant Street String Band, High Country, Rose Maddox, the Country Gentlemen, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Lonesome Standard Time, the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, and a duo with Jim Nunally. In 2000, he recorded his first solo album, Distant Land to Roam (Copper Creek Records), and he leads his own group, the LittleBand. His compositions have been recorded by Claire Lynch, Tim O’Brien, the Country Gentlemen, Longview, Crystal Gayle, Vern Williams, the Whites, and others.

Now a music industry veteran of more than four decades—a dedicated instructor at many of the top national and international acoustic music workshops and camps, a professional member of the IBMA, and an honorary lifetime member of the California Bluegrass Association—Keith takes special pleasure in leading his own group, the LittleBand, with Michael Witcher (dobro and vocals), Josh Tharp (banjo and vocals), Sharon Gilchrist (mandolin and vocals), Blaine Sprouse (fiddle), and Rick Dugan (string bass). “I’d have to say that ‘setting the tone of a performance’ is a favorite part of leading the band,” he says, “not musical tone necessarily, but rather tone as it relates to the flavor of the time we spend together. Even if it’s only a 50-minute set, I like for the weight and relative intelligence of each song to come through like a good story. The end result should be entertaining, uplifting, challenging, and honest. This most easily happens by mixing the special talents of each player, providing a platform for them to flavor the dish, and then encouraging the audience to join with us. It’s more on the model of a chef (or a designated driver), and can’t be fully explained, I believe.”