The man that never stops moving. First known as the frontman of Soul Track Mind, the band he started in 2008, Donovan Keith embodies the ideals of both stunning vocal ability and infectiously frenetic showmanship. The mystery has yet to be solved: How can a mild-mannered ginger sing AND dance like that?
A native Midwesterner, Donovan chose Austin, Texas, to cultivate his music dreams and moved across the country with no job, friends, or family to receive him and no experience in leading the band he was about to form. Soul Track Mind grew into an outlet for Donovan’s love of soul and R&B music and gave him the perfect vehicle for his first years of development as a songwriter and performer.
From 2008 to 2016, STM was eagerly embraced by the Austin music scene and expanded like a blast wave throughout Texas and the South, out to both coasts, and all the way back to the northerly states of his youth. Donovan’s one-of-a-kind, dance-infused stage show became beloved by fans and acknowledged by reviewers across the country, earning kudos from the likes of Performer Magazine which declared, “Aside from showcasing an impressive vocal range and blues-soaked sound, Keith can engage an audience with his unbridled enthusiasm and dance moves.” Successes for Donovan with STM included winning the Music Prize (lamusicprize.com) in 2014; performing by special invitation at the 2015 Texas Governor’s Inaugural Ball; sharing bills with Enrique Iglesias, David Crosby, Erykah Badu, and other top talents; and four years headlining the Viva Big Bend Festival in Alpine, Texas, to which Donovan will return in 2017.
A shift was underway with STM’s third album, Unbreakable (2014), on which Donovan began to assert his creative presence with more complex lyrics and themes closer to his heart and experiences. The album served as Donovan’s catharsis from a dark night of the soul and also as the impetus to launch the next era of his career.
Now this red-haired, soul-singing dynamo has a brand-new project all his own. With The Funky Feat, combining the voice and moves that fans have grown to crave with fresh new songs and piano skills you never knew he had, Donovan Keith is inviting you along for his next (r)evolution.
