Robert Earl Keen RSS Feed

Robert Earl Keen Inducted into Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame | News

DBrosius — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:58:00 GMT

On March 3, BMI’s Jody Williams helped induct longtime friend and beloved BMI songwriter Robert Earl Keen into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame. Keen, who has been performing since 1981, is one of the nation’s finest musical storytellers. Pictured are Keen and Williams. (Photo by Rick Henson)

Ready For Confetti | Album

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Tracks
1. Black Baldy Stallion
2. Ready For Confetti
3. I Gotta Go
4. Lay Down My Brother
5. The Road Goes On And On
6. Show The World
7. Waves On The Ocean
8. Top Down
9. Play A Train Song
10. Who Do Man
11. Paint The Town Beige
12. Soul Of Man

Buy
Amazon.com
iTunes [US]
Amazon MP3
Amazon (LP Vinyl)

Buy Ready for Confetti! | News

parkernus — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:30:00 GMT

Robert Earl Keen's 11th studio album, Ready for Confetti has officially landed in record stores nationwide on August 30th, 2011. Available on CD, CD/LP combo and on Download, the album was produced by the legendary Lloyd Maines and features his current single, "I Gotta Go".
Get it from iTunes here.
Get the CD from Amazon.com here and the LP here.
Get the download of the album from Amazon.MP3 here.
Purchase the single, "I Gotta Go" from iTunes here.

Official Album Press Release...

LOST HIGHWAY TO RELEASE READY FOR CONFETTI

FROM AMERICANA PIONEER ROBERT EARL KEEN ON AUGUST 30^TH

NASHVILLE, TN – On August 30^th, Lost Highway will release Ready For Confetti, the new studio album from renowned singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen. Keen is considered a pioneer in the world of Americana music and a legendary songwriter in the annals of the great Texas tunesmiths.

Ready For Confetti is the16^th release in a celebrated career that spans 30+ years, and shows no signs of slowing down. Keen has toured extensively throughout most of his career, creating a loyal and extensive fan base as a result of his years on the road. On any given night, the audience at a Robert Earl Keen show can be a mix of blue collar, white collar, young, middle aged, academic, honky tonk, hipster, city slicker, collegiate, socially conscious or socially inept. All are welcome and all gain something the experience that keep them coming back.

Robert Earl Keen is a songwriter’s songwriter, who skillfully blends elements of folk, jazz, country, blues, rock, Texas swing and spoken word with his wry wit and penchant for satire. His songs make people laugh, cry, dance, sing and most importantly, think. Through all of this, the common thread that runs through Keen’s impressive body of work is the narrative. Robert Earl Keen is a master storyteller who stands side-by-side with the great storytellers of his era, in any genre. The sun-splashed title track, the swing-filled “Top Down” the reggae-infused “Waves On The Ocean”, the venom-laced “The Road Goes On and On”, and the country ballad “Paint The Town Beige” will confirm that Ready For Confetti is Robert Earl Keen in top form.

Ready For Confetti was produced by Lloyd Maines (Dixie Chicks, Flatlanders), who also produced Keen’s critically acclaimed 2009 album The Rose Hotel (Lost Highway).

"TALK OF THE TOWN" Feature on Robert Earl Keen | News

Fount — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:57:00 GMT

TALK OF THE TOWN

Guitar Whispering

by John Seabrook November 16, 2009

   Robert Earl Keen, the Texas-based songwriter and performer,
plays New York a couple of times a year, usually with four
band members, who occupy all his spare time in the city.
“Either I’m herdin’ them, to make sure they show up at the
gig, or they’re leading me around afterwards,” Keen, who is
fifty-three, said the other day. “Our steel player’s brother
is a New Yorker. He just points, like, ‘We’re goin’ this
way.’ I love it when a New Yorker points like that. All you
got to do is follow.”

   But for his recent gig at Town Hall Keen found himself
without his usual band, and so he had the chance to do
something he’d always wanted to do: visit Mandolin Brothers,
the vintage-instrument store on Staten Island. He wasn’t
actively in the market for a guitar, Keen said, but “I’ve
always said—‘A man can’t have too many guitars or too many
shotguns.’ ” He has about twenty-five of each.

   Arriving at South Ferry late in the morning, Keen—a tall
man, with a handsome smile, a steady gaze, and a gray goatee,
and wearing Levi’s, cowboy boots, and a brown Mesquite
jacket—looked around for some coffee. He’d got to bed at 4
A.M., he said, having come down from Boston in the tour bus.
“They don’t let you park the tour buses overnight in Manhattan
anymore,” he explained, “and it takes time to get all your
stuff out.”

To read the rest of this feature, click here

Robert Earl Keen Gets Back to Storytelling for a New Album | News

Fount — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Robert Earl Keen Gets Back to Storytelling for a New Album
The Rose Hotel Is Singer-Songwriter's First in Four Years
October 23, 2009; Written by Chris Parton

It's been four years since Robert Earl Keen released his last studio album,
What I Really Mean. With dwindling shelf space for CDs and slumping record
sales, the Americana mainstay says he was unsure of how to approach a new
project. But after some soul searching, the witty Texan is back with The
Rose Hotel.

Produced by Lloyd Maines (the Dixie Chicks, Wayne Hancock, Pat Green), its
11 songs find Keen doing what he does best -- crafting love stories and
barroom anthems, taking stylistic chances and mixing in a few jokes. He
recently talked with CMT.com about good vs. true stories, the new record's
famous guests and how he almost became a "comedian songwriter."

CMT: I saw this quote and really liked it. You said, "If you could put a
subtitle on your best songs it would be 'based on a good story,'" as
opposed to a true story, I assume. Could you elaborate on that a little?

Keen: I love fiction, and the reason I love fiction is that it allows the
writer to put anything he wants to in, any way that he wants to. The message
could be disguised as a person, or it could be disguised as a setting. The
whole thing about "based on a true story," well, if you want all the drama
and all the fun and all the surrealism in a really great story, to get right
down to hanging with the exact truth of it, sometimes they're a little bit
boring. So I could give a shit if it's based on a true story, I just want it
to be a good story.

To read the rest of the feature, click here

Great CD Review | News

Fount — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:25:00 GMT

OCTOBER 16, 2009:

Texas Platters
3 ½ Stars out of 4
BY JIM CALIGIURI

Robert Earl Keen
The Rose Hotel (Lost Highway)

After more than 20 years of delighting live audiences, Robert Earl Keen
has become a highly respected Texas singer-songwriter. So naturally he
does a rock album next. The Rose Hotel mirrors the Band – it even contains
"The Man Behind the Drums," a tribute to Levon Helm – winding through
American music and telling distinctively American stories with
self-confidence and wry wit. There's a buoyant take on Townes Van Zandt's
"Flyin' Shoes," and boss folkie Greg Brown shows up for a brisk duet on his
own "Laughing River." Keen and his band are uncommonly locked in, whether
on the island-bound "Something I Do," bluesy "Throwin' Rocks," or
honky-tonk smiler "Wireless in Heaven." Surprisingly, it's the first time
REK's worked with producer Lloyd Maines. With a sound this large and breezy,
they ought to be checking into this Hotel again soon.

Raucous Rock-and-Roll | News

Fount — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:23:00 GMT

Friday, October 16, 2009

ROBERT EARL KEEN
"The Rose Hotel"
Kindred spirits: Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, Jimmy Buffett, Roger Miller

On his new album, "The Rose Hotel," Robert Earl Keen sings two duets, one
with Billy Bob Thornton and the other with Greg Brown, and they highlight
the two very different tendencies in Keen's music. Thornton, a great actor
but a terrible musician, encourages Keen to rely on such easy tropes as
drunk jokes and celebrations of slackerdom on "10,000 Chinese Walk Into a
Bar." On "Laughing River," by contrast, Brown pulls Keen back to his origins
in the understated, literary qualities of Texas songwriters such as Townes
Van Zandt and Guy Clark.

To read the review in its entirety, click here

Patience pays off for Robert Earl Keen | News

Fount — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:31:00 GMT

Patience pays off for Robert Earl Keen
By ANDREW DANSBY
Oct. 11, 2009

It's been four years since Robert Earl Keen released a new album, a result
of his busy touring schedule.

When Robert Earl Keen talks about deer hunting it sounds like a song could
be taking shape. A bow hunter for more than a decade, Keen quit last year.

“I realized I'd spent about 1,000 hours in a tree. All those hours wondering
if you shoot a little Bambi deer or one with a horn broken off. It occurred
to me you never see too many deer in this old bow-hunting business.”

Trade the bow for a rifle, though, and it sounds he's up for happy hunting
with the family, “a communal and social sport,” he says.

To read the rest of the feature, click here

"A visit to The Rose Hotel is time well spent." | News

Fount — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:09:00 GMT

09/30/2009
Review: 'The Rose Hotel,' Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen
The Rose Hotel
(Lost Highway)

Robert Earl Keen Jr. hit the Texas songwriter scene in 1984 with the LP No
Kinda Dancer, story-driven songs, funny and serious, and a gregarious,
just-one-of-the-guys delivery.

As the years rolled on, ball-cap-sporting, frat-house partyers with The Road
Goes On Forever sing-along proclivities squeezed the original REK fans out of
the room. It's time to come back.

To read the rest of the review, click here

AOL-THE BOOT Feature on Robert Earl Keen | News

Fount — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:02:00 GMT

Robert Earl Keen Checks In to a Familiar 'Hotel'

King of Americana, King of Texas Country, King of the Frat Boys ... Call him
what you will, but the unassuming Robert Earl Keen prefers to coin his kind
of music after a hotel chain. "Best Western -- that's my own category for
myself," the touring troubadour tells The Boot with a laugh.

The latest project from Keen is appropriately titled 'The Rose Hotel,' an
album that showcases this "Best Western" songwriter's notorious knack for
putting tongue-in-cheek tales to music. With famed producer Lloyd Maines at
the helm, the album introduces us to several new voices -- not just the
characters in Keen's songs, but also voices accompanying his own, as Billy
Bob Thornton guests on a humorous barroom saga, and Greg Brown lends his
vocals to a version of one of his own songs. In short, it's the kind of
music Keen's sea of loyal fans have come to expect from him -- crafty, raw,
toe-tapping tunes that each paint a vibrant picture.

The release of Keen's new album, his first in four years, comes on the heels
of the 20th anniversary of the song that arguably made him a music legend
(not to mention the author of engravings on numerous tombstones), 'The Road
Goes on Forever.' We talked to the master storyteller about the inspiration
behind his music -- new and old.

You've called yourself a "world class hanger-outer" -- but that proves
lucrative for you, because you've also admitted that a lot of your songs come
from just sitting around.

Work is overrated. There's something about just having a Coke and breathing
the air. I've become more of a fan of that. I'm not borrowing from Willie
Nelson, I promise -- I happened to read the Tao on my own, and it says, "When
nothing is done, nothing is left undone." So standing in one spot and letting
things be is as good as it gets sometimes.

To read the rest of the feature, click here

CD Review | News

Fount — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:58:00 GMT

CD review: Robert Earl Keen’s “The Rose Hotel”

By Michael Corcoran | Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Robert Earl Keen
“The Rose Hotel” (Lost Highway)
A

Robert Earl Keen is best known for his story songs and witty lyrical lines,
but his first studio album in four years is most noteworthy for its groove.
Danny Barnes’ banjo tangles with Rich Brotherton’s mandolin throughout, but
this album is closer to Island-scented rock n’ roll than mountain music.
Even a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Flyin’ Shoes” brings the bounce. You’re
gonna want to request a late check-out from this “Hotel.”

This is Lloyd Maines’ first time producing Keen and his band in the studio
and you wonder what took this long. There’s such an at home feel here, such
a freedom of instrumental approach, that you can be sure the sessions were
a blast. “Something I Do,” for instance covers Keenish territory lyrically,
but it’s freshened with a reggae bassline and a little techno percussion. A
duet with Greg Brown on “Laughing River” will make you hum a third part
harmony and you don’t know why.

To read the rest of this review, click here

Music podcast: Robert Earl Keen, Storyteller | News

Fount — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:55:00 GMT

PORTLAND & OREGON MUSIC
Latest news on local bands, music festivals and events
Music podcast: Robert Earl Keen, Storyteller
By Douglas Perry, The Oregonian
September 30, 2009

Country music can keep Kenny Chesney, but Robert Earl Keen is for all of us. Oregonian pop music critic Ryan White celebrates the Texas musician, whose new CD, "The Rose Hotel," is available now.

To hear the song, click here

Check into 'The Rose Hotel’ | News

Fount — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:50:00 GMT

Thursday, Oct. 01, 2009

Lone Star Sounds
Preston Jones

Check into 'The Rose Hotel’

Austin troubadour Robert Earl Keen makes his practiced brand of shuffling
country-rock look effortless on The Rose Hotel. His first studio effort
since 2005’s What I Really Mean, this Lloyd Maines-produced collection
features plenty of Keen’s friends, including Billy Bob Thornton, Greg
Brown and Bukka Allen. Whether he’s lamenting a crumbling Midwestern city
(Goodbye Cleveland) or indulging in a bit of left-field weirdness (10,000
Chinese Walk Into a Bar), Keen’s on-point throughout Hotel, making it an
establishment fans will eagerly frequent.

To read the article, click here

Robert Earl Keen satisfies | News

Fount — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:33:00 GMT

Robert Earl Keen satisfies

"The Rose Hotel," Robert Earl Keen (Lost Highway)

There are few more personable voices in music than that of Robert Earl
Keen. A contemporary of Lyle Lovett (the two wrote the great "The
Front Porch Song" while they were both students at Texas A&M) and
championed by Nanci Griffith (she recorded his "Sing One for Sister"
early on), Keen got his real shot at fame in the mid-1990s when morning
radio began playing his lovably irreverent "Merry Christmas from the
Family."

For a little while it seemed as if the morning radio push might have
just pushed him over the edge. Keen has always been made of deeper stuff
than the yuck-happy radio performances (good as they were) would've
indicated. Keen is, in fact, one of the those rare entertainers who can
charm the fan operating on the lowest level of consciousness (think about
the drunkest frat boy you've ever sat beside) and the deeper thinkers in
the crowd - no small feat.

To read the rest of the review, click here

Fall Music Preview | News

Fount — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:53:00 GMT

Fall music: Jerry Shriver's picks
by Jerry Shriver

Robert Earl Keen, The Rose Hotel (Sept. 29)

Top-notch tunesmiths are as plentiful as tumbleweed in Texas, and
Americana veteran Keen is one of the best. For his first studio
album in four years, the thinking-man's writer brings aboard Billy
Bob Thornton and Greg Brown as guests and turns production over to
Lloyd Maines. The title track already is available for download.

Now Available: Robert Earl Keen's The Rose Hotel | News

parkernus — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:43:00 GMT

Robert Earl Keen's long-awaited new album, The Rose Hotel is now in-stores! Grab your copy now from the plethora of options below:

CD, LP from Amazon.com: Click Here
-watch exclusive footage of Mr. Keen discuss the making of the album!

Digital Download from AmazonMP3: Click Here
-get the exclusive non-album track, "Deep Blue Summer Day" with your purchase of The Rose Hotel MP3 album!

Digital Download from iTunes: Click Here
-get the exclusive non-album track, "Little '67 172" with your purchase of The Rose Hotel MP3 album!

Buy ther CD, LP or Download directly from Robert: Click Here

Buy from your Local Record Store: Click Here
-Purchase the album from any of the stores listed in the link above and receive the limited Lost Highway Sampler, T for Texas, T from Tennessee featuring music from Lyle Lovett, Ryan Bingham, Black Joe Lewis & Hayes Carll!

The Rose Hotel is Keen’s first studio album in four years and the15^th release for one of the Americana movement’s true pioneers. Keen comes from a long tradition of Texas songwriters, of which he has become one of the Lone Star State’s most respected and adored.

Keen is a master storyteller and wordsmith who can maneuver effortlessly from a poignant, heart-felt love song to a roof-raising barroom anthem, and in true Robert Earl Keen fashion, all things in between. His repertoire is overflowing with Southern-styled vignettes inspired by everyday life and The Rose Hotel is a prime example.

The Rose Hotel is a collection of 11 songs, including covers of Townes Van Zandt’s “Flying Shoes” and Greg Brown’s “Laughing River” (a duet with Brown). Keen’s unique sense of irony, satire and wit is felt throughout The Rose Hotel particularly on the tracks “10,000 Chinese Walk Into A Bar” (featuring vocals by Billy Bob Thornton) and the cynical “Wireless In Heaven”. At the core of Keen’s music have always been the stories, a unifying theme throughout his 20+ years of recording. The Rose Hotel continues that tradition right from the beginning with the opening title track and “The Man Behind The Drums”, an homage to another Americana legend, former Band drummer Levon Helm.

Manning the boards for The Rose Hotel is Lloyd Maines, the acclaimed producer, pedal steel/steel guitar/dobro player who has worked with everyone from The Dixie Chicks to The Flatlanders.

The Rose Hotel | Album

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Produced by Lloyd Maines

Tracks
1. Rose Hotel
2. Flyin' Shoes
3. Throwin' Rocks
4. 10,000 Chinese Walk Into A Bar
5. Something I Do
6. The Man Behind The Drums
7. Goodbye Cleveland
8. Laughing River
9. On And On
10. Village Inn
11. Wireless In Heaven

Buy
Amazon.com
Amazon MP3
iTunes [US]
Hastings

The Rose Hotel - Live at Lollapalooza 2009! | Video

WesCalhoun — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:36:00 GMT

Hear Robert Earl Keen's 'Something That I Do,' only on EW.com's Music Mix! | News

Fount — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:18:00 GMT

Music Mix Blog

Hear Robert Earl Keen's 'Something That I Do,' only on EW.com's Music Mix!
by Whitney Pastorek

Categories: An EW Exclusive!, Downloads and Streams, Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen is a Texas folk hero, a singer-songwriter who neatly
bridges the gap between Lone Star scene forefathers like Willie Nelson and
Waylon Jennings, and a younger generation of country artists — Pat Green,
Jack Ingram — who’ve mostly picked up and left for Nashville’s more
lucrative pastures.

To hear "Something That I Do" and to read the rest of the article, click here

Gravitational Forces | Album

Tue, 11 Sep 2001 00:00:00 GMT

Tracks
1. My Home Ain't In The Hall Of Fame
2. Hello New Orleans
3. Wild Wind
4. Not A Drop Of Rain
5. I Still Miss Someone
6. Fallin' Out
7. High Plains Jamboree
8. Walkin' Cane
9. Goin' Nowhere Blues
10. Snowin' On Raton
11. Gravitational Forces
12. The Road Goes On Forever

Buy
Indie Retail Locator
iTunes [US]
Napster [US]
Retail Locater [US]
MSN Music Store [US]
Real/Rhapsody [US]