A performer who has amassed 19 records and thousands of shows in his three-decade career is coming to the Stiefel Theatre for the Performing Arts.
Jane Gates, Stiefel executive director, announced Friday that Robert Earl Keen is scheduled to perform in Stiefel Theatre at 8 p.m. February 28. Tickets start at $32 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Nov. 22. For ticket information, go to the Stiefel Theatre website.
Performer information provided by the Stiefel Theatre
Some people take up a life of playing music with the goal of someday reaching a destination of fame and fortune; but from the get-go, Keen just wanted to write and sing his own songs, and to keep writing and singing them for as long as possible.
"I always thought that I wanted to play music, and I always knew that you had to get some recognition in order to continue to play music," Keen said. "But I never thought of it in terms of getting to be a big star. I thought of it in terms of having a really, really good career and writing some good songs, and getting onstage and having a really good time."
Now three-decades on from the release of his debut album -- with nineteen records to his name, thousands of shows under his belt and still no end in sight to the road ahead -- Keen remains as committed to and inspired by his muse as ever. And as for accruing recognition, well, he's done alright on that front, too; from his humble beginnings on the Texas folk scene, he's blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that's earned him living-legend (not to mention pioneer) status in the Americana music world. And though the Houston native has never worn his Texas heart on his sleeve, he's long been regarded as one of the Lone Star State's finest (not to mention top-drawing) true singer-songwriters.
He was still a relative unknown in 1989 when his third studio album, "West Textures," was released -- especially on the triple bill he shared at the time touring with legends Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark -- but once fellow Texas icon Joe Ely recorded both "The Road Goes on Forever" and "Whenever Kindness Fails" on his 1993 album, "Love and Danger," the secret was out on Keen's credentials as a songwriter's songwriter. By the end of the decade, Keen was a veritable household name in Texas, headlining a millennial New Year's Eve celebration in Austin that drew an estimated 200,000 people. A dozen years later, he was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame along with the late, great Van Zandt and his longtime friend from Texas A & M, Lyle Lovett.
The middle child of a geologist father and an attorney mother, Keen was weaned on classic rock (in particular, the psychedelic blues trio Cream) and his older brother's Willie Nelson records -- but it was his younger sister's downtown Houston celebrity status as a "world-champion foosball player" that exposed him to the area's acoustic folk scene. By the time he started working on his English degree at Texas A&M, he was teaching himself guitar and setting his poetic musings to song. That in turn led to a college fling with a bluegrass ensemble (featuring his childhood friend Bryan Duckworth, who would continue to play fiddle with Keen well into the '90s) and front-porch picking parties with fellow Aggie Lovett at Keen's rental house -- salad days captured in spirit on the Keen/Lovett co-write, "The Front Porch Song," which both artists would eventually record on their respective debut albums.
While Lovett's self-titled debut was released on major-label Curb Records, Keen took the road less travelled, self-financing and producing 1984's "No Kinda Dancer" and leasing it to the independent label Rounder Records, which issued it on its Philo imprint.
"It was difficult, because I didn't know what I was doing ... I literally opened up the phonebook and looked for studios," Keen recalled. "I basically put it all together through brute force and ignorance, but I was shocked with how well it worked out and very happy with it. We had a release party at Butch Hancock's Dixie Bar and Bustop, and Lyle and Nanci Griffith and a lot of those people who were a part of the Austin folkie scene came out."
Keen himself had already started to make quite a name for himself on that scene, thanks to four years of constant regional gigging and winning the Kerrville Folk Festival's prestigious New Folk songwriting competition in 1983. After his debut's release, he began touring more and more outside of the state lines, eventually moving to Nashville in 1986. Keen's stint in Music City, U.S.A., lasted just under two years, but he returned to Texas armed with a publishing deal, a new label (another indie, Sugar Hill, and a national booking agent. He closed the decade with 1988's "The Live Album" and the following year's "West Textures," the album that marked the debut of "The Road Goes on Forever" and, consequently, kicked his career into high gear.
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Keen's iconic album, "A Bigger Piece of Sky," Keen and Dualtone will be releasing it on vinyl for the first time. Scheduled for release on Saturday, "A Bigger Piece of Sky" is available now for advance order at DualtoneStore.com.
"'A Bigger Piece of Sky' was the most thrilling, hair-pulling, penny-pinching, cliff-hanging, scariest record I've ever made," Keen said. "I love every song on BPS."
A breakthrough album for Keen, "A Bigger Piece of Sky" and its songs, such as "Amarillo Highway," "Whenever Kindness Fails," and "Corpus Christi Bay" are mainstays of his live set. The album was recorded in Nashville, produced by Garry Velletri, and mixed by Velletri and Jeff Coppage. The project features an amazing lineup consisting of Garry Tallent (E Street Band) on upright and electric bass, Marty Stuart on mandolin, Dave Durocher on percussion, Jay Spell on accordion, Jonathan Yudkin on violin, and Maura O'Connell on vocals. It also features guest musicians George Marinelli (Bonnie Raitt) on harmony vocal and electric guitar, Tommy Spurlock on guitar, Michael Snow on tenor banjo, Bryan Duckworth on violin, Dave Heath on upright bass, and Jennifer Prince on harmony vocals.
In the midst of the vinyl re-issue, Keen is as busy as ever touring. Though Keen has played sold-out theater dates with icons such as Willie Nelson, the lion's share of his concert schedule still finds him playing full-tilt with his seasoned road and studio band: Brotherton on guitar, Bill Whitbeck on bass, Tom Van Schaik on drums, Marty Muse on steel guitar, Kym Warner on mandolin and electric guitar and Brian Beken on fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars.