Musical word out on Keen
G. Brown * 01/20/99
Denver Post
(Copyright 1999)
* Such well-known singer-songwriters as Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle
and Lyle Lovett were spawned from the same "front porch" scene in
Texas. And word is getting around about Robert Earl Keen, arguably
the scene's best twisted tunesmith.
To launch his career in 1984, Keen pawned his shotgun, borrowed
money and took out a loan on his car. Since then, his songs -
insightful, honest, literate tales of life, populated by
dysfunctional characters - have been covered by the likes of Joe Ely,
the Highwaymen, Gillian Welch, Jill Sobule, Dar Williams and Lovett
and Griffith, among others.
"If I have one real talent, it would be writing rhyming poetry - I
could do that from the time I was 5 years old. That was my gift. I
didn't have any control over it, like somebody who can run a 9.5
hundred," Keen said recently. He'll perform at the Grizzly Rose on
Thursday night.
"I started out real late in music - I didn't learn how to play the
guitar until I was in college. That was more of a desire, an
interest. Then I just put the two things together. But even now, I
still feel like the writing is beyond me - there are things that fall
out of my head that come from somewhere else." Deadline situation
After touring extensively behind 1997's "Picnic," his debut for a
major label, Keen found himself with only a few weeks of writing time
before his date to begin recording the followup.
"It was down to no choice - I was either going to fall flat on my
face or pull it out," he explained. "The only way was to write some
solid songs that I enjoyed, without any audience or record company in
mind. I went to this little trailer behind my house and stayed by
myself for 15 days - didn't see or talk to anybody. 'I have to write
any kind of song, I don't care what it is' - there was plenty of
that.
"My favorite songs are where you just sit around and pick on your
guitar, medium-tempo stuff, and the words just fall together. That's
what I was looking for. In the end, I found it, but I was scared
through the entire process."
"Walking Distance," Keen's eighth album, cements his reputation
for clever, off-center writing. Highlights include "Down That Dusty
Trail," "Feelin' Good Again" and the holiday song "Happy Holidays
Y'all" (a sequel to his classic "Merry Christmas From the Family").
Lovett, Keen's onetime college roommate, duets on the fun "That
Buckin' Song."
"Americana radio stations steered clear of it - they would play it
one time and get so many calls that they'd have to shut it down.
I've decided that's just a hearing check song - if you can hear this
right, you're OK," Keen said with a laugh. Life in the trenches
"For a while there, Lyle and I were both doing a lot of the same
things and nobody knew who we were. Then he got this tremendous
success and attention, and I was in the trenches just trying to make
a living. We didn't see each other very much, and when we did it was
hard to relate - his life was so much different than mine.
"Over the years it's come back together - some of his stuff has
slowed down and some of mine has sped up. He's certainly comfortable
with his lifestyle now - he truly spends almost his entire life on
the road. I try to pretend that I have a home life."
Keen enjoys a dedicated following across the country, and his
touring band is considered to be some of the best Texas players
around. He's become huge in his home state - many frat boys have
taken the 42-year-old Houston native's music to heart.
"I keep that in my head, but when I try to write with somebody in
mind too closely - like when I went to Nashville to write
'commercial' country songs - it just turns out contrived and stodgy.
So I try to lose it."
