151 S. Santa Fe
The Road Goes On Forever…until it doesn’t. Legendary Texas songwriter and entertainer, Robert Earl Keen, wraps up 41 years on the road with his 2022 Final Tour, I’m Comin’ Home: 41 Years On The Road.
Keen made the announcement in January 2022, with a personal video posted on his social media accounts. “I’ve been blessed with a lifetime of brilliant, talented, colorful, electrical, magical folks throughout my life,” Keen said. “This chorus of joy, this parade of passion, this bull rush of creativity, this colony of kindness and generosity are foremost in my thoughts today. It’s with a mysterious concoction of joy and sadness that I want to tell you that as of September 4, 2022, I will no longer tour or perform publicly.”
With a catalog of 21 albums, his band of stellar musicians, and many thousands of shows under his belt, POLLSTAR ranked Keen in its Top 20 Global Concert Tours in July 2021. Keen has blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that’s earned him living-legend status in the Americana music world.
The Americana genre was officially recognized by the music industry in 1998 and Keen was the first artist to be featured on The Gavin Report’s Americana Music Chart and on the debut cover of its magazine.
Keen was weaned on classic rock and Willie Nelson records. By the time he entered Texas A&M University, Robert taught himself how to the play the guitar and turned his poetic musings into songs. These early days are captured in spirit on the Keen/Lyle Lovett co-write, “The Front Porch Song,” which both artists recorded on their respective debut albums, and in Happy Prisoner, REK’s bluegrass recording.
From the beginning, Keen took the road less travelled. He produced and financed his first album, No Kinda Dancer. Robert began to make a name for himself when he won the Kerrville Folk Festival’s prestigious New Folk Songwriting Competition.
After his debut release, Robert moved to Nashville. He worked at the legendary Hatch Show Print as a pressman. When he returned to Texas, Robert had a publishing deal, a new label, and a national booking agent. He released The Live Album and West Textures, the seminal album which debuted the rowdy rockin’ fan favorite “The Road Goes on Forever.”
Robert continued to steer clear of the waters of the country mainstream. His authentic alternative to three-and-a-half minute repetitious radio tunes formed the perfect storm of Keen’s literate songcraft, razor wit and killer band. It stirred up a grassroots sensation not seen since the ’70s heyday of maverick outlaw country.
Two more albums, A Bigger Piece of Sky and Gringo Honeymoon, brimmed with instant classics like “Corpus Christi Bay,” “Gringo Honeymoon,” “Dreadful Selfish Crime,” and “Merry Christmas From the Family”.
Keen will continue to write music and create, host his popular podcast, support young artists, and follow his artistic muse wherever it takes him.
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