The Songwriting of Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen is one of the most popular Texas singer songwriters working today. His biggest hits like The Road Goes on Forever, Merry Christmas from the Family, Copenhagen, and That Buckin' Song showcase his twisted sense of humor, clever songwriting and good taste in music. His loyal fans love these songs. Go to a live show and you will see the nightly sing along. It is very entertaining.

Most of his fans look like Aggie frat boys or slightly aged frat boys. They all dress like Scott F*g*n on a typical day at the office: Roper boots, pressed khakis, button down oxford shirt with tee shirt underneath, and a ball cap. These fans come to the show to hear the music, drink beer, and sing along to Robert's biggest hits. Todd Snider's song Beer Run captures this scene very accurately. If you haven't heard it, you should add it to your play list. It is a very funny song from a very talented artist.

The first time I saw Robert play in Hebbronville in the winter of 1999, I was impressed with his live show and his connection with the audience. Afterwards when I listened more closely to his CDs, I began to appreciate the depth of his songwriting talent. If you look beyond his crowd-pleasers, this man has written some songs that put him in a league with any of the best modern songwriters Texas has ever produced. These writers include Townes Van Zandt, Billy Joe Shaver, and Guy Clark, to name a few.

With that thought in mind, I would like to point out a few of his best written songs. Although the frat boys may not know all these words by heart, I think they represent the high spots of Robert's writing talent. 

Paint the Town Beige   From the album Bigger Piece of Sky, this song was the final track on the original sequencing. With a mellow backing that starts with a few chords, the lyrics are the finest in his songbook. This song can always bring a tear to my eye and that puts it in rare company. My guess is that the basis for this song is Robert's move from Austin to the Hill Country. He has written it from the heart and it shows in the words. I love the image of the "bigger piece of sky":

             I gave up the fast lane for a blacktop county road

Just burned out on all that talk about the motherlode

I traded for a songbird and a bigger piece of sky

When I miss the good old days

I can't remember why

Still I get restless and drive into town

I cruise once down Main Street and turn back around

It's crazy but God knows I don't act my age

Like an old desperado who paints the town beige

Crazy Cowboy Dream.    Also from the album Bigger Piece of Sky. This has a little more of a traditional country sound than most REK compositions. I love the steel guitar and the fiddle together. Good lyrics with great descriptive writing. I love the juxtaposition of the silver spurs and gold tequila on the chorus. I also like the image of the saddle and the cowboy dream. Very subtle and well written:

Silver spurs and gold tequila

                 You know they keep me hanging on

 pretty girls and old cantinas

Give me shelter from the storm

The miles that I have traveled 

The places that I have seen

Just won't let me put a saddle 

On this crazy cowboy dream

Runnin' with the Night    From the album Picnic, this song has a great beat and I'm not sure why Robert doesn't play it in the live shows. The words are clever when they repeat with slight variation on each chorus:

                           I've never been no daytime guy

Love the neon light

I'm a saxophone, flash of chrome

Runnin' with the night

I've never been no daytime guy

Love the neon light

I'm a swinging door, a meteor

Runnin' with the night

I'm a secret plan, a highwayman

Runnin' with the night

I'm an amber eye, a coyote's cry

I'm a wall of fire, an angel choir

Let the Music Play     From his very underrated album Farm Fresh Onions, it is a dark tale of disappointment and trickery in the modern world which is described using images from the old west. I really like the Hank Williams references in Luke the Drifter and cheating heart with the steel guitar accents from the great Marty Muse:

              He was nothing but a drifter

And he came to play the part

Disguised as Luke the Drifter

Talk about a cheating heart

Now you're alone and barely breathing

Looking down from up above

Needing something to believe in

One lonely truth and love

And the storm is slowly dying

At the breaking of the day

All the steel guitars are crying

I'm rolling down that lost highway

Road to Nowhere      From Walking Distance, it is part of a song cycle that includes some of his sweetest lyrics. This song is from the third part of the story. All the lyrics in the three songs are very well realized with beautiful words. It is my favorite part of the album:

            I climbed the mountains and I swept the plains

I crossed the border and I broke my chains

I walked the back roads 'til my shoes wore through

I'm still without you.... without you

I thought I'd find

You would leave my mind

But my dreams they just don't know

They can't seem to let you go

I'm so sad I don't know what to do

             Without you

Broken End of Love    From the album What I Really Mean, this song has great words. I'm sure that nobody writing in Nashville today has worked the word metamorphosis into a country song:

                        Line of sight, speed of sound

Feel of flesh the long way down

Flash of light you look around it's over

You're OK, but I'm a mess

It's the way it goes I guess

I think I thought we would last forever

What am I gonna do about this

It ain't no metamorphosis

It's the cold and bitter broken end of love

As you can see from these songs, Robert is a very talented songwriter. You should add the following CDs to your playlist or library, if you don't have them already. All are available on iTunes or from Amazon.

1. Bigger Piece of Sky
2. Picnic
3. Farm Fresh Onions (Whitney Vogt's favorite)
4. What I Really Mean