# Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen (born January 11, 1956) is an American country singer and songwriter. Debuting with 1984's No Kinda Dancer, the Houston, Texas, native has recorded 20 full-length albums for independent and major record labels. His songs have been covered by artists including George Strait, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, The Highwaymen, and Nanci Griffith. Keen has toured in the U.S. and abroad.

## Early life and education

Keen was born and grew up in Houston, Texas. As a teenager, he was an avid reader who excelled in writing and literature classes. Keen was a fan of the British rock band Cream, and was influenced by country music from artists Willie Nelson, Norman Blake, Jesse Winchester, Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Withers, Gary Stewart, and Jimmie Rodgers.
After graduation from Sharpstown High School, Keen started playing guitar himself shortly thereafter, learning to play classic country covers out of a songbook the summer before starting college at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in English in 1978, and began writing songs and playing bluegrass and folk music with friends, including his childhood friend (and future longtime fiddle player in his band) Bryan Duckworth. During his college years, Keen lived with future musician Lyle Lovett.

## Career

In 1978, Keen graduated from Texas A&M and moved to Austin, Texas. He performed in nightclubs and live-music venues in Austin, including Cactus Cafe, Emma Joe's, Alamo Lounge, Liberty Lunch, Anderson Fair in Houston, and Gruene Hall near New Braunfels. In 1983, Keen won the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas. That same year, he began making his self-produced first album, No Kinda Dancer.
Following the release of this album in 1985, Keen moved to Nashville with his future wife, Kathleen Gray. He signed a publishing deal, a new independent label deal, and signed with a national booking agent. While in Nashville, Keen and Gray worked at Hatch Show Print shop.
Keen returned to Texas in 1987 and released his second album, The Live Album, in 1988, followed by his third album, West Textures in 1989. West Textures featured the first recording of Keen's signature song, "The Road Goes on Forever". Fellow Texan Joe Ely recorded the song on his 1993 album Love and Danger, along with another Keen song, "Whenever Kindness Fails". Keen's own version of "Whenever Kindness Fails" appeared on his fourth album, 1993's A Bigger Piece of Sky. In 1994, he released Gringo Honeymoon followed by No. 2 Live Dinner in 1996.
Keen has continued to write and record music, while also maintaining a prodigious tour schedule. His 1997 album, Picnic, marked the beginning of his on-again, off-again relationship with major labels (both that album and 1998's Walking Distance were issued on Arista Records, and 2001's Gravitational Forces, 2009's The Rose Hotel, and 2011's Ready for Confetti were released on Lost Highway Records). Keen's other albums include 2003's Farm Fresh Onions (Audium/Koch Records) and 2005's What I Really Mean and 2006's Live at the Ryman (both on E1 Music). The producers with whom he has worked on those albums have included John Keane, Gurf Morlix, Gary Velletri, and Lloyd Maines. In 2022, his concert tour was listed as one of the most successful in the world.
His band includes:
* Bill Whitbeck — bass, upright bass, vocals
* Tom Van Schaik — drums, vocals
* Brian Beken — fiddle, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
In January 2022, Keen announced that he would stop touring and performing publicly after September 2022. His final tour was named the "I'm Coming Home Farewell Tour" and the final leg was played September 1, 3, and 4 at Floore's Country Store in Helotes, Texas. Approximately 3,000 people attended the last show on September 4 for nearly two-and-a-half hours. Despite the claims of playing his final shows and farewell tour, Keen proceeded to do several shows in 2023 and listed a 2024 tour on his website with a dozen stops. Instagram posts on Keen's account containing photos from his "I'm Coming Home Farewell Tour" were later edited to remove reference to the "farewell" part of the tour.

## Discography
### Studio albums

| | Title | Label | Album details | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| Year | Title | Label | Album details | US Country | US | US Heat | US Indie | US Folk | US Grass |
| 1984 | No Kinda Dancer | Sugar Hill Records | CD, Cassette, LP record | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1989 | West Textures | Sugar Hill Records | CD, Cassette | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1993 | A Bigger Piece of Sky | Sugar Hill Records | CD, Cassette | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1994 | Gringo Honeymoon | Sugar Hill Records | CD, Cassette | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1997 | Picnic | Arista Records | CD, Cassette | — | 160 | 4 | — | — | — |
| 1998 | Walking Distance | Arista Records | CD, Cassette | — | 149 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 2001 | Gravitational Forces | Lost Highway Records | CD | 10 | 111 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 2003 | Farm Fresh Onions | Audium/Koch Records | CD | 24 | 172 | 9 | 11 | — | — |
| 2005 | What I Really Mean | E1 Music | CD, Streaming, Download | 21 | 122 | 1 | 5 | — | — |
| 2009 | The Rose Hotel | Lost Highway Records | CD, Streaming, Download | 17 | 83 | — | — | 10 | — |
| 2011 | Ready for Confetti | Lost Highway Records | CD, Streaming, Download | 21 | 66 | — | — | 3 | — |
| 2015 | Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions | Dualtone Records | CD, Streaming, Download | 10 | 109 | — | 6 | 5 | 1 |

### Live albums

| Title | Album details | Peak positions |
| Title | Album details | US Country |
| The Live Album | Release date: November 15, 1988 Label: Sugar Hill Records Formats: CD, cassette | — |
| No. 2 Live Dinner | Release date: March 19, 1996 Label: Sugar Hill Records Formats: CD, cassette | — |
| The Party Never Ends | Release date: October 14, 2003 Label: Sugar Hill Records Formats: CD | 68 |
| Live from Austin TX | Release date: November 2, 2004 Label: New West Records Formats: CD, music download | — |
| Live at the Ryman | Release date: July 11, 2006 Label: E1 Music Formats: CD, music download | — |
| Marfa After Dark | Release date: 2008 Label: self-released Formats: Music download | — |
| Live Dinner Reunion | Release date: November 18, 2016 Label: Dualtone Music Formats: CD, Music download | 29 |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart |||

### Compilation albums

| Title | Album details |
| Best | Release date: November 7, 2006 Label: E1 Music Formats: CD, music download |

### Singles

| Year | Single | Album |
| 1984 | "No Kinda Dancer" | No Kinda Dancer |
| 1984 | "The Armadillo Jackal" | No Kinda Dancer |
| 1997 | "Over the Waterfall" | Picnic |
| 1997 | "Levelland" | Picnic |
| 1997 | "Undone" | Picnic |
| 1998 | "Down That Dusty Trail" | Walking Distance |
| 1999 | "That Buckin' Song" | Walking Distance |
| 2001 | "Hello New Orleans" | Gravitational Forces |
| 2001 | "Not A Drop of Rain" | Gravitational Forces |
| 2002 | "High Plains Jamboree" | Gravitational Forces |
| 2003 | "Furnace" | Farm Fresh Onions |
| 2003 | "All I Have Is Today" | Farm Fresh Onions |
| 2005 | "What I Really Mean" | What I Really Mean |
| 2005 | "The Great Hank" | What I Really Mean |
| 2009 | "The Rose Hotel" | The Rose Hotel |
| 2010 | "The Man Behind the Drums" | The Rose Hotel |
| 2011 | "I Gotta Go" | Ready for Confetti |

### Music videos

| Year | Video | Director |
| 1997 | "Over the Waterfall" | Steven T. Miller/R. Brad Murano |
| 2004 | "Merry Christmas from the Family" | David McClister |
| 2005 | "What I Really Mean" | |
| 2015 | "Hot Corn, Cold Corn" | Curtis Millard |
| 2015 | "Footprints in the Snow" | Matt Bizer |

### Notable covers

| Year | Performer | Single |
| 1987 | Nanci Griffith | "Sing one for Sister" |
| 2009 | Reckless Kelly | "Think It Over One Time" |
| 2009 | Max Stalling, Dale Clark | "No Kinda Dancer" |
| 2009 | Wade Bowen | "Lynville Train" |
| 2009 | Brandon Jenkins | "What I Really Mean" |
| 2009 | Randy Rogers | "I'll Be Here for You" |
| 2009 | Roger Creager | "I Would Change My Life" |
| 2001 | Cory Morrow | "I'll Go Downtown" |
| 2009 | Jason Boland | "Mariano" |
| 2009 | Cody Canada | "Shades of Gray" |
| 1995 | The Highwaymen | "The Road Goes on Forever" |
| 2009 | Chris Knight | "Undone" |
| 2009 | Todd Snider | "Corpus Christi Bay" |
| 2001 | Lyle Lovett | "This Old Porch" |
| 1998 | Lyle Lovett | "Rollin' By" |
| 1998 | George Strait | "Maria" |
| 1992 | Joe Ely | "Whenever Kindness Fails" "The Road Goes on Forever" |
| 2006 | Cross Canadian Ragweed | "Lonely Feelin'" |
| 2000 | Dixie Chicks | "Merry Christmas from the Family" |
| 2015 | Shawn Colvin | "Not a Drop of Rain" |

## Honors

| Year | Honor |
| 1983 | Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Competition |
| 2015 | BMI Troubadour Award |
| 2016 | Inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame |
| 2018 | Texas A&M University Distinguished Alumni Award |
| 2019 | Inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame |