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Chanteur
Country né le 11 Janvier 1956 ŕ Houston (Texas).
US Country
singer born January 11, 1956 in Houston (Texas). Among the large contingent of
talented songwriters who emerged in Texas in the 1980s and '90s, Robert Earl
Keen struck an unusual balance between sensitive story-portraits ("Corpus
Christi Bay") and raucous barroom fun ("That Buckin' Song"). These two song
types in Keen's output were unified by a mordant sense of humor that strongly
influenced the early practitioners of what would become known as alternative
country music. Keen, the son of an oil executive father and an attorney mother,
was a native of Houston. His parents enjoyed both folk and country music, and
his own style would land, like that of his close contemporary
Nanci Griffith, between those genres. Keen wrote poetry while he was in high
school, but it wasn't until he went to journalism school at musically fertile
Texas A&M that he learned to play the guitar. He and
Lyle Lovett became friends and co-wrote a song, "This Old Porch," which both
later recorded.
Keen made a splash in Austin with his debut album, No Kinda Dancer, self-financed
in 1984 to the tune of $4,500. He moved to Nashville during the heady
experimentalism of the '80s that saw
Lovett and
k.d. Lang hit the country Top Ten, but he soon returned to Austin. Texas
landscapes and residents provided Keen with creative inspiration, as his second
album, West Textures, made clear; that album yielded one of Keen's signature
numbers, an ambitious crime-spree song called "The Road Goes on Forever." Now
recording for Sugar Hill, Keen recorded a live album shortly after West Textures
but waited several years to release a studio follow-up, 1993's A Bigger Piece of
Sky. After that album (which contained "Corpus Christi Bay") came Gringo
Honeymoon (1994), which merged Keen's story-songs with the emerging sounds of
alt-country: guitars were laid down by the influential Austin musician Gurf
Morlix, who later produced albums for both Keen and
Lucinda Williams, and a young
Gillian Welch provided harmony Vocals.
Once again, after taking his career to a new stage, Keen recorded a live album
(No. 2 Live Dinner, 1996) and took time to accumulate new material. The 1997
album Picnic, his first for the Arista Texas label, again moved in the direction
of alternative country, featuring Keen in a duet with the Cowboy Junkies' Margo
Timmins, while 1998's Walking Distance featured sparer textures. Whatever
production style surrounded his songs, Keen's musical personality seemed
consistent, and his live shows, widely known thanks to a touring schedule that
often approached 200 dates a year in the '90s, grew organically in depth and
control. In the early 2000s, Keen signed with the Lost Highway label and
released the album Gravitational Forces (2001). He also devoted time to his
influential annual concert series and talent festival, Texas Uprising, which
took place at several venues around Texas and the Far West.
The year 2003 saw the release of his eighth studio album, the amiable Farm Fresh
Onions, as well as The Party Never Ends: Songs You Know from the Times You Can't
Remember, a compilation of Keen's Sugar Hill days. His next release was 2005's
What I Really Mean for the Koch label. It was followed in 2006 by Live at the
Ryman. Rose Hotel, his first recording with famed producer Lloyd Maines,
appeared in 2009 on Lost Highway. Keen decided to experiment for his next album,
and began writing on the road instead of in his small, solitary cabin in the
hinterlands of Texas. Once again recruiting Maines as producer, he cut 11 new
songs -- among them nine originals including a re-recording of "Paint the Town
Beige" from 1993's Bigger Piece of Sky -- and a couple of covers. It was
released as Ready for Confetti on Lost Highway in the summer of 2011. Three
years later, Keen and Maines made their way back to the studio with a band of
first-rate acoustic pickers (including Danny Barnes of the Bad Livers) and some
high-profile duet partners (Lyle
Lovett and Natalie Maines) to record a collection of classic bluegrass
covers; the album, Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions, was released by
Dualtone in February 2015. That same year, Keen returned to John T. Floores
Country Store in Helotes, Texas to play a concert celebrating the 20th
Anniversary of the No. 2 Live Dinner album. The show was recorded for posterity,
and was released in 2016 as Live Dinner Reunion. The album included a number of
Keen's best-known tunes, as well as guest appearances from
Joe Ely,
Lyle Lovett, Cody Canada, and
Bruce Robison.
http://www.robertearlkeen.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Earl_Keen
Talents : Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin, Songwriter
Style musical : Folk, Contemporary Country, Americana, pop Rock
Years in activity :
| 1910 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 2000 | 10 | 20 |
DISCOGRAPHY
Singles
| 11/1995 | CD Sugar Hill 2 (US) | Merry Christmas from the Family |
| 1997 | CD Arista ASCD-3074 (US) (promo) |
Levelland [radio mix] / Levelland [acoustic version] |
| 1997 | CD Arista ASCD-3074 (US) (promo) | Robert Earl KEEN & Margo Timmins - Over The Waterfall [radio mix] / Over The Waterfall [album version] |
| 1998 | CD Arista ASCD-3120 (US) (promo) | Undone |
| 1998 | CD Arista ASCD-3146 (US) (promo) |
Happy Holidays Y’All |
| 1998 | CD Arista ASCD-3160 (US) (promo) |
Down That Dusty Trail |
| 1999 | CD Arista ASCD-3174 (US) (promo) |
That Buckin’ Song |
Albums
| 1984 | LP 12" Workshop SR-1007 (US) |
 |
No Kinda Dancer - Robert Earl KEEN Jr.- No Kinda Dancer / Front Porch Song / Between Hello And Goodbye / Swervin' In My Lane / Christabel / Willie / Young Lovers Waltz / Death Of Tail Fitzsimmons / Rolling By / Armadillo Jackal |
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| 1984 | CD Philo PH-1108 (US) |
 |
No Kinda Dancer - Robert Earl KEEN Jr.- No Kinda Dancer / Front Porch Song / Between Hello And Goodbye / Swervin' In My Lane / Christabel / Willie / Young Lovers Waltz / Death Of Tail Fitzsimmons / Rolling By / Armadillo Jackal | ||
| 01/1989 | CD Sugar Hill SH-CD-1024 (US) |
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The Live Album - I Wanna Know / Front Porch Song / Goin' Down In Style / If I Were King / Copenhagen / I Would Change My Life / Stewball / I'll Go On Downtown / Bluegrass Widow / Who'll Be Looking Out For Me |
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| 02/1990 | CD Sugar Hill SH-CD-1028 (US) |
 |
West Textures - Sing One For Sister / Road Goes / Maria / Sonora's Death Row / Mariano / Don't Turn Out The Light / Leavin' Tennessee / Jennifer Johnson And Me / Five Pound Bass / It's The Little Things / Love's A Word I Never Throw Around |
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| 02/1993 | CD Sugar Hill SH-CD-1037 (US) |
 |
A Bigger Piece Of Sky - So I Can Take My Rest / Whenever Kindness Fall / Amarilo Highway / Night Ride For Love / Jesse With The Long Hair / Blow You Away / Here In Arkansas / Daddy Had A Buick / Corpus Christi Bay / Crazy Cowboy Dream / Paint The Town Beidge |
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| 08/1994 | CD Sugar Hill SH-CD-1044 (US) |
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Gringo Honeymoon - Think It Over One Time / Tom Ames' Prayer / Gringo Honeymoon / Raven And The Coyote / Lonely Feeling / Merry Christmas For The Family / Barbeque / Lynville Train / I'm Coming Home / Dreadful Selfish Crime |
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| 1995 | CD Sugar Hill SH-CD-1049 (US) |
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No Kinda Dancer - No Kinda Dancer / The Front Porch Song / Between Hello And Goodbye / Swervin' In My Lane / Christabel / Willie / Young Lovers Waltz / Death Of Fitzsimmons / Rolling By / The Armadillo Jackal / Song For Kathy | ||
| 03/1996 | CD Sugar Hill SH-CD-1051 (US) |
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No. 2 Live Dinner - Intro / I'm Going To Town / Gringo Honeymoon / Merry Christmas From The Family / Five Pound Bass / Band Intro / Rolling By / Sonora's Death Row / When The Bluebonnets Bloom / Think It Over One Time / Amarillo Highway / Road Intro / Road Goes On Forever / Dreadful Selfish Crime / Mariono Intro / Mariano / I'm Comin' Home |
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| 04/1997 | CD Arista HOUSTON 07822-18834-2 (US) |
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Picnic - Undone / Over The Waterfall / Levelland / I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight / Oh Rosie / Runnin' With The Night / The Coming Home Of The Son And Brother / Shades Of Gray / Fourth Of July / Then Came Lo Mein (And Mango Timmins) |
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| 10/1998 | CD Arista 07822-18876-2 (US) |
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Walking Distance - Down That Dusty Trail / Travelin' Light / Feelin' Good Again / That Buckin' Song / I'll Be Here For You / Billy Gray / Theme : Road To No Return - Carolina / New Life In Old Mexico / Still Without You - Conclusions : Road To No Return / Happy Holiday's Y’all |
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| 09/2001 | CD Lost Highway 088-170198-2 (US) |
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Gravitational Forces - My Home Ain't In The Hall Of Fame / Hello New Orleans / Wild Wind / Not A Drop Of Rain / I Still Miss Someone / Fallin' Out / High Plains Jamboree / Walkin' Cane / Goin' Nowhere Blues / Snowin' On Raton / Gravitational Forces / Road Goes On Forever |
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| 07/2003 | CD Sugar Hill SH-CD-1080 (US) |
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The Party Never Ends - Songs You Know from the Times You Can't Remember - Songs You Know From The Times You Can't Remember / The Five Pound Bass / The Front Porch Song / I'm Comin' Home / Dreadful Selfish Crime / Think It Over One Time / It's The Little Things / Copenhagen / Barbeque / Gringo Honeymoon / Mariano / The Bluegrass Widow / The Road Goes On Forever / Merry Christmas From The Family |
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| 10/2003 | CD Audium / Koch AUD-CD-8191 (US) |
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Farm Fresh Onions - Furnace Fan / All I Have Is Today / Out There In The Middle / Train Trek / Farm Fresh Onions / Floppy Shoes / Gone On / So Sorry Blues / Beats The Devil / These Years / Famous Words / Let The Music Play / Farm Fresh Extras |
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| 11/2004 | CD BMG 82876-48961-2 (US) |
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THE Best Of Robert Earl Keen - Fourth Of July / Levelland / Over The Waterfall / Then Came Lo Mein / Undone / Travelin' Light / That Buckin' Song / Down That Dusty Trail / Feelin' Good Again / New Life In Old Mexico |
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| 11/2004 | CD New West 6066 (US) |
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Live From Austin, TX - Dreadful Selfish Crime / Blow You Away / Shades Of Gray / I'm Goin' To Town / That Buckin' Song / I Still Miss Someone / The Coming Home Of The Son And Brother / The Road Goes On Forever / Merry Christmas From The Family / Snowin' On Raton / Not A Drop Of Rain / Wild Wind / Goin' Nowhere Blues / Down That Dusty Trail / Feelin' Good Again / Walkin' Cane / Travelin' Light |
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| 05/2005 | CD Koch KOC-CD-9810-2 (US) |
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What I Really Mean - For Love / Mr. Wolf And Mamabear / What I Really Mean / The Great Hank / The Wild Ones / Long Chain / Broken End Of Love / The Dark Side Of The World / The Traveling Storm / A Border Tragedy / Ride |
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| 07/2006 | CD Koch KOC-CD-9890-2 (US) |
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Live At The Ryman - Feelin' Good Again / Gringo Honeymoon / What I Really Mean / Shades Of Gray / Amarillo Highway / Merry Christmas From The Family / Corpus Christi Bay / Furnace Fan / Broken End Of Love / Long Chain / Train Trek / I'm Comin' Home / The Road Goes On Forever / Farm Fresh Onions |
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| 06/2007 | CD Koch KOC-CD-4114 (US) |
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Best - No Kinda Dance / Willie / Armadillo Jackal / Paint The Town Beige / Whenever Kindness Fails / Corpus Christi Bay / Merry Christmas From The Family / The Road / The Road Goes On Forever / Furnace Fan / All I Have Is Today / Let The Music Play / For Love / Mr. Wolf And Mama Bear / Ride / Feeling Good Again / Gringo Honeymoon / I'm Comin' Home |
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| 2008 | CD ? (US) |
 |
Marfa After Dark - Intro (Ms. Cloe Keen) / Jesse With His Long Hair Hanging Down / Willie / Marty And Bill Intro / Ride / Border Intro (talking) / A Border Tragedy / The Annux (talking) / Long Chain / Rich Intro (talking) / Lonely Feeling / Tom Intro (talking) / Mariano / A Joke (Talking That Is Funny) / The Great Hank / Panhandle Intro (talking) / Panhandle Rag |
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| 09/2009 | CD Lost Highway B0013332-02 (US) |
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THE Rose Hotel - The Rose Hotel / Flyin' Shoes / Throwin' Rocks / 10,000 Chinese Walk Into A Bar / Something I Do / The Man Behind the Drums / Goodbye Cleveland / Laughing River / On And On / Village Inn / Wireless In Heaven |
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| 08/2011 | CD Lost Highway B0015657-02 (US) |
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Ready For Confetti - Black Baldy Stallion / Ready For Confetti / I Gotta Go / Lay Down My Brother / Road Goes On And On / Show The World / Waves On The Ocean / Top Down / Play A Train Song / Who Do Man / Paint The Town Beige / Soul Of Man |
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| 02/2015 | CD Dualtone 80302-01685-27 (US) |
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Happy Prisoner - THE Bluegrass Sessions - Hot Corn, Cold Corn / Vincent Black Lightning / Footprints In The Snow / Years For One Dark Day (with Peter Rowan) / East Virginia Blues / Poor Ellen Smith / Long Black Veil / This World Is Not My Home / T For Texas (with Lyle Lovett) / Peter Rowan intro / Walls Of Time / White Dove / Old Home Place / Twisted Laurel / Wayfaring Stranger (with Natalie Maines) |
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| 11/2016 | 2 CD Dualtone DUA 1787 (US) |
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Live Dinner
Reunion :
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© Rocky Productions 19/11/2016
