I am not an “influencer.” My likes and dislikes are somewhat eccentric and don’t necessarily follow popular tastes. But I have had many memorable encounters or experiences with artists, books, poems, even coffee shops, that I’ve simply added to the accumulation of bits and pieces in my satchel of memories. Some I feel strongly enough to endorse. Like the Macondo coffee shop in Stonington, CT. The picture behind this text is not the only memorable thing at Macondo. The coffee is world class.
Macondo, Stonington, CT
My introduction to Robert Earl Keen was his 1996 live album No. 2 Live Dinner A spirited performance of “Gringo Honeymoon,” a rowdy ballad tinged with melancholy performed before an appreciative audience hooked me. There’s always something special about hearing singer-songwriters performing their own work. The emotion is personal, the phrasing confident. There are many covers of REK’s songs you may be familiar with. No. 2 Live Dinner is a good argument for going to the source.
“I’m Going To Town,” is easy and comfy. I’m from Oklahoma and grew up in the 50’s when Western Swing had a solid following. In fact, I lived close enough to Cain’s Ballroom that I could ride my bicycle there and hang around the doors listening to the likes of Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, watch the couples in their date night cowboy finery come and go, and feel the whoosh of air conditioning that escaped the club every time the door opened. This track brought back those memories.
“Gringo Honeymoon,” a classic, melancholy ballad uses well-crafted lyrics to guide us through a story of newlyweds of modest means from Texas crossing the river to live the high life in Mexico. There’s a subtle air of despair and futility in their celebration but the storytelling doesn’t dwell on that.
We were standing on a mountain top
where the cactus flowers grow
I was wishing that the world would stop
when you said we better go
We took a row boat across the Rio Grande
captain Pablo was our guide
For two dollars in a weathered hand
he rowed us to the other side
We were dreaming like
the end was not in sight
and we dreamed all afternoon
We asked the world to wait
so we can celebrate
a gringo honeymoon
Gringo Honeymoon, Robert Earl Keen
I remember listening to “Merry Christmas From The Family” three times before I could continue with the rest of the album. You could take it as a send-up of trailer park trash approaching Christmas as just another drunken binge or you could as easily see it as an unsentimental documentary. Either way, this collection of disconnected relatives are drawn together for the booze as much as the holiday. This is a laugh-out-loud slice of life.
Brother Ken brought his kids with him
The three from his first wife Lynn
And the two identical twins from his second wife Mary Nell
Of course he brought his new wife Kay
Who talks all about AA
Chain smoking while the stereo plays Noel, Noel
The First Noel
Merry Christmas From The Family, Robert Earl Keen
“Five Pound Bass” has a humble theme at its core but lures us into this first-person account. What’s it about? The obsession of an ordinary guy to catch the mythical five pound bass in his local lake. Just plain fun and a jamming, thumping ode to the grandiose dreams and crushing sorrows of fishing.
“Think It Over One Time” is another driving, swinging tune that delivers a plea from a man to his sweetheart to reconsider ending their failing romance. “When The Bluebonnets Bloom” is a classic Texas swing romantic ballad of a man who wants nothing more than for his woman to be with him when the bluebonnets bloom. REK writes masterfully about romance in all its many varieties.
“Amarillo Highway” is a world-class, crowd-pleasing, barn-burner of two-stepping exuberance that should be on your roadtrip playlist. As a wordsmith, REK crafts images effortlessly to create pictures like this:
“I don’t wear no Stetson
But I’m willin’ to bet son
That I’m as big a Texan as you are
There’s a girl in her bare feet
Asleep on the back seat
And the trunk’s full of Pearl beer and Lone Star”
Amarillo Highway, Robert Earl Keen
Then comes the audience favorite of the album, one of many from the long career of REK, “The Road Goes On Forever (And The Party Never Ends). This is the storyteller at his best. As with all his songs, REK prefers to sing the truth of the characters in the lyrics rather than to make heavy-handed comments about their morals, wisdom, or motives. The country super-group The Highwaymen, comprising Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash, recorded this song to acclaim.
Sonny was a loner
Bolder than the rest
He was going in the Navy
But he couldn’t pass the test
So he hung around town
And he sold a little pot
The law got wind of Sonny
And one day he got caught
But he was back in business
When they set him free again
The road goes on forever
And the party never ends
The Road Goes On Forever, Robert Earl Keen
REK offers “Dreadful Selfish Crime,” as kind of a poignant “sorry, not sorry” look back on youthful days of directionless dissipation. This is REK, the contemporary poet. While the music is classic Western, the lyrics are completely modern and bittersweet.
Sometimes I can’t believe those days are gone
Most of my friends back then have moved along
One’s in Hollywood one’s a millionaire
Some are gone for good some still livin’ here
Me I’m just the same lost in a crowd
Lookin’ for the rain in a thunder cloud
I have moved around but it don’t matter though
One thing I have found there are just two ways to go
It all comes down to livin’ fast or dyin’ slow
I am guilty of a dreadful selfish crime
I had robbed myself of all my precious time
Dreadful Selfish Crime, Robert Earl Keen
One of the things you’ll discover about REK is there are no definitive list of titles that summarize his artistry. Just when you think he’s all about rowdy, drunken, revelry and thumping two-step he pulls something like “Mariano” out of his bag of tricks.
The man outside, he works for me, his name is Mariano
He cuts and trims the grass for me, he makes the flowers bloom
He says that he comes from a place not far from Guanajuato
That’s two days on a bus from here, a lifetime from this room
I fix his meals and talk to him in my old broken Spanish
He points at things and tells me names of things I can’t recall
But sometimes I just can’t but help from wonderin’ who this man is
And if when he is gone will he remember me at all
Mariano, Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen is a legendary figures in Austin songwriting. He has a lifetime of great songs to his credit but he may have flown under your radar. Set aside some time and correct that oversight. He has maybe twenty albums to discover and savor, but you can start with No. 2 Live Dinner.
What Then? 