Robert Earl Keen certainly knows how to read his audiences and to consider his fan base. In advance of the digital relaunch of his Western Chill album, the REK band appeared at the Ryman Auditorium, which he called “the Taj Majal, Mount Rushmore, and Westminster Abbey of Country Music.”
Oklahoman Kaitlin Butts (“like your rear end but plural”) opened for Keen with a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” following by her single “White River.” She told the crowd, “I’m singing in the Mother Church about murder–as the good Lord intended.” The feisty singer was transparent about her daddy issues as she introduced her originals “Blood” and “It Won’t Always Be This Way.” Her rocking rendition of the old-time classic “In the Pines” continued the murder theme.
As Keen took the stage, perched on a center stage stool, he promised to deliver songs the fans came to hear, mixing the old favorites with songs from his new project. He first played his 1997 Picnic album in its entirety, peppering the songs with the stories behind them. He told of having “Undone” banned from a Florida radio station after playing it with John Kay of Steppenwolf and Iris Dement.
He told stories of conversations with James McMurtrey, who wrote “Levelland” about his famous author father. He had songs written for his daughters, who he noted were in the audience, and songs he wrote for “a girl I loved in high school.” He also told of being expected to play “Running with the Night” for a high school event and having to read the lyrics off the back of a tee shirt from the merch table.
Playing through the album, Keen’s band demonstrated the instrumental prowess behind the narrative songs fans have grown to love. By the closing song “Then Came Lo Mein,” the rightness of the album selection was apparent.
Keen followed with “songs you might have heard before,” bringing to crowd to their feet, singing along on his feel-good favorite, “Feeling Good Again, leading right into “Gringo Honeymoon” and “Corpus Christi Bay.”
By the time the band turned their focus on the Western Chill album, the audience was more than ready to listen. Keen explained the origin of the project during Covid, when the band had no gigs. He wrote the title song and invited the band to brings their own songs that would fit, “and we dressed up like cowboys,” he added.
The prologue to the album, with humorous allusions to O Brother! Where Art Thou, was followed by the first single to be streamed from the project. “Let’s Valet,” Keen explained, was inspired by a comment by his driver to a red carpet event. He gave her co-writing credits for providing the title.
Mandolinist Kym Warner led off with an instrumental piece with an Irish lilt. Brian Beken, who alternated between fiddle and guitar, sang “Waves,” and bassist Bill Whitbeck performed “Blue Light,” about a girl getting a break to sing on the Blue Light stage.
The night would have been incomplete–and the crowd probably would not have left the venue–without Keen’s cult favorite “The Road Goes on Forever.” For an encore he same one of what he calls his Snapchat songs “Pre-Tesla Austin.” When he sang, “I Gotta Go,” he meant it.