Cause for Celebration
by Bob Mehr
An icon in his home state of
Texas, country-folk songwriter Robert Earl Keen has created a catalog of memorable hits over the past three decades. With the release of his 16th album,
Ready for Confetti (Lost Highway, $11), Keen takes a look back at his prolific discography.
No Kinda Dancer (1984) “My first album. I was a total novice. I went from being a guy who barely could order a pizza to making a whole record.”
West Textures (1989) “[The producer] said, ‘I don’t hear a song that’s going to anchor this record’ and he kind of threatened to cancel the sessions. This was on a Friday. Well, I finished ‘The Road Goes On Forever’ over the weekend, went in and played it, and he said, ‘That’s the song!’ ”
A Bigger Piece of Sky (1993) “I wanted to write these really cool tales that were influenced by John Cheever stories — where you start with something mundane and take a serious left turn. It’s still a really special record for me.”
Walking Distance (1998) “By this time, I’d gotten a lot more comfortable with the studio. I finally felt at ease with all the sonic options, and there are a lot of cool swirly sounds on that record that all fit.”
Ready for Confetti (2011) “My joke is that no cymbals were harmed in the making of this record. We said, let’s make a rhythm with everything but cymbals. We had a ball.”
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