Robert Earl Keen 12-4-99 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz CA KPIG "Humbug Hoedown" source unknown, sounds like an FM broadcast quality is very good (A) both CDs have 3 second gaps between all songs - must have passed thru TAO at some point in their life :-( CD ONE 1. Intro 2. Jesse With the Long Hair 3. Goin' Down in Style 4. Tom Ames Prayer 5. New Life in Old Mexico 6. Shades of Grey 7. Amarillo Highway 8. That Buckin' Song 9. The Little Things 10. High Plains Jamboree 11. Five Pound Bass 12. I'm Going to Town 13. Band Intro 14. I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas 15. Down That Dusty Trail 16. Feelin' Good Again 17. Gringo Honeymoon 18. The Road Goes On Forever CD TWO 1. All Along The Watchtower 2. Dreadful Selfish Crime 3. Merry Christmas... Filler: REK at The Cactus, Austin TX (*see notes at bottom of txt file) 4. Lynville Train 5. Whenever Kindness Fails 6. Rollin' By 7. Leaving Tennessee 8. Barbeque 9. Merry Christmas There is a track 10; it is 30 seconds of silence, and some hum. Why? text file by stuart 11/25/01 ================================================== Robert Earl Keen Jim Rooney who has been in and around music "scenes" since the 50's has said that the interesting thing about a scene is that you don't know you are in it until it is over. Scenes have come and gone. Entertainers swirl around within them. Some drift away. Some hang on the edge and some are outside creating the gravitational forces that create the musical moments fans remember better than their first kiss. Gravitational Forces, Robert Earl Keen's first release on Mercury's Lost Highway label (Lucinda Williams and Ryan Adams are label mates), is drawn from and about the uncontrollable elements, skill and talent that go in to creating the musical energy spilling out of Texas now. If one has a desire to understand what is happening at this moment, in this scene, listen to Keen's Gravitational Forces for the essence of what the singer/songwriter gig is all about. No special effects. Improvisation. Let that guitar solo ride. Produced by Gurf Morlix, mastered by Hank Williams to keep it organic. Keep it cool. Burned out on the road. Never burned out on the music. Keen has within his body of work (eight previous recordings, Gravitational Forces is his ninth) commented on just about everything. Alcoholism, selfishness, murder, and then as Hunter S. Thompson would say, "things get really bad." On Gravitational Forces things don't get really bad. As a matter of fact they generally start out bad and uncharacteristically get better. Keen is not a bit worried that his longstanding fans might be disappointed. Longstanding fans and those suffering from trying to survive in a lyricless universe may be the happiest they have been in a while (say perhaps since John Hiatt's Bring The Family). Keen writes about the unconfrontable. Lovers change their minds and then their paths, the Earth spins around and we are older, loyalty is expensive and sometimes "the sacrifice and compromise can't stand the strain." Keen deals with the problems the best he can-keeping his good friends high. Gravitational Forces is uplifting. We are less in control than we think we are. To Keen that knowledge seems comforting and worth a second look. Consider the titles, "My Home Ain't in the Hall of Fame", "Wild Wind", "Not a Drop of Rain", "Fallin' Out", "Goin' Nowhere Blues." There are revelations and confirmations trying to fit in the physical world. On Gravitational Forces Keen seems happy to acknowledge the origins of his genre of music. Keen reaches through the many years of touring and writing highs and lows to draw on the work of great songwriting talents Terry Allen, Johnny Cash and Townes VanZandt. VanZandt's "Snowing on Raton" is a closing favorite for Keen's audience. Keen typically must wait until late in the evening to perform the quiet number, so for some the cut will be gold. VanZandt? Check. But then Keen has the nerve to mirror Cash's performance of "I Still Miss Someone." This could be a setup for disaster, but Keen makes it sound nostalgic. Keen does know where the sound comes from. And it is telling that the first cut is "My Home Ain't in the Hall of Fame." Spin Gravitational Forces and feel you are in the hands of a first-rate artist and his band, in the groove and not being anything other than what they are-a real touring band. Rich Brotherton's guitar solos are long and luscious. Bill Whitbeck plays bass. Tom VanSchaik on drums. Marty Muse on steel. The band is tight. They do not disappoint the lovers of recorded music, and their spontaneity is that of well disciplined, hard-working lovers of their craft. The energy and focus of the band on stage makes it possible to believe they may levitate. The audience does levitate. The bandleader is a real songwriter and telling the audience all about it. Keen's audiences have wanted to hear about his take on the deal to the degree that these days the rooms are full to the walls with people who know every word to every song. Commendable for the audience since Keen's lyrics and the songs of other artists he performs usually last well over the industry's ideal. A hopeful sign for people who can no longer understand Dylan and the like to memorize complicated lyrics. Also, Keen's material always covers the topic. Keen tells things like he sees them-that may not be the way the rest of the world sees things. After all, Keen has proven his inability to do just about anything in the traditional fashion. He insists his touring band play on his recordings. He makes recordings and chooses material based on what he wants to play and what he and his audience dig. He cuts other people's tunes, but they are never the obvious choice. Nothing about Keen is obvious. Keen has miles under his belt. He doesn't tell you about life from and air-conditioned interior on the other side of a glass. Keen's audience knows he has spent a lot of time on the outside of almost everything. Walter Hyatt would sing he was "on the outside…looking out…getting down." Outside for Keen were early folksy solo efforts in the rooms of Gruene Hall, Anderson Fair, the Cactus Café and Emmajoes. Those rooms have been the starting point for many of the artists in the current Texas Movement. For Keen and other pioneers carrying rootsy regional sounds to the wasteland of what is now country music is a hard trip. Making the leap requires more than a little luck and keeping the wheels rolling. The destinations are rarely as conducive to honing the craftsmanship of the songwriter as those homey spaces Texas made for artists like Willie Nelson, Joe Ely, Janis Joplin and Kristofferson. But in Keen style he has made the outside cool. Dragging around a guitar and growling about one's feelings of disenfranchisement and raunchy hotel rooms has become a hobby among Robert Keen admirers. They too are part of the scene swirling around Keen's gravitational force. Lena Gray May 25, 2001 ============================================================ * The Cactus Cafe is one of Austin's great acoustic music traditions. It is an intimate live music performance venue, and since the current performance format was adopted in February, 1979, the Cactus has acquired a national reputation as a folk singer and songwriter club. Billboard magazine listed the Cactus as one of the only fifteen "solidly respected, savvy clubs" nationwide "from which careers can be cut, that work with proven names and new faces." Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen and Nanci Griffith are among the singer-songwriters who appeared frequently at the Cactus stage early in their careers. Over the last twenty years many well-known singers have graced the Cactus stage. Among them: Allison Krauss, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Townes Van Zandt, Loudon Wainwright III, Darden Smith, Alejandro Escovedo, Ani Di Franco, Don Walser with his Pure Texas Band and Clandestine. ********************************