Wed 4/8 @ 8PM
How many great singer-songwriters have come out of Texas? You could spend all day counting.
Houston’s Robert Earl Keen is one of a large group of such legendary performer/composers whose work is revered by fans and colleagues and has been covered by numerous other artists. And with a dozen albums recorded over three decades plus another half dozen live albums, he’s got plenty of material to choose from.
Like many of his fellow Texas greats — from Jimmie Dale Gilmore to Townes Van Zandt to Lyle Lovett to Guy Clark — Keen has solid grasp of a range of American roots music styles and a knack for blending them seamlessly to make distinctive statements about the loneliness, pathos and homely pleasures of American life. That blend, based on folk and country with a dollop of blues and rock, is what’s come to be known as alt-country or Americana, and Keen was one of its progenitors.
But for his latest album Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions, Keen goes in another direction, recalling a stint in college playing with a bluegrass band. On it, he and his long-time band — guitarist Rich Brotherton, bassist Bill Whitbeck, drummer Rom Van Schaik and steel guitar player Marty Muse — pay homage to one particular stream of American roots music.
Keen will be performing at the Kent Stage. Tickets are $35.
thekentstage.com/robert-earl-keen-kent/