A Houston native, REK has for three decades been regarded as one of the Lone Star State's finest true singer-songwriters.
Keen was weaned on classic rock and Willie Nelson records. By the time he entered Texas A&M University, he was teaching himself guitar, playing bluegrass, and setting his poetic musings to song. These early days are captured in spirit on the Keen/Lyle Lovett co-write, "The Front Porch Song," which both artists recorded on their respective debut albums, and in Happy Prisoner, REK's bluegrass recording.
After his debut's release, he eventually moved to Nashville. While in Nashville, Keen worked at the well-known Hatch Show Print as a pressman. After Keen's stint in Nashville, he returned to Texas with a publishing deal, a new label, and a national booking agent. He proceeded to release The Live Album and West Textures, the album that marked the debut of "The Road Goes on Forever" and kicked his career into high gear.
REK continued to steer clear of the waters of the country mainstream. His authentic alternative to three-and-a-half minute repetitious radio tunes formed the perfect storm of Keen's literate song craft, razor wit, and killer band which stirred up a grassroots sensation not seen since the '70s heyday of maverick "outlaw country."
Two more albums, A Bigger Piece of Sky and Gringo Honeymoon, brimmed with more instant classics like "Corpus Christi Bay," "Gringo Honeymoon," "Dreadful Selfish Crime," and "Merry Christmas From the Family."
Now with 21 records to his name, a band of stellar musicians, and thousands of shows under his belt, there is no end in sight to the road ahead. In July of 2021, Pollstar ranked Keen on its Top 20 Global Concert Tours, proof that he has blazed a peer-, critic-, and fan-lauded trail that's earned him living legend and pioneer status in the Americana music world.
Keen and his band hit the road, going out 180 days a year, to play dance halls, roadhouses, theaters, and festival grounds with diverse crowds of college kids, serious singer-songwriter fans, and plenty of true believers in authentic tales of life. Every music fan should see Robert Earl Keen.
