Robert Earl Keen is a Texas-born country singer who developed a grassroots following without the mechanisms of Nashville’s modern country monopoly. Keen’s ability to avoid the mainstream-isms of Nashville helped spur the burgeoning alt-country movement of the early and mid-‘90s, opting for a mixture of folk and country as opposed to pop and country.
Keen grew up in Houston, Texas and became interested in music while studying journalism at Texas A&M, where he co-wrote a song with his then-unknown neighbor, Lyle Lovett. Keen released No Kinda Dancer, his self-financed debut, in 1984 and soon after moved to Nashville. But Keen grew disappointed with the sheen of Nashville country music and was unable to find a record deal, so he headed back to Austin.
Keen continued recording and touring, releasing a live album in ’89, West Textures, and working with Gurf Morlix, who was influential in the alt-country movement, for 1994’s Gringo Honeymoon. By the mid-‘90s Keen had become a Texas-country staple, playing around 200 dates per year and releasing consistent albums. In 2001 Keen released an album on Lost Highway and continued his Texas Uprising, an annual concert series held in Texas. In 2005 Keen released his first album for Koch.
1984: No Kinda Dancer
1988: The Live Album
1989: West Textures
1993: A Bigger Piece of Sky
1994: Gringo Honeymoon
1996: No. 2 Live Dinner
1997: Picnic
1998: Walking Distance
2001: Gravitational Forces
2003: Farm Fresh Onions
2004: Live from Austin TX
2005: What I Really Mean
2006: Live at the Ryman
http://www.robertearlkeen.com
http://www.myspace.com/robertearlkeen
