You know Robert Earl Keen is an amazing musician and entertainer. What you may not know is that he’s funny. Really funny. If you have ever heard the West Texas troubadour trading one-liners with Charlotte-based DJs John Boy and Billy on their Big Show or seen him live in concert at one of the myriad music festivals he headlines, you might have guessed he’s got a sense of humor. But in one-on-one conversations, he drops one-liners faster than Jim Gaffigan. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be serious. And make no mistake, he’s serious about his music. But not too serious. Keen’s biggest-selling album, 1996’s “No. 2 Live Dinner,” was in fact an accident. “That one was totally raw and reckless,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I truly didn’t intend to make a record. It was truly a grassroots kind of thing. For a year there, you could hear that record blasting out of dorm rooms, bars, cars and parties. It was warts and all but it was fun.” That’s why the 60 years young musician, who has managed to create a musical genre all his own over his storied career, wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the “Live Dinner Reunion” with a redux to “sound the best it could.” So Keen picked up the phone and started calling some of his friends — Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Cory Morrow, Cody Canada of Cross Canadian Ragweed and The Departed, Cody Braun of Reckless Kelly and Bruce Robison — to come and play with him at the legendary John T. Floore’s Country Store (the site of the first Live Dinner) in the Texas Hill Country town of Helotes. Throw in 5,000 appreciative fans adding their voices to the historic occasion and Keen had himself a new body of work, a rousing double-disc celebration, “Live Dinner Reunion,” released Nov. 18 on Dualtone Records, an Entertainment One company. Fans can snare a double vinyl album early 2017. “This one I had a little bit of a problem because I talked myself into being hoarse. Other than that I thought it was really cool. To me it’s a personal reminder that you do get what you want. I always thought the music business is about playing with your friends. We were all back there and talking about funny stuff we had done. If I ever had a real family reunion, that was it.” Keen’s clearly not afraid to take musical chances. He diverted from the music that made him a household name — “The Road Goes on Forever,” “Gringo Honeymoon,” “Corpus Christi Bay” and “Not a Drop of Rain” — in 2015 with a foray into bluegrass on the critically acclaimed “Happy Prisoner,” which topped Billboard’s bluegrass chart for three consecutive weeks, becoming the No. 2 best-selling bluegrass album of 2015 and making Keen the No. 2 best-selling bluegrass artist of that year. “It’s one of those things I have to say it really just came together,” he says. “I’ve made […]
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