Robert Earl Kean knew the question was coming, so he answered it without prompting.
Says Keane: “My primary goal in life is not just to write some songs and play guitar, but the magical part is actually getting that music out into the world, and being able to perform.”
Kane publicly retired from touring in 2022, crossing the country on his “I’m Comin’ Home” tour-which included more than 40 shows, a fire in his tour bus, and a back injury so severe that he spent more time sitting on stage than standing. standing. By the time he finished the tour with three shows in four nights at the John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes, Texas, Kane was exhausted. He assured his friends and fellow musicians backstage that there would be no going back.
Two years later, the 68-year-old Kane is back, for all practical purposes. To be clear, he’s not traveling coast to coast in a tour bus, but he has maintained a steady string of shows booked in 2024, loosely centered around his 2023 conceptual set. Western Chill.
In September, before the AmericanaFest committee that showcases the music of Yellowstone – which includes Kane’s work – the songwriter walked into a side room at Nashville’s City Winery and talked about the final chapter of his life. Dressed in a sweater and cowboy hat, Kane was ready for the spotlight. He was also wearing a smile and the kind of confident eye contact that made you feel as comfortable as if you were bigger. This was the Ken who had won Texas since his days in the 1970s after he started as a student at Texas A&M University in College Station, and this was the Ken whose song “The Road Goes on Forever” became an anthem of Texas music long before either of them. Joe Ely and road workers covered it in the ’90s. The physical pain he showed in his final shows in 2022 is no longer in his repertoire. On this day in Nashville, Robert Earl Keen was happy.
Which is why, without being asked, he got straight to the point: He wants to keep performing, for the simple joy and fun of it all.
He says: “I’m not stressed anymore.” “There was a lot of tension between me and the band during retirement, because once I put my mind to something, I don’t let it go. But there were several times during that exit strategy where someone would come to me and just suggest, ‘Let’s just take a two-week vacation,’ and I’d say: “No!”.
For Ken, taking a break wasn’t an option. He was determined to play until he couldn’t anymore.
“Sometime in Asheville, North Carolina, I met everyone … and I said, ‘This is what’s going to happen. Unless you see my body right there on that sidewalk, and I’m not breathing, and I’m dead and you can’t find a pulse, we’re going to keep playing until we get to the end. He remembers. “And I have to say today that was a mistake.”
His attitude towards touring began to slowly change at a one-off show in 2023 – a year after his “retirement” – at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. Kane began playing solo, telling stories about his music, before bringing his band members to the stage one by one. It awakened something in him.
Ken says: “By the time everyone got to the stage, we were like this full band and it felt like a million dollars.” “It went so well that it was intoxicating for me. It was just a reminder that, ‘Oh, this is how we perform. Part of performing always involves being creative. It’s not just about writing a set list and singing. It’s thinking about the audience and the venue, getting out there and working the room as best you can.
Ken is sober now – a result of not wanting to get addicted to the painkillers he needed to injure his back during the retirement tour. He prefers to keep these details in the context of his post-retirement life rather than center his music and writing around them, but he says the experience has helped him connect with his creative side in ways he rarely thinks about.
He recalls: “I went to a place of recovery between October and March last year,” he recalls. “I was only supposed to stay there for one month, but I ended up staying there for six months, because I was getting a lot out of it. It was a great place. I have to do all kinds of counseling with people. One of the things they taught us was to make gratitude lists. I would wake up every morning and start a list, and it would turn into poems. I’ve always felt that I write better in poem form anyway, so I’ve written about a hundred poems since then. It’s pure poetry, not songs, but it was a whole new outlet that I hadn’t touched since fifth grade. Some are good, some are bad, but they’re all about my life since this period of recovery.
He pioneered Ken’s comeback Western coldthe 2023 album that he wrote, recorded and produced as a collaborative effort with much of his longtime touring band. Brian Pekin, Bill Whitbeck, Tom Van Schaik, and Kim Warner contributed songwriting and lead vocals to the album, which combines Keane’s fondness for the vivid lyrical imagery of Texas and the American West with a relaxed, almost tropical vibe.
Says Kane: “The concept was to make a full band record together.” “These guys have been supporting me for years and years, so I thought it would be a good time for us to get together, with some of their songs and some of mine, and make a record. It turned out to be the right thing to do on so many levels, but the main thing was that it was a great bonding experience. We all became part of this one thing, and it became Western cold“.
Kane had written the title track before the record took shape. The tone of “Western Chill” makes it difficult to look beyond its timing: When he sings “Western Chill, that’s what I needed,” it’s clear it’s about the 2022 version of himself. His bandmates took the cue and brought their own Shadow Tree vibes to the table. Ken realized they had an album on their hands.
Ken says: “Everything they brought in was pretty amazing stuff,” he says. “Not only that, they expanded the whole idea Western cold. They wrote heartbreaking stories. Some of them were like these wonderful journalistic interpretations of someone trying to sing their songs.
Keen and the band released the album as a box set, complete with an illustrated songbook and accompanying DVD in 2023, but the late digital release gave them a chance to keep it. Western Chill front and center for the better part of this year. It’s the exact kind of project Ken envisioned before retirement. What he didn’t expect – once he started supporting the project – was to reconnect with himself as a songwriter and musician.
He says: “I thought I would sit down and write more songs, maybe produce more music or write a book.” “That would be serious retirement, sitting in a rocking chair and focusing on the universe. But the truth is that there was something missing. It was really a part of me – putting these shows together, going out to people, singing songs, and having a lot of fun with it.
Josh Kratschmer is a journalist and author. Red Dirt Connectedis scheduled for release on December 13, 2024 via Back Lounge Publishing, and is available for pre-order.