Keen dives into bluegrass

Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen

Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen's latest album, Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions, is a departure -- a collection of some of the bluegrass standards that he has always loved.

In the CD's liner notes, titled "Why Bluegrass?" he explains his motivations, which may have left some of his fans puzzled: "My lifelong love of bluegrass taught me how to feel music as well as hear it. ... I've played my own brand of music from Gruene Hall to Town Hall and loved every minute, but nothing compares to a tiny room full of bluegrass picking."

Music

Robert Earl Keen

8:30 p.m. Saturday, Rev Room, 300 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock

Admission: $25 advance; $30 day of show

(501) 823-0090

revroom.com

Of course, Keen will not be coming to a tiny room in central Arkansas to ply his trade this weekend, but rather to a large club, the Rev Room. He's also a "happy prisoner" to be returning to Arkansas every year or two.

"I spent a lot of time as a small child in north Arkansas," he says. "One time I spent spring break there in Yellville and it was 95 degrees one day, and the next day it was 40 degrees with rain, the next day it snowed and a day later everything froze."

On the new album, Keen, who spent his college years playing bluegrass on porches with his Texas A&M pal, Lyle Lovett, and is well-known for such fan favorites as "The Road Goes on Forever" and his Christmas satire, "Merry Christmas From the Family," pays homage to a genre of American music that's less well-known than his novelty tunes and story songs.

"One of the bluegrass songs, 'Long Black Veil,' which might be categorized as a 'murder ballad,' is something I could play when I could barely play guitar," Keen says. "The name I chose, Happy Prisoner, is sort of a shout-out to how some folks think bluegrass music has such formal constraints, but I'm just a 'happy prisoner' to that rulebook. And I love murder ballads!"

As for what he'll be performing Saturday, Keen says, "For those who wonder what I will be doing live because the current album is bluegrass, I have let my fans know that I still have my usual band, plus a couple of other musicians, Kym Warner of the Greencards on mandolin and fiddler Brian Bekin of an Austin band, MilkDrive.

"We hit some of the high spots of my career and some deep cuts, interspersed with some of the bluegrass songs."

The new album's 15 songs also includes Bill Monroe's "Footprints in the Snow," Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs' "Hot Corn, Cold Corn," Richard Thompson's "52 Vincent Black Lightning" and The Stanley Brothers' "White Dove."

Well-known Texas musician and producer Lloyd Maines did the producing of the album, and his daughter, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, contributed vocals on the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger," with Lovett guesting on vocals on Jimmy Rodgers' "T for Texas" and Peter Rowan singing on Jesse Fuller's "99 Years for One Dark Day." Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek and The Watkins Family Hour plays fiddle on the album.

Keen's 15-year-old daughter, Chloe, adds violin on "Wayfaring Stranger."

"Sara Watkins suggested Chloe come in," says the proud father. "What she does is really beautiful, and it's not just a cameo appearance."

One of the items on his bucket list is to score a big chart hit, so he's visiting Nashville, Tenn., the land of country hit making, collaborating with some like-minded songwriters from time to time.

He says, "That's one of the things I've always wanted to accomplish, to just have a hit, and I also have discovered that co-writing can really be fun."

Style on 11/17/2015

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