Red Dirt musicians pay tribute to Robert Earl Keen

Posted by brandy

on February 27, 2009M at 1:05 pm

Robert Earl Keen

From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.

Americana music icon is honored in CD set
Robert Earl Keen’s influence celebrated

Often called “the father of Americana music,” Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen is celebrated on the live album “Undone: A MusicFest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen.”

The two-CD set, released last month, features popular Texas/Red Dirt talents such as Reckless Kelly, Cody Canada, Jason Boland, Randy Rogers, Bonnie Bishop, Wade Bowen and more performing a range of Keen’s classic songs.

“It was really cool to see just how many people have been influenced by him and just kind of a reminder of how many great songs he’s written,” singer-songwriter Willy Braun of Austin, Texas-based band Reckless Kelly said in a recent phone interview.

“Most of the people came up with really original, cool arrangements and different approaches to the tunes. It ended up being a really, really cool record.”

The album was recorded at the 2008 MusicFest Americana festival in Steamboat, Colo. As part of the festival’s annual “Tribute to a Legend,” organizers partnered with The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University to put on and record the tribute show.

Braun calls himself a huge Keen fan – and considers the influential singer-songwriter a good friend. Playing a rollicking rendition of Keen’s “Think It Over One Time” at the show was fun but intimidating, he said.

“Just sitting there with him in the front row was kind of nerve-racking. … You know, we’ve played in front of him a bunch of times but never really done one of his songs in front of him,” Braun said.

Singer-songwriter Jason Boland, who hails from Harrah but now lives in Austin, crooned Keen’s sad song “Mariano.”

“It’s a great cross-section of the styles of songs we all love and are inspired by,” Boland said of the album in an e-mail. “Robert Earl Keen is a one-of-a-kind American treasure.”

Another Oklahoman-turned-Texan who appears on the album: Cody Canada of Cross Canadian Ragweed. Canada, formerly of Yukon, performed solo on “Shades of Gray” and played guitar with Keen and his band on the rocking closer “The Road Goes on Forever.”

“Robert Earl has been as big of an influence on my writing as Pete Townshend and Stevie Ray (Vaughn) have been on my guitar playing. I have tried to be as good of a songwriter and person as he is. He told me once that you don’t have to play a song that night if you don’t want to; that changed my attitude. I am proud to call him my friend, my teacher and my preacher,” Canada said in an e-mail.

-BAM

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