Robert Earl Keen
Turkeyfest signs Robert Earl Keen
(Posted 2/10/2010 08:40 am)
Cuero Turkeyfest Committee has been working hard on getting committments from musicians to perform at the 38th Annual Cuero Turkeyfest to be held October 8 and 9. The hard work has already payed off, as the Turkeyfest committee received a commitment from Robert Earl Keen to headline this year’s event.
Cuero Turkeyfest is announcing this week that Robert Earl Keen has committed to headline the 38th Annual Turkeyfest here Saturday, Oct. 9.
Cory Thamm of Turkeyfest stated, “Our Turkeyfest committee has been working hard on getting committments from musicians to perform. The hard work has paid off as the committee has received a commitment from Robert Earl Keen to headline this year’s event.”
Keen has had his songs recorded by George Strait, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, the Dixie Chicks and the Highwaymen (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson); appeared in such prestigious publications as Playboy and Men’s Journal; performed on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and The Today Show; had Garth Brooks mention his music in one of his own songs, and played concert venues steadily for more than 20 years. Keen consistently plays sold-out shows for audiences that number sometimes as many as 25,000.
Keen delights a packed house with first class renditions of some of his biggest hits and best loved songs including "What I Really Mean," "Broken End of Love," and "Amarillo Highway." His newest album “Live at the Ryman” captures the high energy experience that has made Keen a favorite of audiences all over the country.
Keen’s latest studio album, What I Really Mean, topped #1 on the AAA charts and charted as the number two American album for all of 2005. The Washington Post called it “another terrific disc…a fine choice for those searching for country music with character and authenticity.”
The simple and honest storyteller is certainly the kind of artist that attracted Keen in his formative years. Born in Houston to a Texas oilman and an attorney who turned him on to authors and poets, he began writing his own poems around the age of five.
Though Keen completed his college work, he found his true passion in the clubs, bringing his oddball characters to sonic life and gaining a sense of community with the audience through music he necessarily writes in painful solitude. National Public Radio and the occasional alternative-country program provided exposure for such Keen classics as the anthemic “The Road Goes On Forever” and the twisted “Merry Christmas From The Family,” attracting new fans to his energetic shows, which grew in larger numbers through word of mouth.
