Less than 24 hours removed from an emphatic return to touring at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Robert Earl Keen, with his guitar strapped over his shoulder, sank into the cushions of a well-worn leather couch in the green room of Charlotte, North Carolina’s Neighborhood Theatre. Unfazed by the increasingly loud chatter of an eager crowd on the other side of the wall, as nearly 1,000 fans piled into the venue on Monday night, he softly picked on his recently purchased Fender reissue of a 1960 Telecaster as if it were a requisite mechanism for gathering his thoughts in such a setting. Speaking intently on matters to which he had clearly given much thought, Keen wisely reflected on the events that had transpired over the past few years and led to this exact moment.
Sitting there an hour before he was scheduled to take the stage, Keen was embarking on an unexpected return to touring and was just days away from the digital release of an album that was, simply put, just meant to be.
It may not have been completely calculated or extensively planned, but somehow the stars aligned and the pieces fell together to create something serendipitously special in Keen’s latest record Western Chill.
A 14-track record that speaks to the laid back, West Texas lifestyle that Keen and his bandmates led, the latest album Western Chill which was released to streaming platforms today, is not only further proof that he is one of country music’s preeminent storytelling songwriters, but it also intentionally showcases the boundless talents of his long-time band members in a fairly unprecedentedly collaborative manner. If the lifestyle inspired the content of the album, then the band’s heavy involvement serves as the impetus of the whole project.
Originally released just over a year ago, and over ten years after the release of his previous original studio album Ready For Confetti, Western Chill in its initial form was a box-set that included, in addition to the record itself, a 92-page graphic novel and a live performance DVD, among other accouterments.
Delaying the digital release this long was never the plan, but with distributors pulling their support of the project at the last minute due to its size, Keen and company decided to independently market the physical set to cultivate interest and recoup their costs before ultimately making it available to the masses digitally.
Living on the edge of the West Texas desert, Keen found inspiration for this record in the modern allure of the American West, and his appreciation for its natural beauty.
“I call it a lifestyle record. That’s the whole thing. It’s just promoting this almost 18th-century American dream of always going west, and it’s all going to open up to see the fields of golden grain. The night I wrote ‘Western Chill,’ the moon was coming up, the sun was going down, and the light from the bright stars were just right overhead. And that was inspiring,” Keen said before his show in Charlotte, NC this past Monday.
Keen wrote five of the 14 tracks on the record in that one evening, including the title track “Western Chill,” and without putting too much thought into their collective creation, he realized that they were all intertwined through their connection to this lifestyle. Motivated by the prospect of creating a record that involved his band members more so than ever before, he presented them with the initial set of songs and encouraged them to bring him any songs they had written that fit the same aura. And from then on, the tracklist just fell into place.
Keen’s band consists of multi-instrumentalist Kym Warner and fiddle player/guitarist Brian Beken, each of whom have been with the band for over ten years, as well as drummer Tom Van Shaik and bassist Bill Whitbeck who have eclipsed 25 years in the outfit. Warner, Beken, and Whitbeck all contribute songwriting and lead vocals at various points throughout this album, putting their underappreciated talents on full display.
The fact that the songs written and sung by Keen’s band members fit so well within this record, alongside those penned by the great Robert Earl Keen, is a true testament to their talent. But if you’ve ever seen them live, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to you.
Back in 2022, Keen embarked on an extensive farewell tour across the country that culminated in Helotes, TX with a star-studded “final” show at John T. Floore’s Country Store that September. Following the tour, Keen seemingly removed himself from the Americana spotlight, and as fans everywhere were forced to come to terms with the fact that they’d never see him and his band live again, his health, unbeknownst to the public, spiraled into poor condition.
If it weren’t for his aptly-named English Cocker Spaniel Roadie, there’s a chance neither Western Chill nor the current tour could have come to fruition.
“This dog literally saved my life. I got so sick when I retired. I thought I’d bounce back after a few weeks but I didn’t, and I just kept going down and down and down until I got so sick that I didn’t eat for like a week, I just laid in bed. This dog and me just sat around this old house and I’d leave the door open and he’d come hang with me. Then when he’d get tired of me, he’d run outside and chase the cats for a while and then he’d come back and be there for me. If I didn’t have the dog I think I would’ve just gone away,” Keen shared.
Luckily, Keen made it to the other side of his Covid ailments to see the album release through and embark on another tour, which came as a surprise to many, given the magnitude of his supposed farewell just a couple of years prior. But despite the time that Keen got to relax at home and train Roadie for quail hunting, it quickly became apparent that he missed the road and the ability to connect face-to-face with fans through his music.
“I just missed the life. There’s a certain structure in this life. I’m really the most disorganized person ever, so the structure helps me. I mean, it’s still messy, but I got to keep it together enough to move on to the next place. The sound of the wheels under the bus, the people chattering, and the camaraderie that goes on at a show, it’s just the life. It’s just what works for me,” Keen expressed.
On this tour, in addition to promoting the new album and playing a few of his biggest hits, Keen and his band are alternating between playing 1997’s Picnic and 2003’s Farm Fresh Onions from front to back. As to how those two albums were chosen for this endeavor, Keen made the decision easily.
“‘Picnic’ is a fan favorite. It wasn’t always my favorite, but people always point to that as one of their favorite records. It’s more commercial – Sonically, it kind of does hit that, like especially ’90s kind of music. It fits that sound really well. And then I always thought that ‘Farm Fresh Onions’ song-wise was sort of undervalued,’” Keen explained.
Both records are important collections within Keen’s extensive catalog, and I can attest that Farm Fresh Onions is great live. If there is still a city near you left on the tour, you’re not going to want to miss it.
When asked if he had any closing thoughts on the album’s release and current tour, before he took the stage in front of the increasingly rowdy crowd, Robert Earl Keen had a clear message to convey:
“It’s not my death album. No, I’m not departing after this one.”
So here’s to the great Robert Earl Keen, the digital release of his band-inclusive album Western Chill and his return to touring. And here’s to his dog Roadie, too.