Robert Earl Keen

Singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen never found quite the level of fame achieved by his Texas A&M buddy Lyle Lovett, but his own considerable grassroots following both within and beyond the borders of the Lone Star State is no fluke. Though he is best known for his beer-friendly live shows (as vividly captured on No. 2 Live Dinner) and sing-along anthems (most notably "The Road Goes On Forever," covered by both Joe Ely and the Highwaymen, and the fractured, white-trash Yuletide classic "Merry Christmas From the Family"), closer attention reveals a writer with a novelist's eye for character and narrative detail comparable to forerunners like John Prine, Guy Clark, and Kris Kristofferson. He's got an equally sharp ear for catchy melodies and first-class backing musicians, strengths that more than offset his limited vocal range.

The gently loping No Kinda Dancer is a fine, unassuming debut, its laid-back, acoustic charms characterized by the Keen/Lovett cowrite "The Front Porch Song" and the cinematic bluegrass instrumental "Death of Tail Fitzsimmons." But it's the next three studio albums that truly lay the foundation for Keen's career. West Textures premieres both the haunting "Mariano" and "The Road Goes On Forever," though the latter's "Born to Run"-with-blazing-guns punch is better captured on No. 2 Live Dinner and with the unabashedly rock & roll remake on 2001's Gravitational Forces. A Bigger Piece of Sky is, song for song, Keen's best album; "Blow You Away," "Whenever Kindness Fails," and a full-throttle rip through Terry Allen's "Amarillo Highway" are the highlights, though there's really not a weak track here. Gringo Honeymoon isn't quite as airtight, though the title track remains Keen's best love song and "Lynnville Train" his most heartbreaking.

Picnic, the first of Keen's three major-label albums, aims a little too earnestly for straight-ahead roots rock and ultimately misses its mark; the songs just aren't as strong, and Keen's voice is outmatched by the muscular arrangements, though two covers (James McMurtry's "Levelland" and Dave Alvin's "Fourth of July") pick up considerable slack, as does "Then Came Lo Mein," a fetching duet with the Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins in which an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet sets the scene for an emotional breakdown. Keen bounded back with Walking Distance, his strongest set since Bigger Piece of Sky, and Gravitational Forces, the latter heavy on covers but distinguished by the terrific "Wild Wind," a portrait of a small Texas town as memorable as a Mayberry populated by eccentric Flannery O'Connor characters. Farm Fresh Onions is a freewheelin', anything-goes (including psychedelic garage rock on the title track) mess of an album. But barring a couple of duds (such as "Floppy Shoes"), it's a blast. There's a hell of a great anthology to be culled from all this; unfortunately, The Party Never Ends -- which samples only three of the Sugar Hill albums (and not even Bigger Piece of Sky) -- isn't it. (RICHARD SKANSE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide