2022 POLLSTAR Live 75 Top Worldwide Touring Act
With a 41 year touring career and 20 albums to his credit, Robert Earl Keen, one of the first
artists on the Americana Chart, performs original material characterized by vivid storytelling.
His craft as a songwriter is acknowledged by numerous covers, including the title cut “The Road
Goes On Forever” on the third and final studio album of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris
Kristofferson and Willie Nelson The Highwaymen (1995).
George Strait recorded Keen’s “Maria” on the album One Step At A Time (1998). Strait
recorded “West Texas Town” , a Dean Dillon/Keen co-write on the album Troubadour
(2008).
Reckless Kelly, Max Stalling, Todd Snider, Wade Bowen, Randy Rogers, Roger Creager, Cory
Morrow, Nanci Griffith and Cry, Cry, Cry have recorded Robert Earl Keen songs. The Lyle
Lovett/Keen co-write “The Front Porch Song”, also known as “This Old Porch”, debuted on
Keen’s first recording and self-produced No Kinda Dancer(1984).
Keen is widely appreciated for “The Road Goes On Forever”, “Merry Christmas From the
Fam-O-Lee”, “Corpus Christi Bay”, “Feelin’ Good Again”, “Gringo Honeymoon” and other
narrative tunes recorded over the course of his long career. Five live albums and 15 studio
albums behind him, Keen will end road touring on September 4, 2022.
