{"id":4340,"date":"2011-11-13T23:27:34","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T06:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4340"},"modified":"2011-11-28T15:19:56","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T22:19:56","slug":"robert-earl-keen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/robert-earl-keen\/","title":{"rendered":"ROBERT EARL KEEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>ROBERT EARL KEEN
\nThis Texas veteran isn\u2019t trying to be clever, but don\u2019t go thinking he\u2019s cymbal-minded<\/h2>\n

Robert Earl Keen has always\u00a0been a clever songwriter\u2014perhaps, he recently decided, a little too clever for his own good. \u201cI was always trying to think outside the box,\u201d says the Texas stalwart, whose new Ready for Confetti<\/em> is his 12th studio effort in 27 years. \u201cFor this album, I didn\u2019t concern myself with that. If it was a straightforward love song, fine. If it had a straightforward message, that was fine, too. I wasn\u2019t going to sabotage a final verse just to be clever or weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keen changed his songwriting environment along with his method. Traditionally he\u2019s secluded himself for several weeks in a hillside cabin when writing songs for a new album. For Confetti<\/em> he allowed himself the luxury of writing on the road. \u201cThe results were great, because I didn\u2019t have time to over-think the songs,\u201d he says. \u201cI did very little self-editing.\u201d The tactic also helped him keep his audiences\u2019 desires in mind. \u201cI wanted the songs to have bounce, songs you could tap your toe to and sing easily,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re more melodic and rhythmic than what I\u2019ve typically done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stylistically, Ready for Confetti <\/em>ranges from prairie ballads to barnyard stomps to sprightly country jazz. Venerated Texas producer and pedal-steel guitarist Lloyd Maines, who oversaw 2009\u2019s The Rose Hotel<\/em>, helmed the recording. \u201cLloyd has the best work ethic of anyone I\u2019ve ever been around,\u201d Keen marvels. \u201cPlus he\u2019s also flat-out friendly to everyone. He acts as your host, not just your producer.\u201d Among the intriguing notions he and Maines cooked up together was eliminating cymbals from the sound. \u201cCymbals sometimes compete too much with the vocals. It was a bit of a capricious decision,\u201d Keen admits with a chuckle. \u201c[Drummer] Tom Van Schaik had to play with one hand behind his back, so to speak. But all the musicians moved to a new level of greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another surprise heard on Confetti<\/em> is a new recording of Keen\u2019s \u201cPaint the Town Beige.\u201d Originally featured on the 1993 album A Bigger Piece of Sky<\/em>, the tune is presented here in a more stripped-down form. \u201cIt\u2019s a song I rarely do onstage, and yet it\u2019s the song people comment upon most often,\u201d observes Keen, 55. \u201cThat\u2019s true even of my fellow songwriters, who are always telling me it\u2019s their favorite of the things I\u2019ve written. I wanted to re-introduce\u00a0it to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROBERT EARL KEEN This Texas veteran isn\u2019t trying to be clever, but don\u2019t go thinking he\u2019s cymbal-minded Robert Earl Keen has always\u00a0been a clever songwriter\u2014perhaps, he recently decided, a little too clever for his own good. \u201cI was always trying to think outside the box,\u201d says the Texas stalwart, whose new Ready for Confetti is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2825,2615,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4455,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4340\/revisions\/4455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}