BEST BET: ROBERT EARL KEEN
By Barry
Gilbert
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 8, 2005
8 p.m. Sept. 10, 2005, at the Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $20. 314-726-6161.
Road warrior Robert Earl Keen
has racked up a lot of miles since he and pal Lyle Lovett sat on
"This Old Porch" together in the early '80s. Keen's
entry into the music business coincided with country radio's
flirtation with distinctive singer-songwriters later in that
decade -- Lovett, k.d. lang, Steve Earle -- and he's never looked
back. Blessed with an off-center sense of humor, Keen's songs
have tacked from the amusing ("Merry Christmas From the
Family") to the epic ("The Road Goes on Forever").
His latest CD, "What I Really Mean," continues that
formula and adds the stunning "The Dark Side of the
Moon," which features some of the most impassioned singing
of Keen's career. "I want to say something. I want a song to
be provocative," Keen told the Post-Dispatch in 2003.
"I want people to go, 'Damn, how did that happen?' "
Damn, indeed. (BG)