Track listing
Show track credits
- 1 Sing One for Sister 3:03
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songwriter
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- 2 The Road Goes On Forever 5:02
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songwriter
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- 3 Maria 4:30
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songwriter
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- 4 Sonora's Death Row 4:31
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Kevin Farrellsongwriter
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- 5 Mariano 3:31
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songwriter
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- 6 Don't Turn Out the Light 2:51
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songwriter
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- 7 Leavin' Tennessee 2:54
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songwriter
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- 8 Jennifer Johnson & Me 3:20
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- 9 The Five Pound Bass 2:57
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songwriter
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- 10 It's the Little Things 2:21
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songwriter
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- 11 Love's a Word I Never Throw Around 3:00
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songwriter
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- Total length: 38:00
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
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3 Issues
3 Reviews
I've been playin' this record for 16 years now. Bought it new. I'ts a wonder the thing even plays anymore. I've kept good crae of it. One of the best he's ever recorded, and that from someone who has rated all of his releases with 5 stars, not a rating I give out often.
I had a chance to see him live in Little Rock, at Juanita's, back in '90, no band, just him and a guitar. The show was amazing. He is genuine. The real thing, a Texican from the wooden music school, as Ray Wylie Hubbard says. I was at Dallas' Son's of Herman Hall to see him for a show there with his band in '89, a benefit for KNON I think. In Telluride, Flagstaff, Scottsdale, and a few places I don't recall. REK has never failed to sing a few goodin's'.
I had a chance to see him live in Little Rock, at Juanita's, back in '90, no band, just him and a guitar. The show was amazing. He is genuine. The real thing, a Texican from the wooden music school, as Ray Wylie Hubbard says. I was at Dallas' Son's of Herman Hall to see him for a show there with his band in '89, a benefit for KNON I think. In Telluride, Flagstaff, Scottsdale, and a few places I don't recall. REK has never failed to sing a few goodin's'.
Published
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There was no song more ubiquitous on the campus of Texas A&M at the start of the third millennium than Robert Earl Keen's "The Road Goes on Forever". It'd pipe through the speakers at the venerable Dixie Chicken. It were a confusing open mic night that didn't feature some earnest buck with an acoustic guitar trying to remember all eight verses. Hell, incoming freshmen had the phrase (with the added subtitle "And the Party Never Ends") on the backs of their H.S. graduation shirts; by the time they'd graduated, many of 'em exchanged those shirts for frat tees with the same phrase.
What more can I say? It's a fine Bonnie-and-Clyde song, a much better story than single, but whatever. The fact that it ends on a downer redeems it in my eyes; I have no doubt that "the road goes on forever and the party never ends" is Keen being ruefully ironic.
The rest of the record is hit-or-miss. Keen makes his rep on being a songwriter, but only a couple of his compositions really hit home. The gently-sketched illegal immigrant ode "Mariano" is a gloomy delight, and the love-cum-escape ballad "Leavin' Tennessee" sounds like The Bonnie Prince Billy Sells Out. Very nice. Elsewhere he capably covers the chestnut "Sonora's Death Row" and "Jennifer Johnson & Me" (co-written by Shel Silverstein). Not bad, but certainly not a tour de force.
What more can I say? It's a fine Bonnie-and-Clyde song, a much better story than single, but whatever. The fact that it ends on a downer redeems it in my eyes; I have no doubt that "the road goes on forever and the party never ends" is Keen being ruefully ironic.
The rest of the record is hit-or-miss. Keen makes his rep on being a songwriter, but only a couple of his compositions really hit home. The gently-sketched illegal immigrant ode "Mariano" is a gloomy delight, and the love-cum-escape ballad "Leavin' Tennessee" sounds like The Bonnie Prince Billy Sells Out. Very nice. Elsewhere he capably covers the chestnut "Sonora's Death Row" and "Jennifer Johnson & Me" (co-written by Shel Silverstein). Not bad, but certainly not a tour de force.
Published
I certainly liked this from the start, but it's one of those recordings that got steadily better with subsequent listenings for many listens thereafter. Of the ones I've heard, it's Keen's best.
It's a thoughtful, often almost melancholy album with a few lighter moments (e.g., "It's the Little Things", "Five Pound Bass"). "Sing One for Sister", which was something of a hit for Nanci Griffith, and Keen's perennial, "The Road Goes on Forever", appear here. Both are excellent.
But the best songs on the album appear further down the track listing; "Sonora's Death Row" (a song about making a major mistake impossible to make right), "Mariano" (about a Mexican gardener and the gulf between him and his gringo boss), "Jennifer Johnson & Me" (a poignant reminiscence) and, especially, "Love's a Word I Never Throw Around".
I think Keen lost the plot to some extent after his album Picnic. But if you like good singer/songwriter albums, this one's for you.
Musicians include Jerry Douglas on Dobro and the legendary Roy Huskey, Jr. on acoustic bass (presumably not a 'five pound' one).
Favourites: "Sing One for Sister", "Sonora's Death Row", "Mariano", "Jennifer Johnson & Me", "It's the Little Things" and "Love's a Word I Never Throw Around".
It's a thoughtful, often almost melancholy album with a few lighter moments (e.g., "It's the Little Things", "Five Pound Bass"). "Sing One for Sister", which was something of a hit for Nanci Griffith, and Keen's perennial, "The Road Goes on Forever", appear here. Both are excellent.
But the best songs on the album appear further down the track listing; "Sonora's Death Row" (a song about making a major mistake impossible to make right), "Mariano" (about a Mexican gardener and the gulf between him and his gringo boss), "Jennifer Johnson & Me" (a poignant reminiscence) and, especially, "Love's a Word I Never Throw Around".
I think Keen lost the plot to some extent after his album Picnic. But if you like good singer/songwriter albums, this one's for you.
Musicians include Jerry Douglas on Dobro and the legendary Roy Huskey, Jr. on acoustic bass (presumably not a 'five pound' one).
Favourites: "Sing One for Sister", "Sonora's Death Row", "Mariano", "Jennifer Johnson & Me", "It's the Little Things" and "Love's a Word I Never Throw Around".
Published
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Catalog
28 Jul 2023
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