This weekend The Burl is packed with Americana shows including a Railbird alum

Robert Earl Keen

8 p.m. Nov. 3 at The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd. Sold Out. 859-447-8166. theburlky.com, robertearlkeen.com.

Here is perhaps the least surprising Central Kentucky concert news of the fall: this weekend’s Robert Earl Keen show at The Burl is sold out.

The initial reaction you might have to such information is wonderment as to how the champion Texas songsmith was playing a place so modest in size in the first place. A decade ago, he headlined three performances at the Lexington Opera House in as many years. As recently as August, he was part of a Saturday afternoon lineup at the inaugural Railbird festival singing favorites like “Gringo Honeymoon” and “Feelin’ Good Again” along with such comparative obscurities as “Sinner Man” and “The Man Behind the Drums” to a crowd of thousands between sets from Mavis Staples and Brandi Carlile. It’s hardly any wonder then that Keen would make a short order of selling out The Burl.

So why all the fuss over him in the first place? That, in some ways, remains a mystery. For fans of alt-country and Americana music, Keen has long been a favorite – a master Texas songsmith with a far-reaching narrative scope and the ability to employ an equally expansive assortment of Lone Star accents to dress his stories in.

For instance, a stark, inward piece like “Dreadful Selfish Crime” has the feel of a classic country murder ballad. It’s like a “Long Black Veil” for a new generation, sung with a dark folk persona that befits the tune’s dire atmosphere. At the other extreme is “The Great Hank,” a surrealistic and somewhat twisted meditation on Hank Williams laced with an unexpected divorcee romance and set to an expiring honky tonk rhythm you might hear in a roadhouse at closing time.

But in the midst of a recording career that hit the 35 year mark this fall, Keen somehow became seriously popular outside of Texas. He always had a national reputation, but somewhere in the ‘90s, years-old songs like the dysfunctional holiday parable “Merry Christmas from the Family,” the raucous outlaw anthem “The Road Goes on Forever” and several others became favorites everywhere from country bars to frat houses without any serious promotional push or radio airplay.

Keen responded by doing what he always does – maintaining a full touring schedule with one of the finest Texas ensembles in the business and releasing a series of recordings that ranged from a live album of wintry intimacy (2008’s “Marfa After Dark”) to studio collections of then-new tunes (including 2011’s “Ready for Confetti”) and a bluegrass record (2015’s “Happy Prisoner”). As to the latter, Keen confessed to me a longstanding love of string music in an interview that ran against common Lone Star musical interests. “Texans know everything about everything,” he said. “But they don’t know squat about bluegrass.”

“I think a lot of the stuff that’s going on for me now is filtered around certain songs like the Christmas song or ‘The Road Goes On Forever,’” Keen said in a different interview prior to a 2009 Opera House concert. “They’ve really found their way out to the counter culture. We see a lot of the people at the shows that go, ‘I heard you were playing here and that you wrote those songs.

“Luckily, I still have a burning desire to write more and write really good songs. It’s a task I haven’t completed at all.”

Interludes

▪ Keen’s sellout show is only part of a packed weekend of recommended outings at The Burl. A double bill of upstart Americana featuring Elizabeth Cook and Will Hoge heads to the club on Nov. 1 (8 p.m., $20). Louisville folk stylist Joan Shelley performs an early Saturday evening performance (7 p.m., $15) on Nov. 2. Then local soul/funk favorite Joslyn and the Sweet Compression takes over with a separate Nov. 2 show featuring an opening set by The Claudettes (9 p.m., $15).

▪ Not ready to forsake the Halloween spirit just yet? Then head to Lynagh’s Irish Pub, 384 Woodland Ave., on Nov. 1 for a free 9 p.m. double bill show featuring local rock roustabouts The Hellbent Hearts and a punk rock cover collective made up of veteran Lexington musicians called Dick Clark’s Nightmare. Rumor has it the ghost of Elvis will be on hand that night, too. Hopefully by showtime, he will have not left the building.

▪ Why should we take time to tell you about a Blues Traveler concert in New York this weekend? Well, it’s because Lexington’s own Magnolia Boulevard will open the Nov. 1 performance at the famed Beacon Theatre. Fear not, though, the Blue Traveler/Magnolia Boulevard tour gets a little closer to home next weekend for a Nov. 8 performance at Headliner’s Music Hall in Louisville. Alas, the Boulevard crew won’t be back in Lexington until a Dec. 13 date at The Burl.

This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 11:42 AM.