Robert Earl Keen

Hot on the heels of his Lights, Camera, Christmas! Tour, Texas music legend Robert Earl Keen is announcing another small run of shows slated for March of 2025. Un-retired and touring a little more conservatively at sixty-eight years old—read all about that from Rolling Stone—Keen and his longtime band are tighter than ever and raising crowd after crowd to their feet to sing and dance along to his now-timeless catalog of songs. Turns out that the road does go on forever.

Lights, Camera, Christmas!: Not your usual holiday show with fake snow and false feel-goods. This year's theme takes its cue from classic films beloved by the Keen family: Pretty Woman, Pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski, and more. REK and the band have worked up familiar songs from these films and sprinkled in a few of their favorite holiday tunes for good measure.

Robert Earl Keen is pleased to announce the addition of a Spartanburg, SC show to the Lights, Camera, Christmas! holiday tour which will take him and the band throughout the Southeast this December for a dozen shows. The Robert Earl Keen Band will wrap up the run in Texas with two nights at Austin’s famed Moody Theater, followed by the grand finale just before Christmas Day in REK HQ, Kerrville, Texas.

For fans of Robert Earl Keen, what could possibly be more fun than being one of the lucky ones in attendance for the Texas legend’s annual Fan Appreciation Day show at Floore’s Country Store? Well, the man himself simply figures that two days might tip the scales. This Labor Day weekend, September 1st and 2nd, Keen and friends will roll his Fan Appreciation Day model into the first ever Robert Earl Keen’s Annual Homecoming Weekend, hosted and emceed by Storme Warren.

For the last year and some change, the only way for fans to hear Robert Earl Keen’s laid-back opus, Western Chill, was to buy a vinyl copy and spin it the old-school way. But since its release in April of last year, fans have made it very apparent that they need Western Chill in a “portable” format. “This is for my fans who have all but begged for me to release Western Chill digitally,” says Keen.

Half of the fun of Robert Earl Keen’s latest musical output, Western Chill, is just how much his long-beloved band members have been involved in the album. It’s always been a family affair with Keen, but Western Chill ups the collaboration; feeling as if it’s a bunch of old friends sitting around the studio sharing songs to tape. And that’s because, well, it was. Released in physical form only last spring, Western Chill is set to make its internet debut on June 7th, available for download or to stream.

A little over a year ago, Texas music legend Robert Earl Keen showed his legion of fans that, while he was retiring from full-time life on the road, he had zero intentions of putting down his guitar. In April 2023, Keen and his band released a brand new LP and game-changing box set entitled Western Chill.

“We’ll play as long as they’ll have us,” says legendary Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen about his now-annual Fan Appreciation Day. Those who were lucky enough to attend last year’s event or any of Keen’s parties and shows over the years know that he could very well mean it’ll last all night long.

“Quitting the road doesn’t mean I’m dead, and it doesn’t mean I’m going to quit producing stuff,” reiterates Americana legend and model Texan Robert Earl Keen. He did retire from touring in September of last year, but his new release Western Chill finds the songwriter alive and well and, seemingly, very relaxed.

When Robert Earl Keen announced in January 2022 that he would be retiring from touring September 2022, he also made it clear that he had no intention of hanging up his guitar, putting down his pen, or never recording again. “Quitting the road doesn’t mean I’m dead, and it doesn’t mean I’m going to quit producing stuff,” he has stated time and again.

Archived news