Off all the great REK songs to play....blech....not my fave

Love me some REK, Jr.

Especially the early stuff.

I'm gonna go see the ol' boy over in Santa Cruz. He's playing The Catalyst with Hayes Carll opening for him. Should be a good time.

Wonderful story, great song, good artist....winning combination.
Born not far from here.

Re: Lyle & REK as college roomates...listen to his "Front Porch Song" about sitting on their porch, across the street from a church, playing guitars in their boxers on a Sunday morning.

Man this guy's performance reminds me of Townes Van Zandt... it's very very good!

Bill, you've just been tearing it up with these last four songs. Great stuff!

Great track from an amazing TEXAS country singer/songwriter...
Reminds me of college in Fort Worth and lazy, car bar roadtrips to New Braunfels...ah!

Stefen wrote:

Very nicely said.

Another discovery made through RP. I love the way the story weaves, reminds me of Joe Ely somewhat.

princeofpeoria wrote:

Bob and Lyle were roommates when they were at Texas A&M. How those jarheads didn't run off those two 'weirdos' escapes me.

c.

The man outside he works for me, his name is Mariano
He cuts and trims the grass for me he makes the flowers bloom
He says that he comes from a place not far from Guanajuato
That’s two days on a bus from here, a lifetime from this room.

I fix his meals and talk to him in my old broken Spanish
He points at things and tells me names of things I can't recall
Sometimes I just can't but help but wonder who this man is
And if when he is gone will he'll remember me at all

I watch him close he works just like a piston in an engine
He only stops to take a drink and smoke a cigarette
When the day is ended, I look outside my window
There on the horizon, Mariano's silhouette

He sits upon a stone in a south-easterly direction
I know my charts I know that he is thinking of his home
I've never been the sort to say I'm in to intuition
But I swear I see the faces of the ones he calls his own

Their skin is brown as potter's clay, their eyes void of expression
Their hair is black as widow's dreams, their dreams are all but gone
They're ancient as a vision of a sacrificial virgin
Innocent as crying from a baby being born

They hover around a dying flame and pray for his protection
Their prayers are all but answered by his letters in the mail
He sends them colored figures that he cuts from strips of paper
And all his weekly wages, saving nothing for himself

It's been a while since I have seen the face of Mariano
The border guards they came one day and took him far away
I hope that he is safe down there at home in Guanajuato
I worry though I read there's revolution every day...

I love the lyrics about a noble man, though surely not a nobleman.

Although I've moved a lot since then, I spent my first 18+ years in Texas...and I've seen this guy 4 or 5 times. Good if you're in the mood, and a Texas tradition...

/tips back a can of Lone Star

Gives me goosebumps. REK is a master that we should definitely hear more from.

oufason wrote:

Man, I agree. He's amazing. A little known fact to most (discounting you, being a Texan) one of REK's best friends is Lyle Lovett; they were pickin' buddies in college. A lot of his material covers stories and experiences they shared. I really don't think his well is dry just yet though it hasn't rained in a while. Seeing him this week, though not my first time, was a great time and a wonderful show.

Just saw him in Tulsa the night before last. Great show. Great man!

superfido wrote:

I hear Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks. This track used to be my benchmark for maudlin sentimentality, but Mr Keen and his anthem to his white guilt is my new standard for crassness masquerading as authentic compassion.

People hate to be told they don't get something when they don't like it... get very indignant.

As someone who frequently rolls his eyes at comments on these pages and thinks "they don't get it", I am pretty clear that I don't Get this song.

Everyone here as been pretty positive about it and I was looking for some negative balance. I can't interpret the lyric very well and maybe that is spoiling my enjoyment.... whatever, I don't get it.

Darn I hate that.

Sounds great on the headphones today!

And he's a Texas A&M grad!

Reminds me of kenny rogers kind of.

jeroly wrote:
Disagree, and fire that fact checker!

dewhead wrote:

moi assui!

I like the song a lot, but I feel like it just sort of ends. Maybe that's the point?

Catch him live if you ever get the chance. Always puts on a fun show, covers a lot of musical ground, all of it good.

No matter where we're from, we're all the same inside, right?

REK is truely one of the best singer song writers of the past 20 years. Such insight and sharp wit. His creative well maybe running a little dry now, but masterpieces like this one gives him a whole lot of forgiveness.

poetic

...a song with some substace...yes...i like this....

jeroly wrote:

I hate to be a newby and disagree, but I view it as a clarification. Song for Adam was written by Jackson Browne. Refers to a friend of his, Adam Saylor, with whom he left SoCal heading for New York. Song first appeared on debut album "Jackson Browne" a/k/a "saturate before using. JB and Warren Zevon and Eagles and others colloborated extensively with Linda Ronstadt in her early years.

LR's song "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" was a WZ song, which he wrote about JB. Let's face it JB is magnificent songwriter and musician, but if you listen a lot, most of his work is incredibly introspective, moody and dark. There is a ray of hope in his works. He is one of my favorite songwriter-performers, but best taken in small to medium doses. His politics are a bit extreme for me, but I really respect and admire the counterpoint he provides to current political viewpoints. See Lives in the Balance. How many other songs have been so relevant for twenty years.

No. Nope. No sir. Not even close.

Robert Earl Keen is a certified original Texas talent and ain't no one rippin' off nobody here.



jeroly wrote:

Shesdifferent wrote:
Mind you, that picture's 17 years old, but maybe you mean how he and his white hair look now.

Nonetheless, how someone can't "cotton" REK is beyond me...awesome live, really good here. Likeable, at the very least.