The news of Robert Earl Keen's retirement hit me in a tough spot. I know that he is considerably older than I am, but still, in my head, I've always kind of conflated that dude with my own self. Just like in his stories, me and my friends sat on the front porch of our house in college and poorly played guitar music. And then I did nothing with that and he sold millions of records. I've dreamed of escaping to Boquillas and lamented my dreadful selfish crime. He's been a constant soundtrack for many moons, and I've seen him play live a number of times. And now he's hanging it up.
If you looked around on the Internet, the stated reason was a unified chorus of - nothing to do with his health, he just wants to spend his time doing something else - and yet, it has since come out that he has terrible back pain that limits his ability to stand for any long period of time. A friend was at the final show at Flore's Country Store and said that he read a prepared statement explaining it all - extreme back pain, body/foot swelling, Bell's palsy. Which just sounds freaking awful. So, I'm glad that he was able to give us all a few more shows before he retires to Kerrville (and hopefully finds some pain relief!).
You could absolutely tell that something wasn't right about the guy during this show. He came out and sat down on a stool, and from my recollection, stood up maybe one time. And when people in the crowd shouted out the usual crap about Aggies or whatever, he just kind of grimaced in his chair and never acknowledged any of the banter like he did on his live album.
But as for the music itself? He sounded great! The new bandmates - especially Noah the guitar and fiddle kid - did an awesome job of picking up where the old bandmates left off. He mostly played a great set of hits and classics, with a few weird new-ish ones thrown in, and getting to see him on the stage at Gruene is a highlight for me as well. Such an iconic spot and the fact that I got to sing along to some of my favorite songs with him just a few feet away was wonderful. "Feelin' Good Again," "Shades of Grey," "Five Pound Bass," "Road Goes On Forever," "Gringo Honeymoon." He freaking killed it.
Final gripe? To me, this was a very special show. The last time REK would ever play Gruene Hall. One of the last five or so shows he would ever play (supposedly). Iconic performer, iconic venue, the whole thing, right? And yet some of the people around me - and I was about four people back from the stage, very up front - were just having a loud conversation with their friends as though we were at a coffee shop. Why are you here? Why did you get up close? If you don't care about this amazing moment, then what makes you want to get five feet away from the man to talk about your kid's scores in math class? Just go outside, you dork! Or leave your ticket for a real fan to enjoy! I got overly heated about this and the wife had to back me down a little bit. So annoying.
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