Before I talk about this particular show, I have to tell about the last time we went to one of Robert Earl's holiday shows. Because it makes me laugh, at the expense of my lovely wife. Some friends hit us up about going to see the REK Holiday show, and my wife was very excited. She loves the holidays and really loves to jam Christmas music throughout the whole season. Like, when we hit the road after Thanksgiving lunch, and my scrooge ass will allow it, she's got the radio cranking out some Nat King Cole. So, with that in mind, she was psyched about a show of Robert Earl King singing all of the classics, and was really looking forward to a carol sing-along.
What we did not know is that this was just a regular ass REK show, where he would be certain to play "Merry Christmas from the Family" and probably "Feliz Navidad," but that otherwise we were just going to hear the normal stuff. She was soooooo sad. I loved it though! Haha.
So, you may remember from my last post about REK, we got to go see one of his "final" shows when he was "for sure" "totally" retiring from touring "forever." And so, we spent more than we should, and got there super early to squeeze up to the stage, and hung on every song choice and lyric. Now, like everyone else before him, he "just missed seeing his people so darned much" and he's back out on the road. He looks awful too - whatever medical malady is keeping him stuck in his chair has made him skinny as hell and walking like Earl Campbell.
BUT, you never went to see Robert Earl Keen because you wanted someone to dance around or sing like Josh Groban. You went to hear him bleat out some of the greatest songs ever written. And he freaking delivered in spades. "Gringo Honeymoon," "Feelin' Good Again," and "Dreadful Selfish Crime" were all in the first handful of songs, and they sounded glorious. "I'm Comin' Home" and "Corpus Christi Bay" were great, and of course we got "Road Goes On Forever" and "Merry Christmas from the Family" for everyone to yell along with, as they should. He also played THREE Christmas songs, not including the weird little campfire jam session his band did while he went offstage to get a handjob.
Three tiny quibbles:
- "I Gotta Go" sucks. That song is dumb as crap, and it feels like he just realized that people would like to sing the title of it over and over, so he just filled in some crap around it.
- The crowd was yakking it up THE WHOLE TIME and it was very annoying. I don't need people to treat it like a violin concerto at Carnegie Hall or anything, but it was really distracting when quiet moments were happening on stage to hear the roar of folks chatting it up.
- He randomly changed some words, but purposefully. He missed some lines as well, which I guess is just old age or whatever, but like in "I'm Goin' to Town," instead of "Saturday night" he kept singing that its a "beautiful night." It doesn't really matter, but it just bugged me. Those aren't the damn words!
Totally recommend the show though. Definitely a fun part of the Christmas season. I would have loved it to have been even longer!
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