1 for love
2 mr. wolf and mamabear
3 what I really mean
4 the great hank
5 the wild ones
6 long chain
7 broken end of love
8 the dark side of the world
9 the traveling storm
10 a border tragedy
11 ride

From Amazon.com

Texas country

 Album Rating: (3 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: Yes this is Texas country. Country with a little folk sound in the mix of the song. REK does a great job a writing the songs, well most of the time, he does manage to throw in a song on most of his cd's that just does not fit in. I like him and like his cd's and he did well with this one. I give it 3 stars maybe 4.

REK Bounces Back

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I would agree with a few others that his newest studio offering is a comeback of sorts after lesser CDs Gravitational Forces and Farm Fresh Onions. For me the quality songs are "For Love", "What I Really Mean", "The Great Hank" and "Ride". I still haven't gotten into Mr. Wold and Mamabear, but to each his own I guess. Broken end of love is also a dark screamer,but I guess he had something to say with that one. Overall not near the quality of his earlier work (West Textures, Gringo Honeymoon). If I was starting a REK collection, I would buy those two and the Austin City Limits DVD.

I Did It All For Love

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: This sterling album of Texas music is an excellent purchase for newbies to the field, a lingering listen for long-term fans, and a good way to get your stodgy old aunt to realize that the best real country music isn't being played on the country radio. Robert Earl Keen's sound is stirring and refuses to be nailed down, venturing far and wide to capture the mood the artist wants to create. And the lyrics are well-written, yoking together the down-home accessibility of Hank Williams with the emotional resonance of William Wordsworth.

If you listen to radio or podcasts focused on alt.country or Americana, you've probably heard several songs off this disk. "The Great Hank" is a shambling, playful spoken-word in which the narrator remembers a very distinctive honky-tonk concert. "For Love" is a good modern take on the traditional murder ballad, while "The Traveling Storm," though its diction tries a little too hard to be Shakespearean, is an excellent story of existential revenge. And the title track, a love song in which a touring artist misses his loved one at home, is one of the few songs you're likely to hear anytime soon with close harmony between a banjo and an alto saxophone.

The album lags a little in the middle. The artist has used his strongest story songs and ballads to bookend the album, not thinking too much about the center of the playlist. Specifically, "The Wild Ones" and "Dark Side of the World" aren't very strong. These songs could have been recorded by a stereotypical Nashville hat act. Robert Earl Keen is capable of better than this. If he wants to make a little extra by selling songs like these to Garth Brooks, he's more than welcome, but his fans have higher expectations than this from the material he releases under his own name.

But these are just two tracks out of eleven really stirring songs. It's easy to let them slide, because the strong songs are so strong that you want to like the whole album. This is a CD that you will want to play at home, at work, in your car, or wherever you can find a CD player waiting to be played. See if, after you hear it once, it doesn't have a permanent treasured place right next to your best stereo.

A great return to form...

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: When I first bought this, a few songs leapt out (Wild Ones most notably). After a few listenings, it grew to the point that the only song that doesn't fit for me is the Mama Bear song. I must be in the minority because it gets a great reaction at the live shows. If you already have a REK cd, I don't have to tell you to buy this because once you buy one, you buy them all. If you're new to REK, this is as good a place to start as any.

A Texas Icon is What I Mean

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: As I get ready to up and pack my family back to Texas after being displaced for nearly on twenty years, I had to get some essential Texas to get me in the mood...to move that is. So out I went and got Robert Earl Keen and the Old 97's latest. "What I Really Mean," is yet another peak in a much unexplained just under the radar career of Robert Earl Keen. This is just what the Texas MD ordered...a true slice of a place I once called home and will call home again soon. It's hard to leave a wonderful place like Boise, Idaho but REK's tunes help.

Keen never ceases to surprise. His music seems to become more layered. Though he has strayed in some songs to the semi-experimental, always at the core has been a down home country hippie cross between Willie Nelson, classic blue-grass, folk, and Americana rock. Now he is doing this number, "I Wish You Were Here," that blends banjo and smooth jazz soprano sax. It's a cool laid back breeze of summer Texas wind through a breezeway porch of a West Texas ranch home...let's say Ranger, Texas just for the grins of it. REK's backing band is quite a fine collection of musicians and it shows in the musician-ship throughout.

I can envision my family driving over the border from New Mexico through the panhandle streaming towards Amarillo with the sounds of "The Wild Ones," blowing through open windows. "We were the Wild Ones / The young guns / Restless as the wind / We were the Wild ones now I run / And when I'm done / The Wild Ones will run again." The steel guitar lonely whines high and high, while the drum pounds along the rhythm of the road. Keen is a prolific songwriter and has rarely ever issued any missteps upon the musical world. With "What I Really Mean," he is at top form.

Great guitar picking by Rich Brotherton (REK's best friend since the third grade) in "Long Chain," a smoking dark drifter haunting jailbreak of a song. There's even some North Umbrian Small Pipes of all things appearing on rambling smooth "The Traveling Storm." Boozy drunken swing of Mariachi Cajun, "A Border Tragedy," and finally the album's capstone the whimsical, "Ride," has Keen returning to what brought him there with countrified Texas hill country story-telling. Texas what do you hold for me these days?

I don't know but REK's music will make it all seem right. Go get this one. It's a keeper ya'll.
--MMW