The road goes on forever for Robert Earl Keen

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

When Robert Earl Keen wrote "The Road Goes On Forever," he didn't realize the song's impact would seem just as long.

The song from "West Textures," the country-folk singer's 1989 album, "has a life of its own," said Keen, who headlines the final concert of the summer season for the Park City Performing Arts Foundation at Deer Valley.

The song tells the story of two small-town misfits living on the wrong side of the law, and its final line -- "The road goes on forever and the party never ends" -- has appeared on gravestones and was even at least one death-row inmate's last words. The song will always be "the one I'm known for," Keen said. "In the end, there's some savage nobility about the characters."

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the song about Sonny and Sherry, Keen is filming a documentary titled "Year of the Road" about the song and its effect on listeners. "Can music change a life?" Keen asks on his Web site. "You tell us. Did Robert Earl Keen's song 'The Road Goes On Forever' have a profound impact on your life?"

For many, it did. Next to the question is a list of stories submitted by his fans:

» In 1996 I went through a nasty, protracted divorce. Two discs got me through: REK's "No. 2 Live Dinner" and Radney Foster's "Del Rio, Texas, 1959." I loved the REK disc and "The Road Goes On Forever" so much I drove from Albuquerque to Lubbock and back all in one night to catch my first Robert Earl show: about 1,500 drunk and crazy people in a venue that was supposed to hold 1,000!

» Due to unforeseen scheduling, the very first date with my wife was a REK show at the Rainbow Room in Hollywood, June 2000. I thought, if she can enjoy a REK show without any preparation, she might be a keeper. I became lost in the show and [during] 'Road,' I looked at her and she was jumping, screaming and dancing like a longtime fan. I knew right then she would be just fine. Six years married, 15+ shows together and two amazing children (Waylon & Avalon) later, the "Road" has a very special place in our hearts.

» [My mother] has turned our friends and family on to REK and now when we go to concerts, we go in droves! I keep thinking to myself "Maybe one day she just won't want to hear his music anymore." However, I know that it will never be that way. And I wouldn't want it any other way. I hope that her road does go on forever and that her party never ends.

Keen, 53, born in Texas, attended Texas A&M University, where he rented a room in a house with a front porch. His next-door neighbor was a young Lyle Lovett, and they created a friendship -- and a song called "The Front Porch Song" -- that continues to this day.

After a brief stint as a newspaper reporter, in 1984 he financed the recording of his own EP, which he distributed regionally. In 1986, he moved to Nashville to further his career, but didn't like the slick country sound, which prompted a move to a Texas ranch, where he still lives.

In 1989, his "West Textures" album turned into his breakthrough, and since then he has slowly and surely built a solid following. Despite a plain-spoken singing voice and a limited range, he's built a reputation of his lyrics, as his eye for characterization, wit and detail is one of the sharpest among a noted pool of Texas songwriters. "I get my point across," he understated.

Opening for Keen are John Doe and Jill Sobule, the latter a folk-rock singer-songwriter who is also the first woman to write a hit song titled "I Kissed a Girl," back in 1995.

To the casual eye, Doe's appearance on a bill with folk-rockers might seem like a disconnect. After all, wasn't he one of the leaders of the legendary punk band X?

Discerning listeners always have recognized the rockabilly notes and country influences of music by X, one of the first American bands to embrace punk sounds. "X was a response to The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt," Doe, 55, said. "It was a response to things getting soft, so we rocked with wild abandon."

On Doe's April release, "Country Club," the singer-songwriter, who lives in Bakersfield, Calif., returned to his roots, recording songs that are a tribute to the "Countrypolitan" sound of country music in the 1970s.

Doe said while he had dabbled in country music before, this time he wanted to dive in head-first. "We just had a big list," said Doe of his backing band, The Sadies. "We wanted to do songs that were Top 5. We didn't want to do obscure [songs] because this might be our only shot at it."

"Country Club," a collection of covers and originals, sounds as if it came straight over the AM airwaves in the 1960s, and became Doe's best-selling solo album since his 1990 debut, "Meet John Doe."

Sobule and Doe have toured together off and on for about six years, Doe said, so they're comfortable performing together. Most of his set will be a solo acoustic set, Doe said, with some X songs, some covers and some new material from "Country Club." He joked that on some of the songs, he will "be backed by the shredding guitar of Jill Sobule."

After all, why not?

The road goes on forever and the party ... well, you know how the song goes.