Driving into work this morning on the Ranch I heard the Turnpike Troubadours’ version of “Feeling Good Again,” and it completely changed the direction of my morning.
It made me start thinking about Robert Earl Keen
I’ve been lucky enough to spend my entire career around Texas music. I’ve watched artists come and go, seen careers take off, and interviewed some of the biggest names our scene has ever produced. But when people ask me about the songwriters who truly shaped Texas and Americana music, Robert Earl Keen is always one of the first names that comes to mind.
He never chased what was popular. He never tried to fit into the machine. He just wrote incredible songs… songs that became the soundtrack to road trips, college towns, dance halls, campfires, and memories that so many of us still carry around today.
A Houston native, Robert found his voice while attending Texas A&M, where he and another student named Lyle Lovett were writing songs long before either became legendary. He took the hard road, financing his own first album, winning the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Songwriting Competition, and slowly building one of the most respected careers in Texas music.
Then came West Textures and “The Road Goes On Forever.” After that, it seemed like every album gave us another song that would become part of the fabric of Texas music—“Corpus Christi Bay,” “Gringo Honeymoon,” “Whenever Kindness Fails,” “Feeling Good Again,” and, of course, “Merry Christmas From the Family.” That’s why so many people call him a songwriter’s songwriter.
When Robert Earl Keen announced his retirement from touring in 2022, I honestly thought we’d seen the final chapter. Thankfully, after getting sober, rebuilding relationships, and realizing how much he missed the stage, he came back. Texas music is better because he did.
Hearing that Turnpike version this morning reminded me that the very best songs don’t belong to just one artist. They take on a life of their own, and Robert Earl Keen has written more than his fair share of those.
