Search - Robert Earl Keen :: No Kinda Dancer

The original...

Jeremy Ulrey | Austin, TX | 08/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""No Kinda Dancer" almost certainly won't be your first Robert Earl Keen purchase (odds are favoring close to 100% on that), but it may well end up being your favorite. As of the follow up ("West Textures") Keen would already have his songwriting down to a marketable formula (although one of the best and least exhaustible formalae there is), but here he does what he does best without an inkling of how it's going to go over, and there's a purity in that which cannot be found on any of his subsequent albums.



The only thing that deliberately points toward his future progression is "Keep Swervin' In My Lane", an enjoyable if somewhat lightweight metaphor for the obstacles Keen is constantly having to reckon with. It's a decent song, mind you, but unlike the rest of the album it does have a sort of self-awareness about it, as if it were written specifically for crowd appeal rather than telling an honest tale or exorcising demons, the hallmark of his best (if not his most popular) work.



The title track doesn't seem to get much play this late in the songbook, which is a shame, because it illustrates Keen's knack for infusing tossaway subjects with vivid detail, an almost Flaubertian ideal in it's literary descriptiveness of a fairly mundane scene. This is one complaint that I have about the reissue: the cover photo is obviously taken from the same photo sessions as the original, but whereas the first pressing showed Keen out on a dancefloor looking down at his boots - in keeping with the two-stepping shyness inherent in the song's lyrics - the reissue has him out on the same dancefloor, but this time looking at the camera and grinning. Somehow it just doesn't have the same appeal. Particularly since the reissue looks just as cheap, if not cheaper, than the original 1984 cover art! You'd think in this age where every Photoshop hack can create a reasonably attractive CD cover they could have done better, but what the hell: it's still a great album and they more than make up for it with the previously unreleased bonus tracks.



"The Front Porch Song" was co-written by Lyle Lovett, and though the studio version on this album is fine in it's own right, you'll still need to pick up "The Live Album" for the must-have live version, which interjects a spoken word segment detailing the years Keen spent rooming with Lyle Lovett (Lovett's version is called "This Old Porch") - including a great bit about his landlord - and is completely worth the price of that album in and of itself. No Keen collection is complete without it.



Another of the Lovett co-writes, "Rolling By", is one of Keen's great world-weary anthems to the estranged. It's as good an indication of any why Keen is as popular as he is: while the trials and travails of his characters could generally apply to anyone, the details are specifically Texan. There is something about the great expanse of the Lone Star State and it's geographical segue from the old plantation country of West Louisiana/East Texas, the oil field coasts of the Gulf and the hills of Central Texas to the Rio Grande valley and the flat, arid desert of West Texas that coalesces into a singular culture that identifies with all aspects of itself, while remaining remote enough from the rest of the country to maintain a unique state of mind and way of life. Keen does well to stick with this regional empathy in his lyrics, as opposed to someone like Pat Green who is becoming more famous nationally but risking his longevity writing pedestrian country tunes which are just ragged enough to maintain a connection with his rural roots, but not slick enough to garner much mainstream airplay. Keen seems to know where his bread and butter is, which is all the more endearing to his fans.



Finally I want to mention "The Armadillo Jackal", almost certainly the oddest song in Keen's catalog. Over a pining bass-and-fiddle backbeat we hear the tale of a man who makes his living running down armadilloes on the farm-to-market roads crisscrossing central Texas. These 'dilloes are sold for their shells to make boots and belts and the like, but that's not important. The focus here is on the driver and his mindset, a relentless desperation attempting to collect as many kills as he can with his livelihood on the line, and the cruel twist fate plays on him one particularly bountiful night. Keen certainly displayed his literary influences here, and it works both musically and lyrically, asserting itself as one of the more unheralded classics in the REK catalog."

Well-crafted homemade music by a funny guy

Robert Rainer | Dallas | 07/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As my most recent acquisition of REK's music (now at 7, but looking for "Gringo Honeymoon" and other earlier stuff than this one), it's already a favorite. My preferences lean towards acoustic music (yes, I'm kinda old and am declining in my need for adolescent screaming into a mike). This is just a perfect album with well-crafted, interesting lyrics and beautiful harmonies. REK is known for his humor, and this album has its share, and it's just fun to listen to. Glad I have it, and will listen to it often, especially when I need a boost."

Fabulous Music....never grows old!

Billy Goat Ranch | Hill Country, TX USA | 09/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have to admit I just leave this CD in the player and play it over and over and over....nearly every day! And it never grows old. Fabulous music from an exceptionally talented song writer."