Search - Robert Earl Keen :: What I Really Mean

His Best Music in Many Years! REK is Back...

C. Jones | West Linn, OR USA | 07/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have akways liked REK's music and he is so much fun in concert. While he does not have the best voice, he always puts pure emotion into each song. I was not a big fan of "Farm Fresh Onions" or "Gravitational Forces" so it has been over seven years since his last great album ("Walking Distance" in my opinion). I had about given up on Keen putting out relevant new music and going to a live concert to hear the same 20 or 30 songs over and over gets old. I love "The Pary Never Ends" but I worry about an artist that becomes more a "nostolgia act" playing the same "hit" older songs time after time.



Well, "What I Really Mean" is a tight well written classic. REK is at his best when he stays within the limits of his vocal range, delivers a well crafted story song with emotion and depth. Every song on the CD is well worth a listen (no duds in my mind).



The standout songs are the opening track "For Love" (which I think should be the next single), "The Great Hank" an infectious story song about a night watching a Hank Willioms impersonator, and of course the sweet title track "What I Really Mean".



Don't get me wrong the prior albums I spoke of had some great songs on it but way to many mediocre and just plain bad ones in the mix. This CD does not suffer from any defeciencies. You can pop it into your CD player, sing along to every song and enjoy it from beginning to end.



Thanks REK. Your back at the top of your game after all these years. I highly recommend you get this CD and of course a live show is a must!"

REK you did it!!!!!!!!!!!

inchworm | orlando | 05/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"FANTASTIC!!!! BUY THIS ALBUM!! Ever sInce Gringo Honeymoon REK has been working. Searching. Trying different things. I applaud his efforts and have always loved the music, but let me say Robert Earl Keen has finally done it. This album is fantastic. This is the first album I have listened to each track TWICE before moving on to the next song. His songwriting is superb. This CD has the old school REK that we all fell in love with but with that twist he has been working towards for nearly 10 years. He is NOT the pluck pluck yuk yuk performer that he was afraid of becoming. Superb. You just gotta buy this CD. Sit back with a cold one and enjoy. What I really mean is this possibly the best REK album yet!"

I Did It All For Love

Kevin L. Nenstiel | Kearney, Nebraska | 05/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."