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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > September > 30 > Entry
CD review: Robert Earl Keen’s “The Rose Hotel”
Robert Earl Keen
“The Rose Hotel” (Lost Highway)
A
Robert Earl Keen is best known for his story songs and witty lyrical lines, but his first studio album in four years is most noteworthy for its groove. Danny Barnes’ banjo tangles with Rich Brotherton’s mandolin throughout, but this album is closer to Island-scented rock n’ roll than mountain music. Even a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Flyin’ Shoes” brings the bounce. You’re gonna want to request a late check-out from this “Hotel.”
This is Lloyd Maines’ first time producing Keen and his band in the studio and you wonder what took this long. There’s such an at home feel here, such a freedom of instrumental approach, that you can be sure the sessions were a blast. “Something I Do,” for instance covers Keenish territory lyrically, but it’s freshened with a reggae bassline and a little techno percussion. A duet with Greg Brown on “Laughing River” will make you hum a third part harmony and you don’t know why.
Keen’s tribute to Levon Helm on “The Man Behind the Drums” underlines that this is an album made by fans. On such new rousers as “Throwin’ Rocks” and the terrific title track, it sounds like Keen and the band sat around for a week listening to all their old favorite records before they stepped inside the studio. His droney voice, which has kept him from being a superstar, has never sounded more relaxed.
“10,000 Chinese Walk Into a Bar,” with guest vocals from Billy Bob Thornton, will appeal to followers of Keen’s absurd bent, and “Wireless In Heaven,” with a barnburnin’ bluegrass break, is Keen the social commentator at his best. “Goodbye Cleveland” will launch thousands of drunken singalongs.
But “The Rose Hotel”, which came out yesterday, is not about the lyrics as much as it’s a testament to the pleasant power of rhythmic cohesion. Keen’s superb band is really cooking on this one.
Robert Earl Keen will never make another album as great as 1993’s “A Bigger Piece of Sky.” And he may never write a song that covers as many human levels as “Corpus Christi Bay.” We’ve known that and now it seems that Keen does as well. He’s changed it up a bit, letting his rock tendencies fly.
After listening to “The Rose Hotel” a few times it doesn’t seem so strange that Keen and the band opened and closed their June Bonnaroo set with songs from Cream’s “Wheels Of Fire.”
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