The road is ending soon. Legendary Texas songwriter and entertainer Robert Earl Keen will wrap up 41 years on the road with the final leg of his final tour in his home state of Texas from August 4 - September 4.

Retiring from performing at the top of his game, Keen’s World Tour of Texas begins August 4 in Corpus Christi, and includes stops at Texas institutions, including ACL Live at the Moody Theater and Billy Bob’s. The tour also sees the revival of REK’s festival concept Texas Uprising coming to Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston, TX, on August 20. Robert’s final public concert will be September 4 at John T. Floores Country Store in Helotes, Texas, followed by a fan appreciation party at the same venue on September 5.

Keen made his retirement from the road announcement in January with a personal video posted on his social media accounts. “I’ve been blessed with a lifetime of brilliant, talented, colorful, electrical, magical folks throughout my life,” Keen said. “This chorus of joy, this parade of passion, this bull rush of creativity, this colony of kindness and generosity are foremost in my thoughts today. It’s with a mysterious concoction of joy and sadness that I want to tell you that as of September 4, 2022, I will no longer tour or perform publicly.”

With a catalog of 21 albums, his band of stellar musicians, and many thousands of shows under his belt, POLLSTAR ranked Keen in its Top 20 Global Concert Tours in July, 2021. Keen has blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that's earned him living-legend status in the Americana music world.

The Americana genre was officially recognized by the music industry in 1998 and Robert was the first artist to be featured on The Gavin Report’s Americana Music Chart and on the debut cover of its magazine.

A Houston native, Robert has grown into one of Lone Star State's most revered singer-songwriters, following in the footsteps of his friends Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. In 2019, at a homecoming at the Houston Rodeo, Robert performed with his college friend Lyle Lovett. The old friends opened the show for George Strait to a record-breaking audience of more than 80,000.

Keen was weaned on classic rock and Willie Nelson records. By the time he entered Texas A&M University, Robert taught himself how to the play the guitar and turned his poetic musings into songs. These early days are captured in spirit on the Keen/Lyle Lovett co-write, "The Front Porch Song," which both artists recorded on their respective debut albums, and in Happy Prisoner, REK’s bluegrass recording.

From the beginning, Robert took the road less travelled. He produced and financed his first album, No Kinda Dancer. Robert began to make a name for himself when he won the Kerrville Folk Festival's prestigious New Folk Songwriting Competition.

After his debut release, Robert moved to Nashville. He worked at the legendary Hatch Show Print as a pressman. When he returned to Texas, Robert had a publishing deal, a new label, and a national booking agent. He released The Live Album and West Textures, the seminal album which debuted the rowdy, rockin’ fan favorite "The Road Goes on Forever."

Robert had no idea that his song about a couple of ill-fated lovers running afoul of the law would catapult into the stratosphere of classic Americana, but he credits DJ Steve Kaufman of San Antonio radio station KRIO for helping to start the fire. "Steve talked the station into doing sort of a free-form programming format during ‘drive time,’” Robert says. “It was anything he liked, which turned out to be great music and a last glimpse at the influence of the DJ on radio. With an organic boost from Kaufman, I went from playing the front room at Gruene Hall for a max of 150 people to playing a show in San Antonio for 1,500 people. That was a moment that kept me going; because before that, I'd been working for 10 years and had a lot of rejection but very little success."

Fellow Texas icon Joe Ely recorded both "The Road Goes on Forever" and "Whenever Kindness Fails" on his album, Love and Danger, and the secret was out on Keen's credentials as a songwriter's songwriter. Robert’s acclaim as a writer has earned him membership in the Texas Heritage Songwriter Hall of Fame, The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the Texas Institute of Letters.

Two more albums, A Bigger Piece of Sky and Gringo Honeymoon, brimmed with instant classics like "Corpus Christi Bay," "Gringo Honeymoon," "Dreadful Selfish Crime," and "Merry Christmas From the Family”.

Continuing to steer clear of the country mainstream, Robert’s authentic alternative to three-and-a-half minute repetitious radio tunes formed a perfect storm of literate song craft, razor wit and a killer band. Robert stirred up a grassroots sensation not seen since the '70s heyday of maverick outlaw country.

Keen and his band hit the road, going out 180 days a year, to play dance halls, roadhouses, theaters, and festival grounds with diverse crowds of college kids, serious singer-songwriter fans, and plenty of true believers. The live performance, the show, is an essential experience for REK fans. BMI acknowledged Keen’s contribution as a road warrior in 2015 when they honored Robert with the inaugural Troubadour Award.

In 2018, Keen returned to College Station to accept the Texas A&M Distinguished Alumni Award. The prestigious honor has been granted to only a few hundred of Texas A&M’s half a million alumni. The award recognizes Aggies who have achieved excellence in their chosen professions, made meaningful contributions to Texas A&M University, and in their local communities.

Keen continues to blaze a trail for other artists in partnership with producer Clara Rose and their Americana Podcast. In 2019, Americana Podcast launched with the inaugural episode featuring Jamestown Revival and Lucero. Subsequent Americana Podcasts include artists Billy Strings, Lori McKenna, Drew Holcomb, I’m With Her, and many more.

Robert will continue to write music and create, host his popular podcast, support young artists, and follow his artistic muse where ever it takes him.

Robert’s personal video announcement HERE

World Tour of Texas

Local Presale tickets Thursday May 26, 10 am to 10 pm. All tickets on sale Friday May 27 at 10 am.

August 4 - Concrete Street Amphitheater, Corpus Christi

August 5 - Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, San Antonio

August 6 - KOKE Fest, Hutto

August 12 - Starlight Ranch, Amarillo

August 17-18 - Gruene Hall, New Braunfels

August 19 - The Grand 1894 Opera House, Galveston

August 20 - Texas Uprising, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston (line-up announcement June 7, pre-sale June 8-9, on sale June 10)

August 21 - Julie Rogers Theater, Beaumont

August 24 - The Factory Deep Ellum, Dallas

August 25 - Billy Bob’s Texas, Fort Worth

August 26 - Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center, Midland

August 28-29 - ACL Live at the Moody Theater, Austin

September 1 - Floore’s Country Store, Helotes (SOLD OUT)

September 2 - TBA, College Station

September 3-4 - Floore’s Country Store, Helotes (SOLD OUT)