41 Years On the Road
After 41 years on the road, Robert Earl Keen is bringing his farewell tour to GPAC on July 30. Don’t miss your chance to see the legend live for the final time! Tickets on sale NOW!
Come early for live music by Josh Threlkeld under the canopy of trees in The Grove! Gates open at 5:00 PM and drinks for purchase will be available at the First Horizon Foundation Plaza bar.
Food Truck: Eat At Eric’s
Welcome Brent Cobb!
Brent will open the evening’s concert.
THE PIONEER
ROBERT EARL KEEN
"The road goes on forever ..."
It's not always easy to sum up a career - let alone a life's ambition - so succinctly, but those five words from Robert Earl Keen's calling-card anthem do just that.
You can complete the lyric with the next five words - the ones routinely shouted back at Keen by thousands of fans a night "and the party never ends!" - just to punctuate the point with a flourish, but it's the part about the journey that gets right to the heart of Keen’s legacy. From the get-go, Keen wanted to write and sing his own songs, and to keep writing and singing them for as long as possible.
"I always wanted to play music, and I always knew that you had to get some recognition in order to continue to play music," Keen says. "But I never thought in terms of getting to be a big star. I thought in terms of having a really, really good career writing good songs, and getting onstage to share a really good time."
Now with 21 records to his name, a band of stellar musicians, and thousands of shows under his belt, there is no end in sight to the road ahead. In July of 2021, POLLSTAR ranked Keen on its Top 20 Global Concert Tours, proof that he has blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that's earned him living- legend and pioneer status in the Americana music world.
A Houston native, REK has for three decades been regarded as one of the Lone Star State's finest true singer-songwriters. He enjoyed a homecoming at the 2019 Houston Rodeo when he performed with college friend, Lyle Lovett, ahead of George Strait to the record-breaking audience of over 80,000 attendees.
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 him with the inaugural Troubadour Award, followed by John Prine and John Hiatt.
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 in authentic tales of life. Every music fan should see Robert Earl Keen.
