For a good time:
Today, January 11, we celebrate the one and only Robert Earl Keen’s birthday! REK and the Dixie Chicken kind of go hand in hand. The front porch that he and Lyle Lovett wrote and sang about was a stone’s throw from our back door on Northgate. His songs have been a staple of requests from Aggies going back more than 30 years.
As we honor Robert on his birthday, we wanted to share and talk about this album from Don Ganter’s personal collection.
Back in 1988, 10 years after he graduated from Texas A&M (Whoop!), he release The Live Album.
While it never achieved a lot of mainstream success, it’s an album that many Texas and Red Dirt artists list as a “must have.” Songs like “The Front Porch Song”, “Copenhagen”, and “Stewball” are still favorites among those that walk into the Dixie Chicken.
You can see the “X” marks of the songs Don himself designated as “Chicken worthy.” They’re all a little more upbeat and tended to encourage drinking a little more than a slower song like “I Would Change My Life” would.
Robert Earl Keen is an Aggie legend and many consider him one of the leaders of the modern day Texas music scene. Take a listen to what guys like the Randy Rogers Band and Roger Creager have to say about him.
Today, we wish Robert Earl Keen a very happy birthday and thank him for all of the music he’s bestowed on us that has spanned generations of Aggies and Dixie Chicken lovers!