Unintended Consequences: Robert Earl Keen and the Origins Of
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UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: ROBERT EARL KEEN AND THE ORIGINS OF THE TEXAS COUNTRY MUSIC SCENE by Richard Kelly, B.A. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in History August 2017 Committee Members: Gary Hartman, Chair Jason Mellard Dan K. Utley COPYRIGHT by Richard Kelly 2017 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Richard Kelly, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. DEDICATION This work is dedicated to anyone who has, or anyone who will in the future, put me on the guest list. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In 1992, during my second year of college, I would occasionally tag along with Mike Kilian, a high school friend, to his Alpha Tau Omega parties just west of the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Not knowing many people, I usually ended up watching the band. This is how I first heard and met Jack Ingram, a fledgling performer and SMU ATO. At the time, none of us could know Ingram was a harbinger of a generation of Texas musicians who, inspired by Robert Earl Keen, would lead a resurgence of interest in original, Texas country music, an echo of the progressive country of the music of Ingram’s, Kilian’s, and my childhood. In 1997, having won the job of broadcasting football games at Texas State University in San Marcos, I was ordered to take a weekly shift playing music on KTSW, the campus radio station. Seeing the growing crowds and rabid enthusiasm at Ingram’s and Keen’s shows, I wondered aloud why this music, popular with the college crowd, was not played on the college radio station. For my grousing, I was rewarded with a two- hour block on Sunday nights playing Ingram, Keen, and whoever I decided were their peers and influences. Artists such as Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Chris Wall, Lyle Lovett, and Steve Earle filled out my original playlist. Three days after my first show, Greg Henry, an ambitious young entrepreneur, sent a press kit introducing me to Pat Green, who became a regular in my rotation. Soon, Cory Morrow, who Kilian and I discovered while chasing two-dollar longnecks at Pete’s Peanut Bar and Piano v Emporium on Austin’s Sixth Street, released an EP I worked into the show. This amateurish, constantly evolving radio program possibly represents the first attempt to define the genre that came to be called Texas Country. In 1999, I talked Chris Knight, program director at Austin’s Lone Star 93.3, into playing Green, Morrow, and other early Texas Country pioneers in regular rotation. Knight also approved a Sunday night show produced and hosted by myself along with Pat Green and others. Knight’s decision to title the show “Inside Texas Country” helped to name the genre. I would like to thank Michael Kilian, Chris Knight, Cory Morrow, and Pat Green for their roles in introducing me to this music scene and helping me play a part in it. My gratitude extends to all those who agreed to be interviewed for this work. Not only for sharing their experiences and reflections but their friendship then and now. Brendon Anthony and Brian Rung deserve special mention for repeatedly making time to mull over my half-baked ideas over the last three years. Bill Whitbeck, whose story undergirds a significant portion of this work, also deserves special recognition. Finally, among my informants, Jack Ingram has held a special place in my life not only for sharing his music, but also for, quite literally, always being the first person to support each of my various endeavors in music. Along with being the first to volunteer to be interviewed for my project, Ingram traveled from Dallas to Austin to be at the debut of both of my radio shows. Thanks, Jack. Ingram’s career will be the focus of the next chapter of this work, which I intend to publish as a book. vi More than a decade after leaving radio to pursue a career as a secondary educator I decided to pursue my Masters in History. One option was Texas State which I noticed housed the Center for Texas Music History. After perusing the center’s publications, I introduced myself through e-mail and asked pointedly why there was no academic work done on the scene I had played some small part in creating and promoting. Assistant Director Dr. Jason Mellard not only acknowledged the oversight, he invited me to do work on Texas Country as part of my program. This invitation cemented Texas State as my choice and, almost exactly three years later, has yielded this thesis. Dr. Hartman, Dr. Mellard, and the scholarship they have facilitated and published through the Center for Texas Music History have been indispensable to this work and for that, they have my gratitude. I am also indebted to Dr. Mellard for consistently encouraging me and, when appropriate, restraining me throughout this process. Our lunch discussion of music and theory are a major inducement to continue towards the larger project. Many of my own interviews inform this work. These sources will become increasingly important as my scholarship progresses through the careers of my contemporaries Ingram, Green, and Morrow. While I was not able to conduct true oral histories of my subjects, the skills I learned in Dan Utley’s Oral History class have vii proven invaluable to my research and allowed me to conduct dramatically more fruitful discussions with my subjects than otherwise possible. Thank you, Mr. Utley. I should also spare a word for the subject of this work. While I did not have the opportunity to interview Robert Earl Keen for this work, in each of the many times I spent time around him during my radio days, I admired Robert Earl’s kindness, intelligence, wit, and lack of pretense. Finally, any time dedicated to this project was time taken from my wife, Leah, and children Jason, Olivia, and Harper. I am grateful for their patience. I also owe my parents, Rodney and Shirley Kelly, more than I can repay for their support for my academic pursuits. Without that, none of this would have been possible. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….v CHAPTER I: Introduction……………………………………………..………………....……1 Any Saturday Night in Texas……………………………………………...1 A Note on Terminology……………………………………………………2 Scope………………………………………………………………………3 “Potentially Dangerous”: The Importance of Music Scenes………………5 “Authentic’ now has more applications than Microsoft Windows”: Notions of Authenticity………………………………...………………….7 “Performing the Texan”…………………………………………………..10 “The Pope of Texas”: Robert Earl Keen and the Texas Country MusicScene………………………………...……………………………..1 5 II: The 1950s Through the 1970s………………………………………………...17 “Doing All He Can Not to Give In to the City”: 1956-1970……………..17 “The Willie Way”: 1970-1974……………………………………………21 “We Was Aggies”: 1974-1980……………………………………………25 III: The 1980s…………………………………………………………………….29 Mañana: 1980-1984………………………………………………………29 “Intelligent Lyrics”: No Kinda Dancer (1984)…………………………...33 ix “The Last Filling Station”: Visions of the Past and Present on No Kinda Dancer………………...………………………………………34 Nashville: 1984-1987…………………………………………………….43 The Class of 1986………………………………………………………..46 “A Hole in Your Soul Where the Wind Blows Through”: 1987-1989…...52 “Thick and Gooey”: The Live Album (1988)……………………………54 “Undeniably Human”: West Textures (1989)……………………………56 IV: The 1990-1997……………………………………………………………….61 Folk Heroes: 1990-1993…………………………………………………61 “I Felt a Part of It”: The Beginnings of the Texas Country Scene………64 Robert Earl Keen and Organic Music……………………………………69 “A Huge Body County”: A Bigger Piece of Sky (1993)…………………71 Dual Identity: 1993-1995………………………………………………...73 “Empty, Open Spaces”: Gringo Honeymoon (1994) …………………….77 The Rowdy Crowd: 1994-1997…………………………………………..81 “It Was Our ¡Viva Terlingua!”: No. 2 Live Dinner (1996)………………86 V: 1998 to the Present……………………………………………………………92 “I Play Americana”: 1997-1998………………………………………….92 “The Devil’s Spawn”: 1998-2001………………………………………..97 “The Road Goes On…”: 2002-Present…………………………………100 Conclusion: “Along the Way a Culture is Created”…………………………….103 x BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………106 xi I: Introduction Any Saturday Night in Texas There is always music. Every weekend, and most weeknights, Texans descend on bars and concert venues to hear live music all over the state. This does not mean there is always a scene. In the last half century, Texas has seen important, identity-forming music scenes come and go. Some of these scenes have been local manifestations of national musical trends such as the folk movement of the late 1950s, the punk wave of the late 1970s, or the indie rock scene of the 1980s. Scenes such as those of the progressive country and Texas blues of the 1970s were centered in the state and exported to the rest of the nation. Each of these scenes shaped, and were shaped by, the communities and participants who identified with the music and social world it spawned. In the 1990s in college cities and towns throughout Texas a new regional scene developed. The artists and fans of this musical movement actively and consciously strove to revive the values and musical heritage of the earlier progressive country scene and its outlaw offshoot. This scene, dubbed Texas Country, grew to include a robust network of live venues, numerous music festivals, a top ten chart, and a radio format.