 Born in Houston on January 11, 1956, country singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen started his music career on the front steps of his house at Texas A&M with his neighbor Lyle Lovett. The pair jammed on the front porch often and eventually wrote "This Old Porch," which appeared on Lovett's debut album. Keen formed a bluegrass band, the Front Porch Boys, before moving to Austin, Texas in 1981 and creating the Incredible Robert Keen and Some Other Guys Band. Eventually going solo, he financed his first album, No Kinda Dancer (1984), with $4,500 in loans. The album made him a hot commodity in the industry and earned him a nomination for the Austin Chronicle's Songwriter of the Year award. Keen moved to Nashville and released a live album in 1988 while earning a living as a songwriter with a bevy of artists, most notably Lovett and Nanci Griffith, recording his songs. Moving back to Texas in 1987, Keen released his ode to Texas life, West Textures, in 1989. After several more albums, including his 1994 masterpiece Gringo Honeymoon, Keen was signed to Arista Records' Austin label and released his eighth album, Picnic. Keen's latest, Walking Distance, was released on October 27, 1998. Joe Hauler
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