Keen joins an all-star line-up on the album One Night in Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute to The Red Headed Stranger.
C&I reader favorite Robert Earl Keen may have retired from touring and performing publicly in September 2022, but not before he joined the all-star lineup for One Night in Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute to The Red Headed Stranger, the forthcoming live tribute album honoring the one and only Willie Nelson.
Keen’s contribution to the project: His cover of “Pick Up the Tempo,” which Willie originally included in the soundtrack for his 1980 movie Honeysuckle Rose, and later released as a duet with Waylon Jennings. The live version for the album, which you can preview here, “is my favorite ‘off the cuff’ performance ever,” Keen says.
Steve Earl, Sheryl Crow, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, Robert Earl Keen, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Vincent Neil Emerson, Shinyribs and Emily Gimble also are featured on the album, which was organized by Bruce Robison — singer, songwriter, producer and owner of Austin-based record label The Next Waltz — and recorded on May 1 of last year during Willie’s 89th birthday celebration at his ranch in Luck, Texas. Release date is April 28, 2023 — just one day before Willie turns 90.
“To put together a night of Willie Nelson music was a dream for me,” says Robison says. “His music has always been part of my life, guiding me like the North Star. It’s the soundtrack to living in Texas.”
