Robert Earl Keen began his Tuesday evening concert at Evanston's SPACE nightclub by singing three songs about and inspired by trains. He rationalized this choice by explaining that the first half of Johnny Cash's career consisted almost entirely of train songs.
Keen is primarily known for his songwriting skills, but his guitar work and vocals drew in the audience during this intimate performance. Ordinarily, he tours with a 4-piece band, but tonight only Brian Beken accompanied him on guitar and fiddle. The pair complemented one another perfectly.
The Texas native performed for a little over an hour. It was not long enough, but every song was enjoyable - as were the stories he told between songs about what inspired him to write each composition. We got to hear the author perform songs that others recorded. Joe Ely first introduced me to Keen's compositions "Whenever Kindness Fails" and "The Road Goes On Forever," but the songwriter treated us to the original version on this night. The latter drew a standing ovation from many in the audience. He also played his version of Todd Snider's "Play a Train Song."
Noticeably missing from the set was "The Front Porch Song," which Keen co-wrote with his college roommate, Lyle Lovett.
I enjoyed Keen's short set of 90-second songs that he told us he wrote in his spare time. He referred to them as "Snapchat Songs."
The duet closed with two of Keen's more popular tracks - "Gringo Honeymoon" and "I Gotta Go," after which he did, in fact, go off the stage. The crowd stood, hoping for a return to the stage that did not happen.
The concert was too short, but it was time well spent.