2015 - (hier auf Vinyl als Doppel LP) It is now getting more and more common to see artists from other genres putting out Bluegrass albums of their own. It says one of two things: either A) songs in their normal style are becoming ho-hum affairs and the artists are looking to do something different, or B) they genuinely like Bluegrass and now have the freedom to produce such albums without being vetoed by their labels. (It also is clear that Bluegrass is no longer a step child in the music business). We have had Bluegrass albums from Dolly Parton, Dierks Bentley, and Alan Jackson, among others. With all due respect to Mr. Keen—who is a well known artist in the folk music field—we wonder if this new record will make any sort of splash (or ripple) among Bluegrass fans. It may be just our own biases here, but Keen’s singing is clearly of the “folk” variety and seems affected. Compare this with the fairly recent CD by Alan Jackson (a very successful seller, by the way)—Jackson’s voice is totally natural and lends itself nicely to a good selection of mostly new material. We can say that Keen has picked out a very nice selection of songs, some of which include LONG BLACK VEIL, POOR ELLEN SMITH, VINCENT BLACK LIGHTNING, 99 YEARS, TWISTED LAUREL, T FOR TEXAS, EAST VIRGINIA BLUES, FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW, THE WALLS OF TIME, WHITE DOVE and OLD HOME PLACE. Among the nine backing musicians are Danny Barnes (banjo & guitar), Marty Muse (dobro) and Sara Watkins on fiddle, and there are guest appearances by Lyle Lovett, Peter Rowan, and Natalie Maines.
15 Songs
- HOT CORN, COLD CORN
- VINCENT BLACK LIGHTNING
- FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW
- 99 YEARS FOR ONE DARK DAY
- EAST VIRGINIA BLUES
- POOR ELLEN SMITH
- LONG BLACK VEIL
- THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME
- T FOR TEXAS
- Peter Rowan Intro
- WALLS OF TIME
- WHITE DOVE
- OLD HOME PLACE
- TWISTED LAUREL
- WAYFARING STRANGER
