Audio Cassette review:
Jr. Robert Earl Keen - No. 2 Live Dinner

Jr. Robert Earl Keen - No. 2 Live Dinner

Band: Jr. Robert Earl Keen Title: No. 2 Live Dinner Rating: Release Date: 19 March, 1996 Media: Audio Cassette Tracks: 1: Intro 2: I'm Going to Town 3: Gringo Honeymoon 4: Merry Christmas from the Family 5: Five Pound Bass 6: Band Intro 7: Rollin' By 8: Sonora's Death Row 9: When the Bluebonnets Bloom 10: Thing It Over One Time 11: Amarillo Highway 12: Road Intro 13: Road Goes on Forever 14: Dreadful Selfish Crime 15: Mariano Intro 16: Mariano 17: I'm Comin' Home

Editoral Review says good-bye to Sugar Hill Records with "No. Having signed his first major-label contract with Arista Texas, Robert Earl Keen Jr. 2 Live Dinner," a concert recording that sums up his eight years and five earlier albums with the company. Keen has a gift for concocting musical stories that bring Texas to life in all its violent, sad, expansive, absurdist glory. His voice is still a ramshackle wreck, but he has learned how to minimize his melodic weaknesses while maximizing his storytelling strengths. Furthermore, Keen's song introductions are often as funny and imaginative as his best songs. Recorded at two 1995 shows in Texas, No. 2 Live Dinner includes a funny tale about his doomed early efforts at a career and an even funnier one about how his car caught fire at Willie Nelson's second-ever Fourth of July picnic. --Geoffrey Himes .. You can see a complete list of all Jr. Robert Earl Keen discography, or go back to the Jr. Robert Earl Keen tabs