Robert Earl Keen | The Jefferson Theater

Post-retirement life looks a little different for every person lucky enough to reach the sunset of their careers with some time and energy to spare. For singer-songwriter (and poet, podcast host, amateur historian, good-time curator, guitar collector) Robert Earl Keen, it took under a year of retirement to say “screw it,” and kick off a return to work unrivaled since Michael Jordan hit the court in a Wizards jersey. After 21 albums full of songs like “Gringo Honeymoon,” “Feelin’ Good Again,” and “Corpus Christi Bay,” thousands of shows, songs cut by artists including George Strait and The Highwaymen, and many well-deserved accolades like the BMI Troubadour Award, the Texas Heritage Songwriter Hall of Fame, and the Texas A&M Distinguished Alumni Award—of which only 300 or so have been awarded from more than half-a-million graduates—it would be hard to find anybody in the same shoes who would willingly give it all up for a quiet life at home. As Keen projects from the stage every night, along with the help of every set of lungs in the room, “The road goes on forever, and the party never ends!”