Customer Reviews

Bigger Piece of Sky

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Arguably my favorite Keen disc, from back in the days when you could actually go to an REK show and hear him sing his songs himself. It's discs like this one that have made that impossible - now it's hard to hear Keen's voice over the crowd's singing. Both the crowd and Keen sing a little flat, and maybe a little off-key at times ... the best thing is that his unique voice only makes his songs better. Each track on this disc is listenable ... with more than half of them being superb Keen songs. "Whenever Kindness Fails" is the best this album offers, for me; its theme hits home ... one of those songs that makes you feel like an artist wrote it for you. "Amarillo Highway" is a great take on the Terry Allen original, revved up and stomping when REK sings it. The tale of long-haired Jesse is a classic Keen story, even better than "The Road Goes On Forever" (that surpasses it only in popularity). Of course, "Corpus Christi Bay" is on this disc ... along with "Crazy Cowboy Dream" and "Paint the Town Beige." Some Keen discs may have bigger hits. Some Keen discs may be less eclectic, more consumer-oriented. But this disc has more quality REK material than any of his others. This disc is a must-have for any quality music junkie. Buy it ... you'll see.

If you become a Robert Earl Keen, Jr. fan as I have, you probably own most or all of his music. I would put this CD just below West Textures and Gringo Honeymoon, and far above some of his others. Amarillo Highway and Corpus Christi Bay are a great start to this re-release, and other highlights include the story of "Jesse" (that song is good once you figure out the story), Night Right for Love, Paint the Town Beige and Crazy Cowboy Dreams. If you are a fan of REK you will not regret buying this CD!

This album was my first introduction to Robert Earl Keen, about 12 years ago. From the stack of years between now and then, I can see where this album is where he really found his voice, moved a little past "gosh I'm tryin' for country" and made Americana Music his own. His lyrics are funny, quirky, sometimes unsettling, and speak truely. "Corpus Christi Bay" is one of my deep all-time favorites, and "Paint The Town Beige"...well, anyone of a certain age can appreciate what he's saying.

His voice is a little raw, a little not-perfect, just like you and me. Try it, you'll be hooked just like I was.

This is his strongest album. There is not a song on this CD that I didn't enjoy, and hopefully one day people will truly appreciate how great of a songwriter Mr. Keen actually is. As a musician/storyteller, I will always argue that he is the best (that is including Bob Dylan) around. If you disagree then I would be willing to bet that you have only listened to his more popular albums (The live ones mainly), but he goes much, much deeper. Listen to this album again, and appreciate the darkness and grit of the record. My favorites on this disk include "Whenever Kindness Fails" in which a young man is discovering the true side to the world and takes it into his own hands by leaving the men who have treated him poorly by leaving them dead along train tracks that he is traveling on. There is a great, fast-paced cover of Terry Allen's (who is one of Keen's favorites) "Amarillo Highway." "Paint the Town Beige" is about how he turned his back on the sellouts in country music and stayed true to his his roots. "Jesse With the Long Hair" is a classic story of greed, outlaws, and how friends are what matter the most in the world. "Blow You Away" in Keen's words is "The song describes all these situations which in one way could be a normal situation; in another way, there's always this trouble just bubbling beneath the surface. The message of that song, is that there is always a dark side to most of life's experiences." "Here in Arkansas" is about a family that is trying to kill the seventh son of a seventh son, because they believe he will lead to their ultimate demise. However in doing so they do find their gloomy fate at the hands of their sins. "Corpus Christi Bay" can only be described as a fun/sad song about how hard it is to change your ways for the better, and questions if it is possible to forever leave the fun times in the past or if you will forever be caught up in that existence. "Crazy Cowboy Dream" is about a rodeo cowboy's life, but it actually mirrors Keen's life in the music industry away from his loved ones for most of his days. "Night Right for Love" is a classic love duet that will be sure to strike a nerve with even the toughest of the tough. "So I Can Take My Rest" is a story about a man who leads a good life and has trouble opening up to those he loves, and wants to know what they truly think of him as he lay on his deathbed. I would highly recommend this album to anyone who loves a story and isn't afraid to shy away from mainstream music, and listen to someone who knows how to write songs for everyone to love and enjoy. To those who think that they didn't enjoy this album, then I would recommend that you give it another shot to truly appreciate how his songs drip with a dark, vivid truth while keeping you strapped in and wanting more. This is one of my favorite albums of all time by any artist, and I would encourage all to give it a chance.

A Bigger Piece of Sky is the kind of album that sneaks up on you. It was a gift, and I didn't really expect it to live up to some of Keen's later work, or Corpus Christi Bay, which has long been one of my favorite songs by any artist. And listening through the album a couple times that was true, but around the third or fourth time I listened to the album I started to absolutely love it.

A Bigger Piece of Sky reminds me a lot of Chris Knight's Trailer Tapes. An early album not as polished as later work, but with a raw beauty to it. Music that goes down like bourbon neat.

Corpus Christi Bay may not be as well known as big a crowd pleaser as The Road Goes on Forever (a great song in its own right), but it's as pitch perfect as a song gets. It's as poetic as Byron, tells as good a story as any Americana song, and a deep streak of melancholy lurking beneath its surface. That subtle melancholy is nowhere more stark than in the line, after his brother visits him (still in Corpus Christi Bay): "He said he finally gave up drinking, then he ordered me a beer." Life for his brother has moved on, and he's still mired in the same place. What's worse, his brother doesn't contemplate him doing so. He's marked incorrigible. And is there a less hopeful line than, "if I could live my life all over, it wouldn't matter anyway, because I never could stay sober"?

The seed of what would become The Road Goes on Forever are shown in Jesse with the Long Hair. Repetition is too often used as a crutch by musicians. Keen does repetition right in Blow You Away. Unfortunately, he does it wrong in Daddy Had a Buick. The album title is a line from Paint the Town Beige, a song about Keen walking away from the chase for country stardom for a slower paced life just making the best music he could make. Crazy Cowboy Dream shows Keen's still happy to lead the itinerant life of a musician.

The 2004 rerelease reordered the tracks. I have to agree the new order is superior to the old.

Though the production is thin-sounding throughout, "A Bigger Piece of Sky" begins with some good old-fashioned country giddy-up, courtesy of the song "Amarillo Highway," which was written by Terry Allen in 1979. Full of brash, pro-Texas lyrics, Keen is in fighting form on the tune and sounds like he's ready to rock and roll with the best of `em. "Corpus Christi Bay," the following song, is even better, a tuneful romp where Keen relates the wild partying exploits of he and his brother with what seems like sad amusement. The first couple of songs might fool one into thinking that this CD is a sure masterpiece, but don't let them fool you. As much as I respect REK and his music, "A Bigger Piece of Sky" is a mostly dull affair, and that's putting it mildly.

The blandness begins on "Whenever Kindness Fails" and never really lets up. Yes, Keen's lyrics are poignant, there's the intermittent beautiful slide guitar and the songs aren't total duds, but there's something missing on this album compared to the brilliant Gringo Honeymoon. There's no doubt that REK knows how to tell stories and write lyrics through the eyes of another, often a raging murderer or driftless ne'er-do-well. But to me, if the music isn't memorable, then it doesn't matter how great the lyrics are. "Jesse With the Long Hair" possesses a bit of spark, but it reminds me of Bob Dylan, an artist I've always found more annoying and overrated than anything else. "Night Right for Love," a ballad Keen sings with Maura O' Connell, is, you guessed it, also boring, which means redemption can only come during the second half of the album.

Unfortunately, it doesn't happen. The back half of the CD is also painfully unanimated. When Keen drones "I gave up the fast lane for a blacktop county road" on "Paint the Town Beige," truer words were never spoken. He strives for some sort of "country-lounge" sound on "Daddy Had a Buick," which, along with the foreboding, brooding tone of "Here in Arkansas," comes off as contrived. That leaves the underwhelming "So I Can Take My Rest," a fitting title to end a lethargic CD that started off so promising.

REK is a great live performer and a true maverick in the world of country music, but this CD, unfortunately, lacks sparkle and truly worthy songs, except for the first two.