Well as I sat here thinking about what to listen to or what to write about, I decided to take a little spin on the iPod. I switched it to genres, then folk and then stood there spinning the wheel right and left as I counted to 30, because that;s today’s date, you see! When I looked at the wheel, it had spun right to Robert Earl Keen, Jr. So then I moved on up to the songs and spun the wheel another 9 times for the month of September that comes to an end tonight. Boy, doesn’t it seem like we were just celebrating Labor Day and the start of school and now we’ve moved on to Halloween, and the Christmas lights are out at Target!!! The other night I was told to remind all the shoppers that if you want outdoor lights you better get them early because Target only get two shipments, so they go quickly and don’t forget to get a Target Red Card (either credit or debit) you’ll get an additional 5% off every purchase, everyday and Target will also donate money to the school of your choice!! I think our store has donated over $17.000 to one school in our area this year!! You’ll also get things like free shipping from Target.com!! If you come into our store in Mt Laurel and sign up tell them the “old man in the market” told you about it!!
Now where were we before the commercial interruption?? Oh, yeah we were waiting to see where the iPod click wheel ended up and what REK song we’d go “into the night” with and the winner is “Shades of Gray” from REK’s 1997 release Picnic! From Wikipedia……
Debuting with 1984’s No Kinda Dancer, the Houston native has recorded 18 full-length albums for both independent and major record labels, while his songs have also been covered by several different artists from the country, folk and Texas country music scenes (including George Strait, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, The Highwaymen, Nanci Griffith, and the Dixie Chicks.) Although both his albums and live performances span many different styles, from folk, country, and bluegrass to rock, he is most commonly affiliated with the Americana movements. In fact, he was the first “Americana” artist to appear on the cover of Gavin magazine when the style was officially recognized as its own genre in 1998.
One thing that you can always expect at an REK concert is a good time, people sign along to songs we all know by heart like, “The Road Goes on Forever” and “Merry Christmas from the Family”! So let’s go “into the night” with REK performing “Shades of Gray” at the famous Gruene Hall and if you know the words sign along like everyone in the video!!!!
