JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 15, 2022) – Texas songwriter and entertainer Robert Earl Keen will wrap up 41 years on the road with his 2022 Final Tour, “I’m Comin’ Home: 41 Years On The Road.” Keen’s final public concert will be Sept. 4 in Texas.
Before that final concert, however, Keen is spending his summer saying farewell to
fans across the country. On Sunday, June 5, at 7:30 p.m., the singer-songwriter will
perform at the East Tennessee State University Martin Center for the Arts in the ETSU
Foundation Grand Hall. Local tickets go on sale Friday, March 18, at 10 a.m. at ETSUMartinCenter.org.
Keen made the announcement in January with a personal video posted on social media.
“I’ve been blessed with a lifetime of brilliant, talented, colorful, electrical, magical
folks throughout my life,” Keen said. “This chorus of joy, this parade of passion,
this bull rush of creativity, this colony of kindness and generosity are foremost
in my thoughts today. It’s with a mysterious concoction of joy and sadness that I
want to tell you that as of Sept. 4, 2022, I will no longer tour or perform publicly.”
With a catalog of 21 albums, his band of musicians and many thousands of shows to
his credit, Keen ranked in Pollstar’s Top 20 Global Concert Tours in July 2021. The
music industry officially recognized The Americana genre in 1998, and Keen was the
first artist to be featured on The Gavin Report’s Americana Music Chart and on the
debut cover of its magazine.
“We at the ETSU Martin Center are so fortunate to be able to be a part of Robert Earl
Keen’s last tour,” said Jennifer Clements, executive director of the ETSU Martin Center
and University Events. “While we are not ‘home’ for him, we welcome his unique style
of honest, picturesque Americana music, and we know our Appalachian Highlands public
will make him feel at home.”
A Houston native, Keen has grown into one of the Lone Star State’s most revered singer-songwriters,
following in the footsteps of his friends Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. In 2019,
at a homecoming at the Houston Rodeo, Keen performed with Lyle Lovett. The old friends
opened the show for George Strait to a record-breaking audience of more than 80,000.
Keen was raised on classic rock and Willie Nelson records. At Texas A&M University,
he taught himself how to the play the guitar and turned his poetic musings into songs,
including “The Front Porch Song,” which he co-wrote with Lovett. He produced and financed
his first album, “No Kinda Dancer,” then moved to Nashville, working at the legendary Hatch
Show Print. When he returned to Texas, Keen had a publishing deal, a new label and
a national booking agent. He soon debuted the rowdy fan favorite “The Road Goes on
Forever.”
Keen said he will continue to write music and create, host his podcast, support young artists and follow his artistic muse wherever it takes him.
For more information on Keen and his “I’m Comin’ Home” tour, visit robertearlkeen.com. For more about the Martin Center or to purchase tickets, visit ETSUMartinCenter.org or call the Martin Center box office at (423) 439-2787.
About the Martin Center for the Arts: The 93,000 square foot ETSU Martin Center for the Arts, located at 1320 W. State
of Franklin Road, Johnson City, features three venues, as well as three rehearsal/meeting
rooms. Construction on the center began in early 2018 and was completed in fall 2020,
in the midst of the pandemic. The ETSU Foundation Grand Hall can seat nearly 1,200.