Hometown Hero

Ready for Confetti, Robert Earl Keen looks forward to singing for a hometownHouston crowd

Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen in concert
Photo by Susan Darrow
House of Blues

Yes, it’s true: For Robert Earl Keen, the road actually does go on forever. And the party never really ends. Indeed, if you just take a gander at the website of this eclectically inclined country-rocker, you’ll see what a relentlessly touring entertainer he is.

On Wednesday, the road takes Keen back to Houston, for a gig at one of his very favorite venues, The House of Blues. The Sharpstown High grad is looking forward to playing for a hometown crowd, because he knows what to expect from a boisterous audience of H-Town hearty-partiers.

And since Wednesday still counts as part of the Christmas season, he knows pretty much what the audience expects as well.

CultureMap: This time of year, I would imagine your fans are demanding to hear “Merry Christmas from the Family” [Keen’s signature tune about a drunken holiday gathering] even more than “The Road Goes On Forever,” right?

Robert Earl Keen: Absolutely. I think whenever I come around to this time of year, every year, I tell myself, “OK, I’m gonna see if I can just go out there and stand out there for an hour, and then play that song and just walk off, and see if that works.” I don’t know – I guess it’s kind of a funny, smart-ass fantasy.

"And I know there are people who don’t like Houston, or have a hard time defending it, because it’s sprawled out or whatever. But for me, personally – I guess it’s because I grew up there, I don’t know. But I always feel totally at peace in Houston."

But, yeah, there is a definite feeling that no matter what we’re playing, how good we’re doing, how many people are screaming “Robert Earl Keen! Robert Earl Keen! Robert Earl Keen!” – they’re still just waiting for this one song. I know that’s happening, I know there’s no way I’m going to get out of the building alive without playing it. So it’s a matter of, OK, let’s have enough anticipation to let everybody be excited about it – but not too much for them to get pissed off.

CM: Is there a special vibe you get from playing for a hometown audience?

REK: First off, the answer would be yes. And then I would have to say that, as long as I’ve been away, I always immediately feel at peace whenever I go back to Houston. Even when I’m on the freeway, I’m at peace. Houston has a certain vibe that no other place has. And I know there are people who don’t like Houston, or have a hard time defending it, because it’s sprawled out or whatever. But for me, personally – I guess it’s because I grew up there, I don’t know. But I always feel totally at peace in Houston.

CM: Ready for Confetti is the title of your latest… well, wait a minute. I guess they don’t call them albums anymore.

REK: No, they still call them albums. Or CDs. Projects. Episodes. [Laughs] Tragedies. Mistakes.

CM: Well, OK then. Like all of your albums, it’s a crazy-quilt mix of musical styles, ranging pure country to folk to country rock to Americana and on and on. And there’s diversity within individual songs -- like “I Gotta Go,” which sounds bouncy and cheery only until you really listen to the lyrics, and you realize it’s a pretty dang dark account of a guy who’s been spending his life racing toward his death.

REK: [Laughs] You’re right, it does have kind of a dark thing going. But it’s not near as dark as I’ve been in the past.

CM: But does this diversity ever work against you in terms of building an audience? Because, really, it’s not like I can give somebody who’s never heard your music a copy of Ready for Confetti – or any one of your albums, really – and tell them, “All right, this is typical Robert Earl Keen.”

REK: Well, because this is the way I am, I have to feel like my diversity is my strength. And the reason why I’ve been able to have a career that’s gone on now for nearly 30 years. As far as fans go, it’s like I always say: I’m like a Milton Bradley game, good for folks 8 to 80. When people come to hear me perform – unless they just don’t like me, they’re going to find something they like in the show.

CM: You are a true Texas cowboy, in that you actually maintain a ranch near your home in Kerrville. What’s a typical day at the ranch like for you?

REK: Oh, I kind of clean up a few things. Fix up the tack room. I’ve got three horses, so I’ve got to feed them. And I’ve got an old Dodge Dart – a ’63 Dodge Dart that my grandmother gave me. I start it up every time I go to the ranch, just to keep it running.

And occasionally I take people out hunting. There’s a pool there, so in the summertime I hang out by the pool. And when I write, I have this shack I call the Scriptorium where I write. I have about a half-dozen guitars up there, and about a thousand cowboy books. So I play my guitars, read these books – and build a campfire outside the door and eat deer sausage.

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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