December 06, 2019
BY TOM NETHERLAND | SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER
Texan Robert Earl Keen sings and writes songs much in the manner of a seasoned Major League Baseball pitcher. He might lull you with an off-speed number, then buckle your knees with a heater.
So it’ll go when Keen returns to Bristol and the Paramount Center for the Arts on Saturday. As if from his enlarged bag of goodies, the fascinating troubadour presents “Countdown to Christmas: Lunar Tunes & Looney Times.”
Yep, it’s a nod the 50th Anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 moon landing. Per Keen’s reputation, anticipate the unlikely. OK, he’ll unwrap perennial favorite “Merry Christmas from the Family.” Yet like a mysterious lump in one’s Christmas stocking or an odd-shaped box under the tree, Keen delivers unexpected wonders.