Robert Earl Keen – Today’s Order: No. 2 Live
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Concert: B-
I had never heard of Robert Earl Keen, but was curious
what an independent Country artist might have to offer in putting out his own
DVD. The resulting Robert Earl Keen
– Today’s Order: No. 2 Live (2004) is a concert lasting a mere 39 minutes,
but what is impressive is that he is not part of the flashy wave of cleansed
performers in the genre who just came out of a 1970s Country Rock/Urban
Cowboy time capsule. Instead, he
and his band have more old school Country influence, from the harder and more
competent playing of instruments to the lyrics and vocals of lead Keen. He is not here to be nice or clean al the
time, and that is a relief.
Though that playing is brief, it is redeemed by
consistency, the material and energy.
The songs covered are:
1) I’m
Going To Town
2) Feeling
Good Again
3) Amarillo
Highway
4) Sonora’s
Death Row
5) Five
Pound Bass
6) Down
That Dusty Trail
7) I’m
Coming Home
8) Road
Goes On Forever
When recently watching Jaime Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray,
the title character keeps repeating a basic rule of Country Music that the
flashy wave has lost. He says that
people love this kind of music because of the stories. The kind of stories he meant were gritty
and/or honest ones that leveled with the listener, the kind that made the likes
of Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash legends.
Most music in the genre today has unmemorable, tired, even silly and
occasionally humiliating songs to offer.
Here, like Toby Keith, there are honest songs about real people acting,
feeling and being human without some phony pretensions. This DVD is a great opportunity to hear some
real Country, which is long overdue for a resurgent comeback.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 video is clean, but has the usual
detail limits of this older presentation format and the Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo is healthy, clear and offers some Pro Logic surrounds to boot. Extras include a text biography of Keen with
four frames in more fine print than usual, a look at the other four members of
his band which plays clips when their name is clicked on to, and a discography
of the ten albums from Keen’s own record label. Again, the print and images are too small and that is bad for
what few extras are offered, but those who like Country Music and are sick of
it being Rock thirty years late will be most likely to enjoy this performance.
- Nicholas Sheffo
