Wild Wind

Poems and Stories Inspired
by the Songs of Robert Earl Keen

PREFACE BY WILLY BRAUN OF RECKLESS KELLY
edited by Sandra Johnson Cooper and Ron Cooper
ISBN: 978-1-963695-01-4 paperback $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-963695-02-1 ebook $9.99
November 19, 2024

This anthology of poems and short stories is an homage to Texas singer/song-writer Robert Earl Keen, who stands in the songwriter/storyteller tradition of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, John Prine, and Keen’s contemporaries Lyle Lovett and James McMurtry. The poems and short stories here are each inspired by Keen’s songs, some expansions of themes of Keen’s songs, others move in creative directions suggested by the characters in his work. Keen’s songs are impressive for their literary sensibility (he was an English major at Texas A&M University) and have influenced many songwriters as well as authors of fiction and poetry.

What an amazing storyteller/songwriter with songs so full of life, humor and often a deeper undercurrent of pathos and humanity. He’s a national treasure whose work will endure.—Patterson Hood of Drive By Truckers

“The Road Goes on Forever” was like a baseball bat hitting me on the side of the head, because I know those people in that song. It’s a great live song.—Joe Ely, Texas singer-songwriter, author of “Me and Billy the Kid”

Robert Earl Keen’s touch with lyrics is obvious. Every song is a story with a unique physical setting. It’s the music, however, that delivers those lyrics as a seamless, extremely musical whole. Each song has its own framework, supporting the story in every way and creating a rich scene in the listener’s mind.—Kathy Barwick, bluegrass and folk multi-instrumentalist

I saw Robert on Austin City Limits around 1986, and I’ve listened to him ever since. That’s around the time I started writing songs.  Music like his is what took me to Nashville a few years later. Bigger Piece of Sky is one of my top ten albums. I think he’s one of the all time best songwriters I ever heard.—Chris Knight, Singer/Songwriter and honorary Texan