Robert Earl Keen - Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions (Deluxe Edition) (2015)

Mention the name Robert Earl Keen, and several descriptive terms spring to mind - Texas singer-songwriter, career artist, brilliant storyteller, sardonic humorist, poet of the strange and familiar. And now with the release of his latest album, Happy Prisoner, there is what may seem a surprising addition to that list - bluegrass singer. "I've had a lifelong love of bluegrass," says Keen. " When I started playing, my first guitar hero was Norman Blake. In college, I had a bluegrass band called the Front Porch Boys, went to fiddle contests, learned a jillion fiddle and old-timey songs. My whole education in music started with bluegrass." The record finds Keen re-teaming with producer Lloyd Maines. Helping it all fall together is Keen's longtime ace band, consisting of guitarist Rich Brotherton, bassist Bill Whitbeck, drummer Tom Van Schaik and steel guitarist Marty Music, plus a star-studded cast of special guests, including Danny Barnes on banjo, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins on fiddle and Lyle Lovett and Natalie Maines on vocals.

TRACKLIST

1. Hot Corn, Cold Corn (3:27)
2. 52 Vincent Black Lightning (3:57)
3. Footprints In the Snow (3:12)
4. 99 Years For One Dark Day (with Peter Rowan) (2:54)
5. East Virginia Blues (3:34)
6. Poor Ellen Smith (3:47)
7. Long Black Veil (3:51)
8. This World Is Not My Home (3:19)
9. T For Texas (with Lyle Lovett) (4:27)
10. Peter Rowan Intro (1:38)
11. Walls of Time (4:39)
12. White Dove (3:13)
13. Old Home Place (2:57)
14. Twisted Laurel (2:46)
15. Wayfaring Stranger (with Natalie Maines) (4:14)

Deluxe Edition
16. Little Cabin Home on the Hill (Bonus Track) (3:01)
17. Dark As a Dungeon (Bonus Track) (4:04)
18. I'm Troubled, I'm Troubled (Bonus Track) (3:28)
19. 14 Carat Mind (Bonus Track) (2:38)
20. Steam Powered Aeroplane (Bonus Track) (2:48)