Robert Earl Keen mines a line between wry literary delicacy and incendiary roadhouse fervor. Approaching legend in his native Texas and a certifiable force of nature at sold-out concerts around the country, Keen has been many things to many people. Now, with his new album Walking Distance, one thing is for sure: Robert Earl Keen emerges as a true lyric prospector.

While Robert Earl Keen's previous albums have featured Keen's ironic tales of loving losers, losing lovers and all-too-mortal outlaws, Walking Distance presents a first for Keen; a song cycle built around a central theme. "It's a record about locomotion and movement", Keen explains, "but it is not a movement that's the sound of wheels. If anything, it is about the sound of one's own footsteps." Throughout the album's nine powerful tracks, he takes his characters on unforgettable journeys through moments of reflection to destination of atonement. And in those wide open spaces, Keen finds the smallest nuggets of honesty. "Sometimes you feel foreign and friendless like a stranger, and sometimes you come back home," he says. "Anything is walking distance if you really think about it. Some walks are just longer than others."

The sound and songs of Walking Distance are cinematic in their scale, from the deceptive jubilation of " Travelin ' Light" to the desolate tick-tock undercurrents of "Still Without You", to the lonely moan of the cellos throughout the stunning 'desperado suite' "Road to No Return". Ultimately, it's Robert Earl Keen's undeniable gift for the most resonant details that sets the album's stories on their journey.

While Robert Earl Keen brought the songs to the studio, co-producer Gurf Morlix (known for his work with Lucinda Williams) brought the vision of the album's unique instrumentation and arrangements. Additionally, Keen insisted on recording the album with his long-time road band, Rich Brotherton (guitar), Bill Whitbeck (bass), Tom Van Schaik (drums) and Bryan Duckworth (fiddle, mandolin). "I wanted to give this record a cohesive feel. We all work together, we all enjoy being together, and everybody feels like they are part of this record. Fans come to see us as a band. So, what they see is what they should hear on the record."

Robert Earl Keen's own journey is firmly rooted in the rich musical terrain of Texas where the Houston native grew up around Czech polka parties, childhood trips to Mexico, and the front porch songwriting scene at Texas A&M. After several acclaimed independent albums and a relentless touring schedule, Robert Earl Keen developed a fanatical fan base throughout the Southwest along with a revered catalog on songs that have been covered by a diverse group of artists such as The Highwaymen, Joe Ely, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Jil Sobule , and Gillian Welch, to name a few. A fruitless stay in Nashville attempting to consciously write "hits" led him back to Texas.

Robert Earl Keen signed with Arista /Austin for his 1997 label debut, Picnic, and reaction was both instantaneous and nationwide: Picnic was the #1 album at Americana radio for three solid months. Finally, Keen's previous status of cult hero and country/rock icon has been left in the dust. "Picnic was a breakthrough album for me," Keen says with pride. "New fans we made with Picnic went out and bought the old records. .". Robert Earl Keen's concert crowds are now among the most startlingly diverse of any artist-cowboys, hippies and alternative rockers drink, howl and play air guitar side by side.

While Robert Earl Keen has historically carved his own unique route in American music, Walking Distance arrives as Robert Earl Keen's most fully-realized album. "I want people to feel like this record is something they can listen to from beginning to end," says Keen, "and I want them to know that it is a dead on honest record." The journey that is Walking Distance invites you to realize that the destination is beside the point. Sometimes the getting there is all that matters.