Gravitational Forces

Last updated

Gravitational Forces
REK Gravitational Forces.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedAugust 7, 2001
Genre country, folk, singer-songwriter
Length49:42
Label Lost Highway
Producer Gurf Morlix,
Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen chronology
Walking Distance
(1998)
Gravitational Forces
(2001)
Farm Fresh Onions
(2003)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com (favorable) [1]
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
Austin Chronicle (favorable) [3]
Country Music(mixed) [4]
Daily O'Collegian (favorable) [5]
Dirty Linen (favorable) [6]
Goldmine (favorable) [7]
The Music BoxStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]
NetRhythms(favorable) [9]
New York Times (mixed) [10]
Performing Songwriter(favorable) [11]
Sing Out! (favorable) [12]

Gravitational Forces is an album by Texas-based country/folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen. It was first released in the United States on August 7, 2001, on Lost Highway Records.

Contents

One reviewer described this album, Keen's ninth, as being "just a hair more to the country side of the folk-rock-country axis than ever before." [4] Indeed, producer and multi-instrumentalist Gurf Morlix, and the various long-time members of Keen's own road band did not shy away from including fiddle solos and steel guitars in the mix when they suit Keen's songs. "I wanted to keep a real natural, organic sound," says Morlix, "My job as producer varies from artist to artist. I help them find the sound they want and then do what it takes to get that on record." [13]

As usual, Keen's songwriting is full of narrative stories and character sketches. A review in Performing Songwriter magazine described the characters found in Gravitational Forces as "everyday people pulled, led, and sometimes dragged by some outside strength." [11] Billboard noted, however, that Keen's more recent tales avoid some of the violent imagery found in some of his earlier songs. Keen has admitted, "Yeah, the body count's a little lower this time." [14] [15]

Keen began recording the album after his previous label, Arista Austin had closed down, and before finding his new, albeit brief, home on Lost Highway Records. "When we started this project I hadn't made a deal with any record company," Keen says, "I just knew I would have a deal one way or another." [14] The release arrived at a time when Keen was beginning to receive wider recognition outside of his home state of Texas. [14] [16] It peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, later matched by his 2015 album Happy Prisoner:The Bluegrass Sessions as Keen's highest ranked albums on that chart.

Song selection

The songs on the album that Keen did not write range from Johnny Cash's often-covered classic, "I Still Miss Someone" to Townes Van Zandt's more obscure "Snowin' on Raton". Keen and his band also cover the traditional blues, "Walkin' Cane" in what has been described as a "rowdy, back-porch take," [14] and treat Terry Allen's "High Plains Jamboree" with a backdrop of "bar room party sounds." [17]

The cover that reviewers most recognize as a choice pick to match Keen and his career outside of mainstream music is Joe Dolce's "Hall of Fame". [12] [14] Keen sings:

My Home ain't in the hall of fame
You can go there you won't find my name
And my songs don't belong on top forty radio
I'll keep the old back forty for my home.

Keen's own songs provide many of the album's highlights. "Wild Wind" is a harmonica-heavy minor key introduction to a series of tragic small-town characters, that will leave some listeners wanting to know more. [7] Keen says that some of the characters that populate his songs are based upon "dead on real people" while others are composites. In "Wild Wind", he says, "there's a character that just sort of walks around town and sells papers. He's a mixture of about three or four guys that I know... In general I try to keep with real people, because I feel like you always want to have some hint of the truth where it makes it feel real to you." [16]

"Not a Drop of Rain" is Keen's personal favorite from the album, "It's a very emotional song, written out of thinking what would happen if I lost everything I have." [14] The song has a somewhat unusual guitar accompaniment played in DADGAD tuning [18] and its structure eschews the traditional verse/chorus/verse song structure. [14] Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin fell in love with the song and began performing it. [18] Her version was recorded in studio and released in 2002 on a compilation by radio station KGSR. [19]

Keen's "Goin' Nowhere Blues" has been described as "chilling" [7] and contains references to Langston Hughes, Woody Guthrie, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and down-and-out union workers. Keen manages to connect the tragic aspects of all these disparate lives.

The title track, "Gravitational Forces", has been described as "sort of experimental" [7] by some and "bizarre" [4] or "hysterical" [3] by others. Keen delivers a spoken stream of consciousness on the "temporal distortion of a four-hour soundcheck," [3] complete with a free jazz accompaniment that caused one reviewer to liken it to Allen Ginsberg's reading of "Howl" backed by the Kronos Quartet. [7]

Although one reviewer indicates that the closing track is Keen's first studio release of his own live signature song, "The Road Goes On Forever", [9] Keen first recorded the song for his 1989 album West Textures . In the earlier recording the track was five minutes long, just enough to relate the plot twists in Keen's story. This time it's a seven-minute build-up to some intense and lengthy instrumental solos.

In an August 2001 taping of Austin City Limits , Keen and his band gave a live performance including many of these same songs. This was released in 2004 as the album, Live From Austin, TX . [20]

Track listing

  1. "My Home Ain't in the Hall of Fame" (Joe Dolce) – 3:04
  2. "Hello New Orleans" – 3:01
  3. "Wild Wind" – 5:12
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – acoustic guitar & harmony vocals
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass guitar, harmony vocals, harmony concept & vocal arrangement
    • Gurf Morlix – acoustic & baritone guitars
    • Cody Braun – harmonica
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums
  4. "Not a Drop of Rain" – 4:09
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – acoustic guitar
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass guitar & harmony vocals
    • Bryan Duckworth — mandolin
    • Gurf Morlix – beer bottle slide guitar
    • Ian McLagan – Hammond B-3 organ
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums
  5. "I Still Miss Someone" (Johnny Cash, Roy Cash) – 3:19
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – acoustic & electric guitars and harmony vocals
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass guitar & harmony vocals
    • Bryan Duckworth — fiddle & mandolin
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums
  6. "Fallin' Out" – 3:25
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – acoustic guitar
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass guitar & harmony vocals
    • Gurf Morlix – electric & lap steel guitars and harmonium
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums & percussion
  7. "High Plains Jamboree" (Terry Allen) – 3:10
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – acoustic, electric & baritone guitars
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass guitar & tic-tac bass guitar
    • Tommy Delamore – steel guitar
    • Byran Duckworth – fiddle
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums
    • "Bar Room Party Sound" — Kathy Brotherton, Rich Brotherton, Gurf Morlix, Laurie Galbraith & Robert Earl Keen
  8. "Walkin' Cane" (traditional, arranged by Robert Earl Keen) – 4:43
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – slide, electric & National slide guitars guitars and harmony vocals
    • Bill Whitbeck – upright bass & harmony vocals
    • Bryan Duckworth – fiddle
    • Gurf Morlix – mandolin
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums & percussion
  9. "Goin' Nowhere Blues" – 4:47
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – acoustic guitar
    • Bill Whitbeck – upright bass
    • Ian McLagan – Hammond B-3 organ
    • Gurf Morlix – acoustic & electric guitars
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums & percussion
  10. "Snowin' on Raton" (Townes Van Zandt) – 5:01
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – electricguitar & harmony vocals
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass guitar & harmony vocals
    • Marty Muse – steel guitar
    • Freddie Fletcher — pizza box percussion
  11. "Gravitational Forces" – 2:41
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – acoustic guitar
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass guitar
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums & percussion
  12. "The Road Goes On Forever" – 7:10 †
    • Robert Earl Keen – lead vocals
    • Rich Brotherton – electric & baritone guitars and mandolin
    • Bill Whitbeck – bass
    • Ray Kennedy — electric guitar
    • Marty Muse – steel guitar
    • Tom Van Schaik – drums

Credits

Production

Management

Artwork

Chart performance

Chart (2001)Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers 1
U.S. Billboard 200 111
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums 10

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Case</span> American singer-songwriter

Peter Case is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His career is wide-ranging, from rock n' roll and blues, to folk rock and solo acoustic performance.

<i>Car Wheels on a Gravel Road</i> 1998 studio album by Lucinda Williams

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released on June 30, 1998, by Mercury Records. The album was recorded and co-produced by Williams in Nashville, Tennessee and Canoga Park, California, and features guest appearances by Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris.

<i>Shouldnt a Told You That</i> 1993 studio album by the Dixie Chicks

Shouldn't a Told You That is the third studio album by American country band Dixie Chicks, under the name the Dixie Chicks Cowgirl Band, released in 1993. It was their third and final album for the Crystal Clear Sound label, and last to feature singer-bassist Laura Lynch. Four years later, Natalie Maines joined, and the group released their 1998 breakthrough album Wide Open Spaces.

<i>World in Motion</i> (Jackson Browne album) 1989 studio album by Jackson Browne

World in Motion is the ninth album by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1989. It peaked at number 45 on The Billboard 200 and was Browne's first album to obtain neither gold nor platinum status. The album took three years to complete and makes statements about nuclear disarmament and the "secret" government that brought forth Oliver North and the Iran-Contra scandal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Earl Keen</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1956)

Robert Earl Keen is an American country singer-songwriter and entertainer. Debuting with 1984's No Kinda Dancer, the Houston native has recorded 20 full-length albums for both independent and major record labels. His songs have had cover versions recorded by many musicians, including George Strait, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, The Highwaymen and Nanci Griffith. Keen has toured extensively in the US and abroad throughout his career.

<i>Step Inside This House</i> 1998 studio album by Lyle Lovett

Step Inside This House is the seventh album by Lyle Lovett, released in 1998. In contrast with his earlier albums, populated mostly by songs penned by Lovett, House is a double-length album of cover songs written by fellow Texans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gurf Morlix</span> American singer-songwriter

Gurf Morlix is an American singer-songwriter and music producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cry Cry Cry</span> Folk supergroup

Cry Cry Cry was a folk supergroup, consisting of Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky, and Dar Williams. The band released an eponymous album of cover songs on October 13, 1998.

<i>A Bigger Piece of Sky</i> 1993 studio album by Robert Earl Keen

A Bigger Piece of Sky is an album by Texas-based folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen. It was released in the United States in 1993 by Sugar Hill Records and re-released in SACD format with the originally intended track sequencing in 2004 by Koch Records. The title of the album comes from a line in the opening verse of "Paint the Town Beige":

<i>Gringo Honeymoon</i> 1994 studio album by Robert Earl Keen

Gringo Honeymoon is an album by Texas-based country and folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen released in the United States in August 1994 on Sugar Hill Records.

<i>Picnic</i> (album) 1997 studio album by Robert Earl Keen

Picnic is an album by the Texas-based folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, released in 1997. It was his first album for Arista Records. The album is dedicated to Townes Van Zandt.

<i>The Last of the True Believers</i> 1986 studio album by Nanci Griffith

The Last of the True Believers is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith, released in 1986 by Philo Records. The acclaim accorded her from her previous album, Once in a Very Blue Moon, and this album earned her a contract with a major recording company. Here, Griffith continued her turn toward a more country-oriented work than her first two albums, which were primarily folk-sounding. It also includes two songs which were later hits for Kathy Mattea, "Love at the Five and Dime" from Walk the Way the Wind Blows (1986) and "Goin' Gone", her first number one, from Untasted Honey (1987).

<i>Land of the Bottom Line</i> 1990 studio album by John Gorka

Land of the Bottom Line is the second album by contemporary folk singer-songwriter John Gorka. The album was also Gorka's major label debut for High Street Records/Windham Hill Records. The album was highly acclaimed by critics at the time, and continues to be cited by some as Gorka's finest work. The album's fifteen tracks and near hour-long length also provided an unusually large amount of music for a recording of that era. As Sing Out! editor Mark Moss noted in a review, the topics covered run "the gamut of John's favorite subjects: love, hard luck, local characters, and more."

<i>Best of British</i> (Ian McLagan album) 2000 studio album by Ian "Mac" McLagan and The Bump Band

Best of British is the third solo album by British keyboardist Ian McLagan. It was his first in nearly twenty years. Recorded in his adopted hometown of Austin, Texas, with his "Bump Band," then consisting of vocalist and keyboardist McLagan, drummer Don Harvey, bassist Sarah Brown, and guitarists Gurf Morlix and "Scrappy" Jud Newcomb, it featured twelve songs by McLagan, two previously released on his 1985 extended play, Last Chance to Dance.

<i>Rise & Shine</i> (Ian McLagan album) 2004 studio album by Ian "Mac" McLagan and the Bump Band

Rise & Shine is former Small Faces and Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan's fourth album, recorded by McLagan with his backing group, the Bump Band, featuring Gurf Morlix and "Scrappy" Jud Newcomb on guitars, Don Harvey on drums and George Reiff on bass. Recorded at McLagan's Manor, Texas studio, The Doghouse, it featured eleven tracks of original material, ten new and one overhauled from McLagan's 1985 EP, Last Chance to Dance. Featured on several tracks is Patty Griffin singing backing vocals.

<i>General Store</i> (album) 1997 studio album by Owen Temple

General Store is the debut album by American singer/songwriter Owen Temple. It was released in 1997 on El Paisano Records.

<i>Best</i> (Robert Earl Keen album) 2006 greatest hits album by Robert Earl Keen

Best, a compilation album by folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, released by Koch Records on November 7, 2006. The album features songs from six of Keen's previous albums: No Kinda Dancer, A Bigger Piece of Sky, No. 2 Live Dinner, Farm Fresh Onions, What I Really Mean, and Live at the Ryman: The Greatest Show Ever Been Gave.

<i>Mercy Now</i> 2005 studio album by Mary Gauthier

Mercy Now is the fourth studio album by Mary Gauthier.

<i>Put Your Needle Down</i> 2014 studio album by the Secret Sisters

Put Your Needle Down is the second studio album by American duo the Secret Sisters. It was released on April 14, 2014 under Universal Republic Records.

<i>Angel in the Dark</i> 2001 studio album by Laura Nyro

Angel in the Dark is a 2001 album from American singer-songwriter Laura Nyro, released after her death and made up of recordings from 1994 and 1995.

References

  1. Jennifer Webb, "CD Review: Gravitational Forces – Robert Earl Keen", Countrymusic.About.com
  2. Scott Cooper, "Review: Gravitational Forces", Allmusic
  3. 1 2 3 Christopher Gray, "Phases and Stages", Austin Chronicle , October 19, 2001
  4. 1 2 3 Mitch Potter, "Review: Robert Earl Keen — Gravitational Forces", Country Music , 215, October–November 2001, p.88
  5. Josh Crutchmer, "Keen's latest tour de Force", The Daily O'Collegian , October 4, 2001
  6. Colleen Moore, "Linen Shorts: Robert Earl Keen – Gravitational Forces", Dirty Linen, 96 October–November 2001, p.71
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Fetzer Mills Jr., "New Releases", Goldmine, '27:20:553, October 5, 2001, p.20
  8. John Metzger, "Review: Robert Earl Keen – Gravitational Forces", 8:11, November 2001
  9. 1 2 Mike Davies, "Robert Earl Keen – Gravitational Forces (Lost Highway)", NetRhythms
  10. "Robert Earl Keen – Gravitational Forces" New York Times , October 19, 2001
  11. 1 2 Clay Steakly, "Check it Out!:Robert Earl Keen", Performing Songwriter, 9:56, September–October 2001, p.16
  12. 1 2 Michael Tearson, "Off the Beaten Track: Robert Earl Keen – Gravitational Forces", Sing Out! , 45:4, Winter 2002
  13. Kerry Dexter, "Robert Earl Keen: Texas Rising", Dirty Linen, 100, June–July 2002, p.21-23
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ray Waddell, "Keen Hopes His New Lost Highway Disc Will Defy Gravity", Billboard , 113:28, July 14, 2001, p.55
  15. Compare these songs to e.g. "Whenever Kindness Fails" or "Blow You Away" from 1993's A Bigger Piece of Sky
  16. 1 2 "Austin City Limits Interviews: Robert Earl Keen" Archived October 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , pbs.org, August 22, 2001
  17. liner notes, Gravitational Forces, Lost Highway Records, 088 170 198-2, 2001
  18. 1 2 Lydia Hutchinson, "Shawn Colvin exclusive web interview" Archived November 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine , Performing Songwriter, web only, accessed March 29, 2007, see also: issue 96, September/October 2006
  19. KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 10 Archived June 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , 107.1 KGSR, Austin, Texas, 2002
  20. Jim Caligiuri, "Texas Platters" (review of several Live From Austin, TX releases), Austin Chronicle , November 5, 2004
  21. Monterey Peninsula Artists, Inc. Archived March 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , web site