Article Contributed by IVPR
Published on 2026-08-22
Fifteen years ago, Texas’s perennial–albeit unofficial—poet laureate, Robert Earl Keen, released his pivotal Ready for Confetti album on Lost Highway Records. Keen’s fifteenth LP, Confetti marked a return to the detailed songcraft and clean arrangements from early-career albums like Gringo Honeymoon and Picnic, and planted a few all-timers into the Robert Earl Keen Band live catalog. Songs like the fan-favorite “I Gotta Go” and the scathing shuffle of “The Road Goes On And On” share Ready for Confetti’s tracklist with a stellar cover of Todd Snider’s “Play A Train Song” and a re-recording of 1993’s “Paint The Town Beige.” Ultimately, Ready For Confetti showed fans that Keen was still capable of the stunning lyricism and good-time tunes he’d made legions fall in love with earlier in his career.
Today, Keen, along with the recently-revived Lost Highway Records, released the 15th anniversary re-issue of Ready for Confetti. Like REK and Lost Highway’s recent 25th anniversary re-issue of Keen’s Gravitational Forces, this re-issued Ready for Confetti LP is pressed on a special-edition confetti colored vinyl and can be purchased from Lost Highway Records today at this link, and note that a limited number of signed vinyl will be available at the merch table and at robertearlkeen.com.
In addition to today’s release, Keen has recently added a slew of new dates for his Then and Now Tour celebrating these fifteen years of Ready for Confetti and twenty-five years of Gravitational Forces, and confirmed the daily events for his annual Homecoming Weekend at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, Texas. All tour dates and ticket information can be found at robertearlkeen.com/tour.
Robert Earl Keen’s Then and Now Tour Dates:
August 21 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere^
August 22 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere^
August 23 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere^
September 5 - Helotes, TX - Floore’s Country Store#
September 6 - Helotes, TX - Floore’s Country Store#
September 7 - Helotes, TX - Floore’s Country Store - Fan Appreciation Day#
October 8 - New Braunfels, TX - Gruene Hall
October 10 - Saint Jo, TX - Red River Station
November 20 - Fairhope, AL - Halstead Amphitheater
November 21 - Montgomery, AL - Montgomery Performing Arts Center
December 11 - Denver, CO - Grizzly Rose
^ solo acoustic show
# REK’s Annual Homecoming Weekend
For more information, please visit robertearlkeen.com/tour.
About Robert Earl Keen:
After 21 albums full of songs like “Gringo Honeymoon,” “Feelin’ Good Again,” and “Corpus Christi Bay,” thousands of shows, songs cut by artists including George Strait and The Highwaymen, and many well-deserved accolades like the BMI Troubadour Award, the Texas Heritage Songwriter Hall of Fame, and the Texas A&M Distinguished Alumni Award—of which only 300 or so have been awarded from more than half-a-million graduates—it would be hard to find anybody in the same shoes who would willingly give it all up for a quiet life at home. As Keen projects from the stage every night, along with the help of every set of lungs in the room, “The road goes on forever, and the party never ends!”
Those words have never seemed more true for the Americana pioneer, and in Keen’s late-career renaissance, his party doesn’t just “never end,” it keeps growing. Just this year, Keen made an iconic, late-career debut on the Grand Ole Opry, was invited to join Tyler Childers for a sold out show at the world-famous Hollywood Bowl, and helped his old friends Turnpike Troubadours rattle Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater, all while continuing to headline his own shows in iconic venues, host his Americana Podcast: The 51st State, putting together a new book, and recording yet another new album.
