El Dorado Insider Fall 2021 - 10

Robert Earl Keen will take the stage with
the Avett Brothers on August 14.
A RIFF ON ROBERT EARL KEEN
AND EL DORADO
Text by: Kirby Williams | Photography Submitted
T
wo of my infatuations started at about the same
time in the mid-90s - El Dorado and Robert Earl
Keen. The fascination with Union County environs
was brought on as an assignment that came about
with the inauguration of the El Dorado Advertising
and Promotion Commission.
Robert Earl came to me via my daughter and an apparent
bias towards Texas singer-songwriters with three first names
(Ray Wylie Hubbard, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jerry Jeff Walker, et
al). Out of Houston, Keen is " most associated with the Americana
genre " according to Wikipedia. After rooming with Lyle
Lovett at Texas A&M, Robert Earl graduated to the clubs of
Austin's Sixth Street and Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas.
I was commissioned to work with the El Dorado A&P and
local leadership on a branding campaign for the city. Seems
that because of El Dorado's history as an oil and timber town
- and a couple decades of flight from the downtown area - it
was seldom if ever considered as a tourism destination. But a
lot of thoughtful work had been done in the downtown area and
it was time to show off the new restaurants, boutique shopping
and lodging (and collect the new tourism tax from visitors).
By the time I came around to REK, he'd already recorded a
half-dozen albums, developed a fervent following for his live
shows, and was well on the way to the Texas Heritage Songwriters
Hall of Fame. My first disc was A Bigger Piece of Sky
which revealed Keen as a shape shifter who could navigate
comfortably from the country rock of Amarillo Highway to the
subdued Western Swing of Daddy Had A Buick to gunfighter
10 El Dorado Insider
ballad, Jesse With The Long Hair Hangin' Down with its Pat
Garrett and Billy the Kid vibe. I was hooked.
It seemed like the more we dug into ways of promoting
El Dorado as a hip new destination, the more we ended up back
at the beginning: The Boom of 1921. In reviving the historic
downtown, you couldn't overlook the raucous days of wildcatters,
promoters, prostitutes and lumbermen on Hamburger
Row, where prohibition was a punchline and law enforcement
was - shall we say - selective about the enforcement part.
Keen's south Texas roots are always showing, especially when
he glorifies 19th Century outlaws in songs like Billy Gray and
Tom Ames Prayer. But it was a decidedly 20th Century miscreant
that really gave Robert Earl's career a kick in the chaps.
Keen's The Road Goes On Forever (And The Party Never Ends)
tells the saga of a small-time pot dealer who winds up " goin' to
the chair " for murdering a cop. The song was covered by Joe
Ely, Jack Ingram and The Highwaymen - giving Keen serious
songwriter cred, steady royalties and the signature jam-band
showstopper his fans clamor for at live shows.
History-based tourism didn't really exist in Arkansas in the
mid-nineties outside of a few small museums around the state
and the Territorial Restoration in Little Rock. So it was no sure
thing that promoting El Dorado as a destination because of
it's restored 1920's downtown would bring in the throngs. The
theme for the promotional campaign seemed to write itself -
Arkansas' Original Boomtown. The primary catalyst for igniting
a successful campaign promoting a particular community is
buy-in from said community. After a steady drumbeat of pub
El Dorado Insider Fall 2021

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