Robert Earl Keen and Rich Brotherton’s Enduring Groove

Every time you’ve been at a rip roaring Texas Music concert and the lead singer and lead guitarist are locked in a groove so tight it feels like telepathy, you’re driving down a road that Robert Earl Keen and Rich Brotherton paved decades ago.

That blueprint was set in motion on stages across Texas and crystallized in the legendary # 2 Live Dinner album.

Keen’s literate folk lyricism. Brotherton’s melodic yet fearless guitar work. Together, they married folk storytelling to rock n’ roll muscle and made it unmistakably Texan. Despite Rich being a Georgia native. Somehow it worked. And has endured.

It was never about one overshadowing the other. It was a musical conversation. Keen would toss a lyrical volley and Brotherton would slam it home with a solo that somehow said more than words could. That interplay became the gold standard for frontman/sidekick chemistry in this scene. Whether it was Pat Green and Bret Danaher. Randy Rogers and Geoff Hill. Cory Morrow and John Carroll. Mike Harmeier and Catlin Rutherford. And so on. They’re all on a trail Keen and Rich carved out.

Every one of those pairings owes something to the Keen/Rich model. They showed us that when the singer and guitarist are locked in, the audience doesn’t just listen, they live inside the song.

Today, we got the heavy and sad news that Rich Brotherton has been diagnosed with ALS. He hasn’t played with Keen in a few years, but he’s still gigging, still chasing that sound, still making music until he can’t. The music he created with Robert Earl Keen during their 25 year partnership is timeless. Forever.

It goes on forever, we’ve always heard. And while no song, no stage, no player is truly forever, the influence of what Keen and Brotherton built will echo through Texas dancehalls and festival fields for generations.

Raise a glass and a prayer for Rich. Play # 2 Live Dinner loud. And remember, this road we’re all on has his fingerprints in every mile.