Chords for Robert Earl Keen, 2012 Texas Heritage Songwriters' Association Hall of Fame Inductee

_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ We were standing on [Dm] a mountain top
_ _ _ [F] _ where the cactus flowers [C] grow
_ First song I ever wrote was [Dm] I was a I probably have never even said [F] this
But it was a Jimmy [C] Buffett like song that was about working in the oil field.
I worked
_ Every summer [Dm]
in the when [F] when I went to college [C] I worked all these great
_ _ Different rigs in different places and I the first song ever [Bb] wrote was about
_ _ That [F] that would be including a [C] guitar the first song
I really ever wrote was about some [E] Mexican food when I was eight years old _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] First guitar I ever had was a guitar [Bm] my sister
_ [Em] _ [Gb] Had and kind of played around [E] with her _ friends
I don't think she ever learned how to play [Gb] it and then it sat in a closet forever and
_ [A]
when [E] I went to A&M
Well _
[Bm] right out of high school
[E] I was you know gathering up the crappy stereo system and the Herman Hesse books and [Db] there was that guitar and I just
[E] Picked it up and threw it in the car
_ _ _ _ _ [Db] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ [Ab] I loved
_ Willie Nelson, you know, and [Em] I was a country fan.
So I loved Merle Haggard and I loved really
[Ab] Country-country songs like Tim to some of the Tammy Wynn [Abm] that sanction.
She didn't write but she was
Saying these beautiful incredible [Cm] songs, you know, Marty [E] Robbins, you know
_ The [Ab] gunfighter ballad album.
I played it a [C] million times
[G] _ _
_ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [G] I wanted I always had this [C] innate feeling that I needed to do something that I did.
Well, [D] I
_ _ _ Never really
_ excelled at at [G] particularly anything and
_ When I
[A] _
Started playing [C] the guitar and started trying to write songs
They just [D] fell out.
They were [C] easy to write and and
[G] _ It made sense and I thought you know, I'm on to something [Am] here
_ [G] Then Marina [Bm] were swaying side-by-side
[Em] I heard they were divorcing but [D] I guess I let it slide [C] and I wish to have some money
[D] With a wish to buy around [G] I wish cash my paycheck [C] before I came down
[Am] [G] But I reached to my pocket found [D] three twenties and a ten.
[C] It feels so good
[D] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[Em] Not just Robert [Bm] Earl, but but all these Texas [G] guys they write
_ [Bm] _
Without restraint.
It's a good no BS
Way to go about it when you're not really, you know massaging the song like we do in Nashville [G]
too much
_ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
Well, the greatest thing about the road goes on forever [E] as far as a song
[A] It means that I never have to play free bird, which is [G] a really
_ Fantastic thing if you're a musician and [D] you play as many bars as I've played when people say play free bird
I go I got one.
I got my own [B] free bird
_ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] It _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ was [E] it was instantly
_ _ _ a
Song that had some kind of impact on people and when we recorded it when I play the record people point that song out
_ [A] _ _
It's been a you know a staple [B] of my live show [Db] for
_ _ _ [F] 22 years now
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ Study the really great songwriters and that's everybody from the [C] Beatles to Dylan to [Bb] Guy Clark Downs
Van [F] Zandt while of it
_ _ [Eb] Try to get a [Dm] sense of what they're doing [Eb] and then
_ always [Bb] be true to your [C] your heart as far as like what you're writing [F] because _
The the truth for me at least the truth always works so much better
So what you want to do is [D] you want to know what all these people do and study what they do
[F] But you don't want to [C] copy them.
[F] There are very few artists out there
I think my experience that are as authentic as Robert Earl King
I think that explains his longevity and the fact that he'll be around a long time because he _
There's nothing phony about Robert Earl King what you see what you hear.
[Bb] That's what you get
_ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
[Bb] Well for us it means when we go outside [Cm] of Texas we see lots of Texans and what the most [Bb] common _ _ _
response we get is
_ _ [C] _ Thanks for coming [Eb] here to wherever _ [Bb]
Connecticut or
_ _ Somewhere Montana, we really miss Texas and you brought a piece [F] of home back to us
And [C] you know, I've had serious people send me letters and say that after they saw us play they'd move back to [F] Texas
So I guess [Gm] we can we carry it around
[Bb] _ _
Regardless, it's it's there with us.
It's there's _
[F] Somehow Texas is all [Eb] over me _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _