Gravitational Forces


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.
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." 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."
As usual, Keen's songwriting is full of narrative stories and character sketches. Performing Songwriter described the characters found in Gravitational Forces as "everyday people pulled, led, and sometimes dragged by some outside strength." 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."
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." The release arrived at a time when Keen was beginning to receive wider recognition outside of his home state of Texas. As of 2007, Gravitational Forces remains Keens highest charting album on several of Billboard's charts.

Song selection

The songs on the album that Keen didn't 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," and treat Terry Allen's "High Plains Jamboree" with a backdrop of "bar room party sounds."
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". Keen sings:
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. 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."
"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." The song has a somewhat unusual guitar accompaniment played in DADGAD tuning and its structure eschews the traditional verse/chorus/verse song structure. Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin fell in love with the song and began performing it. Her version was recorded in studio and released in 2002 on a compilation by radio station KGSR.
Keen's "Goin' Nowhere Blues" has been described as "chilling" and contains references to Langston Hughes, Woody Guthrie, Martin Luther King, 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" by some and "bizarre" or "hysterical" by others. Keen delivers a spoken stream of consciousness on the "temporal distortion of a four-hour soundcheck," 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.
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", 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.

Track listing

  1. "My Home Ain't in the Hall of Fame" – 3:04
  2. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  3. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic & electric lead guitars
  4. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar & harmony vocals
  5. * Gurf Morlix — steel, electric & baritone guitars and harmony vocals
  6. * Tom Van Schaik — drums
  7. "Hello New Orleans" – 3:01
  8. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  9. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars
  10. * Ian McLagan — Hammond B-3 organ
  11. * Gurf Morlix — beer bottle slide guitar
  12. * Bill Whitbeck — upright bass & harmony vocals
  13. * Tom Van Schaik — drums
  14. "Wild Wind" – 5:12
  15. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  16. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic guitar & harmony vocals
  17. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar, harmony vocals, harmony concept & vocal arrangement
  18. * Gurf Morlix — acoustic & baritone guitars
  19. * Cody Braun — harmonica
  20. * Tom Van Schaik — drums
  21. "Not a Drop of Rain" – 4:09
  22. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  23. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic guitar
  24. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar & harmony vocals
  25. * Bryan Duckworth — mandolin
  26. * Gurf Morlix — beer bottle slide guitar
  27. * Ian McLagan — Hammond B-3 organ
  28. * Tom Van Schaik — drums
  29. "I Still Miss Someone" – 3:19
  30. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  31. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic & electric guitars and harmony vocals
  32. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar & harmony vocals
  33. * Bryan Duckworth — fiddle & mandolin
  34. * Tom Van Schaik — drums
  35. "Fallin' Out" – 3:25
  36. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  37. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic guitar
  38. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar & harmony vocals
  39. * Gurf Morlix — electric & lap steel guitars and harmonium
  40. * Tom Van Schaik — drums & percussion
  41. "High Plains Jamboree" – 3:10
  42. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  43. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic, electric & baritone guitars
  44. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar & tic-tac bass guitar
  45. * Tommy Delamore — steel guitar
  46. * Byran Duckworth — fiddle
  47. * Tom Van Schaik — drums
  48. * "Bar Room Party Sound" — Kathy Brotherton, Rich Brotherton, Gurf Morlix, Laurie Galbraith & Robert Earl Keen
  49. "Walkin' Cane" – 4:43
  50. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  51. * Rich Brotherton — slide, electric & National slide guitars guitars and harmony vocals
  52. * Bill Whitbeck — upright bass & harmony vocals
  53. * Bryan Duckworth — fiddle
  54. * Gurf Morlix — mandolin
  55. * Tom Van Schaik — drums & percussion
  56. "Goin' Nowhere Blues" – 4:47
  57. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  58. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic guitar
  59. * Bill Whitbeck — upright bass
  60. * Ian McLagan — Hammond B-3 organ
  61. * Gurf Morlix — acoustic & electric guitars
  62. * Tom Van Schaik — drums & percussion
  63. "Snowin' on Raton" – 5:01
  64. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  65. * Rich Brotherton — electricguitar & harmony vocals
  66. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar & harmony vocals
  67. * Marty Muse — steel guitar
  68. * Freddie Fletcher — pizza box percussion
  69. "Gravitational Forces" – 2:41
  70. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  71. * Rich Brotherton — acoustic guitar
  72. * Bill Whitbeck — bass guitar
  73. * Tom Van Schaik — drums & percussion
  74. "The Road Goes On Forever" – 7:10 †
  75. * Robert Earl Keen — lead vocals
  76. * Rich Brotherton — electric & baritone guitars and mandolin
  77. * Bill Whitbeck — bass
  78. * Ray Kennedy — electric guitar
  79. * Marty Muse — steel guitar
  80. * Tom Van Schaik — drums

    Credits

Production