Tyler Childers & Robert Earl Keen to Share Stage One More Time

Kentucky songwriter Tyler Childers and Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen have enjoyed a maybe somewhat unexpected, but sincere kismet over the last few years that has seen the two tour Texas together and collaborate during a big Red Rocks show in 2019. Robert Earl Keen’s been covering Tyler’s “Whitehouse Road” in concert lately as well. They both have a bit of a wry, mischievous side to their music and never take themselves too seriously, yet both are serious when it comes to delivering a cutting line of verse.

Robert Earl Keen recently announced his retirement from touring, and Tyler Childers continues to be one of the most elusive entertainers over the past couple of years, despite continuing to be one of the most popular entertainers in all of country music. Tyler’s 2017 album Purgatory is at #11 again this week, with over 8 million streams, but currently his calendar only contains an appearance in Mexico with The Avett Brothers, and planed appearance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June. That’s all.

The concerts Tyler Childers and Robert Earl Keen played together at Red Rocks in Colorado, as well as in Corpus Christi, Galveston, and Kerrville in Texas continue to be the stuff of legend. And before Keen calls it quits for good in September, they will share the stage at least one more time.

Four fourteen years now, Robert Earl Keen has performed with the Hill Country Youth Orchestras at the Cailloux Theater in Kerrville for an annual fundraiser. And for his final performance for the organization on February 26th, he’s convinced the elusive Tyler Childers to appear as well. Tickets are super pricey, and for a limited capacity. But they got gobbled up immediately when Childers was announced as the special guest.

This will be just a “featured” appearance by Tyler Childers and not a full performance, but a rare appearance where attendees will get to see him and Robert Earl Keen in a more intimate setting. Keen will also be auctioning off his prized 1981 Rolls-Royce for the cause, a commemorative guitar designed by Keen himself just for this event, a South Texas Quail Hunt for Four, and more.

The Hill Country Youth Orchestras was founded in 1987 in Kerrville by Lynda Ables, whose daughter wanted to learn the violin, but the closest instructor was in Austin. It was incorporated in 1999 as an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is the only tuition-free orchestra program in the country. 

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