In the alt-country world he's a godfather; in Texas he's royalty if not a deity. Robert Earl Keen has been bringing his biting wit and left-field storyteller's gift to his signature mix of country, folk and rock 'n' roll since the mid-'80s. Whether he's delivering the cinematic outlaw travelogue of "The Road Goes On Forever", where a fiddle itself becomes a narrator of the story, or the tale of an alcoholic ne'er-do-well backed by a remorseful slide guitar on "Corpus Christi Bay", Keen has such a way with a yarn that you feel like you're right in the middle of whichever story he's spinning.