By Chris Varias
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Imagine Lynyrd Skynyrd not closing its show with "Free Bird." The same thing happened at the Southgate House Tuesday night, albeit on a bit of a smaller scale.

Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen didn't play his signature song, "The Road Goes on Forever," during his two-hour performance at the club.

Keen and his renowned song are intertwined. You can't say his name without thinking of "The Road Goes on Forever," one of the greatest story songs ever written. The omission probably places him in direct violation of some sort of Texas state ordinance.

However, all was not lost. Whereas a Skynyrd show would not be a Skynyrd show without "Free Bird," Keen and the audience survived without "The Road Goes on Forever." In fact, it was hardly missed amid the 23-song set plus two encores.

Keen, from Bandera, Texas, played the role of a typical Lone Star bandleader. He blended everything from swing to country-western to folk to two-step to waltz to rock 'n' roll in order to come up with a mix that can only be called Texas music. He and his four-man band - featuring guitarist Rich Brotherton and pedal steel player Marty Muse - nicely navigated the changes from song to song.

The show worked as a loosely configured chronological anthology of Keen's career as a recording artist. He played a couple songs from each album he has released, kicking off the show with "Willie" and "No Kinda Dancer," the latter the title track from his 1984 debut.

From there, adhering to the timeline, he hit on such highlights as "I'll Go on Downtown," "Mariano," "Whenever Kindness Fails," "Think It Over One Time," "Over the Waterfall," his rewrite of "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane," and "Feelin' Good Again," the best of five songs spread over two encores.

Keen sold out the club last May on a Friday night. A smaller turnout of 300 or so came out this year, and the crowd made up for what it lacked in numbers with rowdy behavior. Keen's audience seems to get younger and drunker with each return trip to Newport.

A group of about 50 such people wedged itself between the stage and the floor tables. Near the end of the show a female was lifted into the air, where she raised her top right in front of Keen's face. It was not something you see at the Southgate very often.

E-mail cvarias@enquirer.com