Coming pop shows: Robert Earl Keen, St. Lucia, Christine Ohlman
Robert Earl Keen In the pantheon of Texas troubadours with a sardonic point of view and a twang in their throat, Robert Earl Keen has carved out a never merely clever, highly productive career stretched out over 30 years now. Lyle Lovett's old Texas A&M c
Robert Earl Keen
In the pantheon of Texas troubadours with a sardonic point of view and a twang in their throat, Robert Earl Keen has carved out a never merely clever, highly productive career stretched out over 30 years now. Lyle Lovett's old Texas A&M college buddy fronts a razor-sharp cowboy band featuring ace guitarist Rich Brotherton. He's amassed a capacious catalog full of songs such as his best-known tune, "The Road Goes On Forever," which hide a bittersweet core beneath a bemused life-is-a-party exterior. Keen is so popular in the Lone Star State that in the past he didn't get up to these parts frequently, but lately he's been making the trip every January, which gives him the opportunity to play his painfully universal dysfunctional holiday classic "Merry Christmas From the Family."
- Dan DeLuca
St. Lucia
It's fitting that Jean-Philip Grobler should choose a Caribbean island as his stage name because the music of St. Lucia is entrancingly breezy and tropical. The South African transplant who put his roots down in Brooklyn says he was going for a throwback style intended to evoke Madonna and Fleetwood Mac. But songs like "Elevate" and "Closer Than This" sound more like a sweetened version of early electronic popsters like Thomas Dolby and Howard Jones. St. Lucia kicks off its "When the Night" tour in Philadelphia on Monday minus longtime drummer Nick Brown but pushed by favorable tradewinds.
- David Hiltbrand
Christine Ohlman
With her platinum beehive hairdo, Christine Ohlman makes an immediate visual impression. It's almost as striking as the one she makes when she opens her mouth. The vocalist for the Saturday Night Live band is a dynamic rock-and-soul singer and more: She also pens soul-deep songs that match the emotional power of those vocals and ensure that she doesn't sound like just a Muscle Shoals tribute act. "The Beehive Queen" is not as well known beyond her TV gig as she should be, but her peers certainly admire her artistry. Her most recent album, The Deep End, with her band, Rebel Montez, features guest appearances by, among others, Dion DiMucci, Ian Hunter, Marshall Crenshaw, and Big Al Anderson.
- Nick Cristiano