In that REK sometimes writes songs that tell interesting ballad-like stories, some of you might surely say that he is folk.

He played on the old live NPR radio show that Larry Rand and I hosted in Chicago in the 1980s called the FLEA MARKET. We were billed as a folk festival of the air. So, again, some would say that he was folk. Personally though, if what you're asking for is my personal take on this, I don't think he's a folksinger. Aside from saying that, I really liked him a lot---and I still like his music.

BUT that song about the "road never ending" with Sonny and Cher raising hell and moving on down the road like Hunter S. Thompson on an overdose of coffee, No Doze, and 300 ground-up Pearly Gates morning glory seeds---well, that's just one of the most evocative lyrics ever written from my point of view. That one song, when Mr. Robert Earl Keen did it that Sunday afternoon at the Old Town School Of Folk Music, made me a fan of his for life. I've not heard anything he's done over the last decade or so because cash is tight here and I won't take a chance on many CDs these days. But if anyone wants to send one of 'em to me, that'd be very cool!!

Thanks in front,

Art Thieme (Peru, Illinois 61354)