Robert Earl Keen mines a line between wry literary delicacy and incendiary roadhouse fervor. Approaching legend in his native Texas and a certifiable force of nature at sold-out concerts around the country, Keen has been many things to many people. Now, with his new album Walking Distance, one thing is for sure: Robert Earl Keen emerges as a true lyric prospector. While his previous albums have featured Keen's ironic tales of loving losers, losing lovers and all-too-mortal outlaws, Walking Distance presents a first for Keen; a song cycle built around a central theme. "It's a record about locomotion and movement", Keen explains, "but it is not a movement that's the sound of wheels. If anything, it is about the sound of one's own footsteps." Throughout the album's nine powerful tracks, he takes his characters on unforgettable journeys through moments of reflection to destination of atonement. And in those wide open spaces, Keen finds the smallest nuggets of honesty. "Sometimes you feel foreign and friendless like a stranger, and sometimes you come back home," he says. "Anything is walking distance if you really think about it. Some walks are just longer than others."The sound and songs of Walking Distance are cinematic in their scale, from the deceptive jubilation of "Travelin' Light" to the desolate tick-tock undercurrents of "Still Without You," to the lonely moan of the cellos throughout the stunning 'desperado suite' "Road to No Return". Ultimately, it's Keen's undeniable gift for the most resonant details that sets the album's stories on their journey.