Farm Fresh Onions

The tenth album in a career that began with No Kinda Dancer way back in 1984, Farm Fresh Onions is a milestone disc for Robert Earl Keen--but not a particularly special effort from the veteran Texas songwriter. It opens well enough, moving from the rib-sticking roots-rock of "Furnace Fan" to the tuneful jangle of "All I Have Is Today" and on to the chugging "Train Trek." But then Keen loses his focus: The title cut starts out as a talking blues but devolves into an awkward jam; "Floppy Shoes" and "So Sorry" are boozy, self-conscious takes on funk and slow-burning blues, respectively. The Neil Young-ish rocker "Beats the Devil," narrative ballad "These Years," and closing country weeper "Let the Music Play" help Keen bounce back by disc's end, but it's never a good sign when an artist like this--that is, one better recognized as a songwriter than a performer--puts out a disc on which the single best song is a cover. Here, it's Keen's duet with Shawn Colvin on James McMurtry's "Out Here in the Middle" that truly takes the cake. --Anders Smith Lindall