Although both his albums and live performances span many different styles, from folk, country, and bluegrass to rock, he is most commonly affiliated with the Americana genre. Keen has toured extensively both in the US and abroad throughout his career, and was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012 along with Lyle Lovett and the late Townes Van Zandt.\n', '

Keen grew up in southwest Houston. His father Robert Earl Keen Sr. was a geologist and his mother an attorney. He has an older brother and a younger sister. He attended Sharpstown High School, graduating in 1974. As a teenager, Keen was an avid reader who excelled in writing and literature classes, and a fan of both the English rock band Cream and, influenced by his older brother, country music by artists like Willie Nelson.\n', '

His younger sister, Kathy, introduced him to the Houston music scene in the early seventies. "My sister was a couple years younger than I was, and she was like the world-champion Foosball player of downtown Houston", Keen said in a 2011 cover story for LoneStarMusic Magazine. Keen would accompany his sister to the bars where she played, many of which featured singer-songwriters playing both covers and original tunes. He started playing guitar himself shortly thereafter, teaching himself to play classic country covers out of a song book the summer before starting college at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.[citation needed] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1978 and began writing songs and playing bluegrass and folk music with friends including his childhood friend (and future longtime fiddle player in his band), Bryan Duckworth. During his college years Keen met future musician Lyle Lovett.\n', '

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