Music

Robert Earl Keen was three songs into his headlining set at his Applause for the Cause benefit last Thursday night, as a crowd of 5,600 exhausted, sweaty, and fulfilled fans hung on his every word. They had been brought here through tragedy, but this was a night of healing at Whitewater Amphitheater, set along the Guadalupe River outside of New Braunfels, Texas.

The event was Keen’s brainchild — a coming together of artists and fans in the same area where flooding on July 4 killed at least 138 people and saw devastation stretching for nearly 30 miles, with all proceeds going to flood relief via the Community Foundation for the Texas Hill Country — and he set up the musical payoff he wanted.

“This has been a day full of surprises,” Keen said from center stage. “But sometimes, there’s a great big surprise!”

Keen and his backing band then launched into “White House Road,” the 2017 Tyler Childers staple that Keen covers frequently.

Keen sang one verse and then gestured to his right, where Childers calmly walked on stage to a microphone. The Texas songwriting icon then stood up, waved to the crowd, and yielded to Childers for the next half hour.

From the wings, Keen smiled and applauded while Childers blistered through a set of signature songs like “Country Squire,” Rustin’ in the Rain,” and “Percheron Mules” before ending with an acoustic version of “Lady May” and ceding the spotlight back to Keen for the grand finale.

The appearance by one of the most in-demand artists in music, with his latest LP Snipe Hunter basking in attention from fans and critics alike, let Keen see his goal of a major benefit show to a successful conclusion. Keen filled out the bill with names like Miranda Lambert, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Ryan Bingham, and Cody Jinks, in large part by texting artists directly and calling in favors in the wake of the tragedy.

“Mr. Keen reached out to me and asked if I’d be willing to come down here to Texas,” Childers told the crowd. “I said, ‘absolutely.’ I was honored that he asked me, and I wasn’t doing anything but hanging out at the house anyhow.”

Organizers estimated the concert, along with an auction the previous evening at nearby Gruene Hall — hosted by Keen and with Childers attending — had raised at least $3 million by the end of the night. A slew of sponsors pitched in to offset the cost of producing a high-end event. Arch “Beaver” Aplin, CEO of the Buc-ee’s chain and a presenting sponsor, tells Rolling Stone: “Robert Earl told me he was gonna have a big lineup of artists, and I said, ‘Are all the artists participating volunteering their time?’ He said yes, and I said, ‘Well, I’m all in.’ All these artists are doing it for the right reasons — to raise money after this unspeakable tragedy. That was the sell for me.”

It was neither the first benefit concert, nor the largest — that distinction went to the “Band Together Texas” flood relief concert, co-hosted by Lambert and Parker McCollum, at Austin’s Moody Center earlier in August, which raised at least $8.5 million. But the combination of the Hill Country setting, steps from the same Guadalupe River that flooded Kerrville on July 4, and Keen’s involvement made Applause for the Cause arguably the most significant. As the show played out over nearly 10 hours, artists backstage mingled and caught up with one another.

With the afternoon temperatures nearing 100 degrees, Vincent Neil Emerson opened the day playing on a side stage with a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers” and his ode to his favorite dance hall, “White Horse Saloon.” By midnight, nearly 30 artists had taken turns serenading the Whitewater crowd.

The first hour on the main stage, featuring artists like Kelsey Waldon, Jason Boland, Jamestown Revival, and Sarah Jarosz, ended with Keen’s first appearance. As Terry Allen played “Amarillo Highway,” Keen stepped out to sing a verse of the song he has covered for most of his career. After the song, Allen said, “That’s a song that Robert Earl Keen did not write.”

Keen then gave a welcome address, saying, “Music can relieve our grief, warm our hearts, and bring strangers together in a celebration of life,” before asking fans to join him in “Amazing Grace.”

The main stage sets began in earnest with Lambert, Jon Randall, and Jack Ingram swapping songs, backed by a group of Lone Star State musicians that Keen termed “the all-star house band.” Lambert sent “Tequila Does” out to fans whose judgment may have been compromised in the midsummer heat, while Ingram covered Charlie Robison’s “My Hometown” and dedicated it to the late Texas crooner. Hayes Carll, Radney Foster, and Ray Wylie Hubbard followed with a set of standards that Hubbard capped off with his own “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother” as the sun set. When Randy Rogers joined the Panhandlers — Cleto Cordero, Josh Abbott, and William Clark Green — Cordero, the frontman of Flatland Cavalry, said, “It feels like I’m on stage with my heroes.”

The last song swap featured Bingham, Jamey Johnson, and Cody Jinks, who led off by telling the crowd, “I still find it as cool as you do that they put me with these two guys up here.” The high point was a series of extended ovations for Bingham’s “Bread and Water,” Johnson’s “In Color,” and Jinks’ “Hippies and Cowboys.”

On the heels of a sold-out Boys From Oklahoma show in Waco, Texas, the weekend prior, and on the day the band announced an April date at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Cross Canadian Ragweed took the stage ahead of Keen and Childers. The eight-song set featured Boland sitting in on “17” and a pair of Todd Snider covers, “I Believe You” and “Late Last Night.” Frontman Cody Canada dedicated the song “Boys from Oklahoma,” their longtime homage to marijuana, to Texas governor Greg Abbott, and sang the line “Get your shit together, Texas, and legalize the weed.”

Canada was openly appreciative of the lineup that Keen put together, remarking from the stage that the backstage vibe was that of a family reunion. Several artists on the bill spent their dues-paying days in New Braunfels and the surrounding Hill Country before their careers took off.

“If you only knew the hell that Jason Boland and Ryan Bingham and I used to raise up the road at River Road Ice House,” Canada deadpanned, before making a slight correction. “If I only knew the hell we raised.”

After Ragweed cleared out, Keen walked to a chair at center stage. The “all-star house band” consisted largely of Keen’s touring outfit, though the legendary producer Lloyd Maines sat in on steel guitar. So, when they kicked off the final set with “Feelin’ Good Again,” it felt like a classic Keen performance.

Keen was acutely aware that Childers’ half-hour performance stood to drain the crowd, so he saved his biggest anthems for the end of the show. Before he left the stage, Childers made a point to embrace Keen, who then went directly into “Dreadful Selfish Crime.” That was followed by “The Road Goes on Forever,” which has yet to be upstaged by any artist — Childers, Ragweed, or otherwise.

“This is overwhelming for me,” Keen told the crowd after the song. “But as far as a group of people, you’ve done it man. Thank you so much.”

Keen closed the evening by bringing Canada on stage to sing “My Hometown” as a duet — the second time the song was featured during the benefit — as an extended drone display lit up the sky above the stage.

Backstage moments later, with the crowd still filing out and workers firing up forklifts to clear equipment, Childers sought out Keen for a proper goodbye. It was Keen who got the first words in.

“I’m gonna say it one time,” he said to Childers. “Thank you for coming.”

Headlining Setlist: Robert Earl Keen with Tyler Childers
“Feelin’ Good Again”
“Gringo Honeymoon”
“Whitehouse Road” (with Tyler Childers)
“Help Me Make It Through the Night” (Childers)
“Country Squire” (Childers)
“Rustin’ in the Rain” (Childers)
“Honky Tonk Road” (Childers)
“Percheron Mules” (Childers)
“Universal Sound” (Childers)
“Lady May” (Childers)
“Dreadful Selfish Crime”
“The Road Goes on Forever”
“I’m Coming Home”
“My Hometown” (with Cody Canada).