The release of the two new SACDs comes ahead of the scheduled release of 5 albums by the Kinks on Koch Records and the Velvel Records label that they own later this month. When Koch announced their plans to remaster the Kinks catalog that they controlled, it was widely assumed this series would be their first Super Audio CD releases. But the two discs released this week by Robert Earl Keen beat the Kinks series out the door.

Some Labeling Confusion
Both of the Keen SACDs come in standard CD Jewel Boxes and carry a small sticker on the front of the album highlighting their Super Audio CD status and noting that Hybrid SACDs, such as these, are playable on CD players as well. Interestingly, both discs indicate that they contain CD Audio, SACD Stereo and SACD Surround Sound tracks on the information bar on the back of the album.

Unfortunately that is not accurate – the discs do have CD Audio and SACD Stereo versions of the music on the album, but there is no SACD Surround Sound mix present. We’ll have to chalk that up to a labeling error which I assume will be corrected in future pressings of these titles.

A Bigger Piece of Sky
Robert Earl Keen
SACD Stereo/CD Stereo
(Koch Nashville/Rosetta Records KOC-SC-9807)

Robert Earl Keen is an alternative country singer who began his recording career in the mid 1980s. A Bigger Piece of Sky is the singer’s fourth album which was originally released in 1993 on Stereo CD. According to the label on the front of the disc, this new edition is “newly resequenced and remastered in the SACD format.” And on the back of the album jacket, Keen is quoted as saying that “I was never satisfied with how this record was originally sequenced, but this new reissue features the songs in the order they were meant to be heard. Hope you enjoy it!”

In SACD Stereo, the newly remastered edition of A Bigger Piece of Sky takes advantage of the Super Audio CD format. It offers some very nicely defined playback of Keen and his band. Fans will enjoy this new edition of A Bigger Piece of Sky.

Album Selections
1. Amarillo Highway
2. Corpus Christi Bay
3. Whenever Kindness Falls
4. Blow You Away
5. Jesse With The Long Hair
6. Night Right For Love (Duet with Maura O’Connell)
7. Paint The Town Beige
8. Daddy Had A Buick
9. Crazy Cowboy Dream
10. Here In Arkansas
11. So I Can Take My Rest
12. Blow You Away (Reprise)

No Kinda Dancer
Robert Earl Keen
SACD Stereo/CD Stereo
(Koch Nashville/Rosetta Records KOC-SC-9808)

No Kinda Dancer was Robert Earl Keen’s debut album in 1984. On this self-produced album, Keen wrote all of the songs with co-writer credit given to friends Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith on one song each. The newly remastered Super Audio CD edition of No Kinda Dancer features 3 bonus tracks which were not on the original 1984 edition of the album. As with A Bigger Piece of the Sky, the SACD edition of No Kinda Dancer also benefits from the transfer of the material to SACD Stereo with some nicely instrumentation on the SACD layer of the disc.

Album Selections
1. No Kinda Dancer
2. The Front Porch Song
3. Between Hello & Goodbye
4. Swervin’ In My Lane
5. Christabel
6. Willie
7. Young Lovers Waltz
8. Death Of Tail Fitzsimmons
9. Rolling By
10. The Armadillo Jackal
11. Song For Kathy
12. Luann (Bonus Track)
13. The Coldest Day Of Winter (Bonus Track)
14. The Vacuum Cleaner Song (Bonus Track)