New Robert Earl Keen Bluegrass Album Comes Out Next Week

Robert Earl Keen is rolling out a bluegrass album on Tuesday.  Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions will hit store shelves and the Internet on February 10th.  The Texas troubadour explains how he came up with the name for the album:

"My wife and my family used to wear these crazy pajamas that had horizontal stripes, and we called them the 'happy prisoners,'" Keen tells the Nashville Scene. "I was working on this title, and thinking, 'I want something that is unique and sounds original.' But at the same time, I wanted something that reflected how I feel about bluegrass. I've been listening to it forever, I love it, and I feel I'm somewhat locked into it. Even my own songs sometimes are formatted — not instrument-wise, but verse-chorus-wise, like that. So I feel like I'm necessarily a happy prisoner of bluegrass."