Key to the Highway: Steven Keene

Steven Keene photo by Jeffrey S. Becker

Americana Highways’ Key to the Highway series

Fans always clamor to learn more about their favorite, most beloved musicians and those who travel with them. There’s such an allure to the road, with its serendipity, inevitable surprises, and sometimes unexpected discomforts. This interview series is a set of questions we are asking some of our favorite roots rock Americana artists to get to know more about them and what they’ve learned and experienced on the road for music. We are sure they have key insights to share and stories to tell. Here’s one from Steven Keene.

Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?

Steven Keene: Espresso – Quad.

AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)

SK: We almost stayed at a motel once somewhere in the Midwest, just a random place in the middle of nowhere. I can’t remember the name of it. This was in the bad old days before the internet so we were just picking names of places out of the phone book at the venue and going there. Anyway, we get our room keys and the bass player & drummer walk into their room and the bed is soaked in blood! I can still remember the scene, it really looked like someone had just been murdered in that room. Our road manager called the cops from the motel lobby and we all got the hell out of there. So I guess technically I didn’t stay there, but this is my strangest hotel/motel story by far.

AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?

SK: Anything by Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits would be fine with me. Those guys are a huge inspiration. I learn something about songwriting every time I hear them.

AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?

SK: My notebook. That stays by my side even when I’m asleep. I sometimes dream up my lyrics and I have to wake up and write them down before they’re gone. No notebook, no songs!

AH: What is your relationship with food? How do you handle this on the road, and what’s your favorite dish on the road, (or restaurant, and what do you order there)?

SK: I stick with veggies – safest bet.

AH: If you could pause your life for a few weeks and spend some time living in a place you only have passed through, which would you choose, and why?

SK: Morocco. I love the culture, vibe and music.

AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?

SK: Take memories, leave footprints.

Find more information about his new album, and tour dates for Steven Keene, here: https://stevenkeene.com

See other Key to the Highway interviews here: https://americanahighways.org/category/interviews/key-to-the-highway-series/ (click here for: Todd Park Mohr Vince Herman Jimmy Smith Ben Nichols Bruce Cockburn Charlie Musselwhite Nicki Bluhm Jim White Danny Barnes Patterson Hood Jerry Joseph BJ Barham Rodney Crowell Todd Snider Elizabeth Cook Tommy Womack Eric Ambel, Dan Baird, Robbie Fulks, Malcolm Holcombe Jon Langford Steve Poltz, Lilly Hiatt Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Sadler Vaden )