Track listing: Lines On My Face, Ain't Love A Ride, How Long, My Place, Lightning Striking, Safe To Say, Galveston, Made Her Smile, Let Me In, She Up And Went, Till Day Break, Mother's Love

John Keenan isn't locked in to a single genre. Trying to classify him, I gave up and put him in Rock, Folk, and Country/Americana. So it made me feel better in the album notes where it mentioned "he has gone back to his first love Country/Americana." This makes sense because you hear a lot more than that in his songs, but he's wise enough to know that it's hard making an album that appeals to fans across multiple genres.

Lines On My Face is Keenan's third album, written solely by himself with the exception of "Galveston" written by Andrea Renfree. Another Renfree, Peter "Ren," produced and arranged the record at his headquarters of 8 South Studio in Alamogordo, New Mexico. You can almost taste the heat and sand of the south-central New Mexican desert in the songs themselves. There's a grit you can sense right away. It'd be somethin' else if this record were conceived entirely on North Sea's coastlines--it'd just sound different.

The tone of Lines On My Face is reflective and introspective. John's seen some shit in his years and has a pretty good idea of how to translate that experience into lyrics and melodies. The record is really beautiful, produced with the precision and skill of a Nashville hit but without the uber-perfection of every note and nuance. "Ain't Love A Ride" somehow combines an American Country ballad with Scottish folk songs. A two-fer, if you will.

Close to my own heart is "Galveston." Having gone on many weekend getaways there, this track hearkens back to Glen Campbell's hit of the same name. Its plaintive melodic strains tug on the heartstrings and bring to mind the nostalgia of good times gone by.

Keenan's got a gravelly quality to his voice that lends immediate credibility. You just get the sense that he's had more drinks and smokes than you have, so you'd better listen to his songs 'cause you might just learn a thing or two as you progress through the record. 

Lines On My Face has a release date set for June 27, 2024. Keep up with that, Keenan's show dates and more at johnkeenan.bandzoogle.com.