\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tJon Randall, Miranda Lambert, and JacK Ingram perform at Robert Earl Keen\u2019s Texas flood benefit. Photo: Erika Goldring*<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\u201cMr. Keen reached out to me and asked if I\u2019d be willing to come down here to Texas,\u201d Childers told the crowd. \u201cI said, \u2018absolutely.\u2019 I was honored that he asked me, and I wasn\u2019t doing anything but hanging out at the house anyhow.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tOrganizers estimated the concert, along with an auction the previous evening at nearby Gruene Hall \u2014\u00a0hosted by Keen and with Childers attending \u2014 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 \u201cBeaver\u201d Aplin, CEO of the Buc-ee\u2019s chain and a presenting sponsor, tells Rolling Stone<\/em>: \u201cRobert Earl told me he was gonna have a big lineup of artists, and I said, \u2018Are all the artists participating volunteering their time?\u2019 He said yes, and I said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m all in.\u2019 All these artists are doing it for the right reasons \u2014 to raise money after this unspeakable tragedy. That was the sell for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt was neither the first benefit concert, nor the largest \u2014 that distinction went to the \u201cBand Together Texas\u201d flood relief concert, co-hosted by Lambert and Parker McCollum, at Austin\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \n\tWith the afternoon temperatures nearing 100 degrees, Vincent Neil Emerson opened the day playing on a side stage with a cover of the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cDead Flowers\u201d and his ode to his favorite dance hall, \u201cWhite Horse Saloon.\u201d By midnight, nearly 30 artists had taken turns serenading the Whitewater crowd.<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tThe first hour on the main stage, featuring artists like Kelsey Waldon, Jason Boland, Jamestown Revival, and Sarah Jarosz, ended with Keen\u2019s first appearance. As Terry Allen played \u201cAmarillo Highway,\u201d Keen stepped out to sing a verse of the song he has covered for most of his career. After the song, Allen said, \u201cThat\u2019s a song that Robert Earl Keen did not<\/em> write.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKeen then gave a welcome address, saying, \u201cMusic can relieve our grief, warm our hearts, and bring strangers together in a celebration of life,\u201d before asking fans to join him in \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe 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 \u201cthe all-star house band.\u201d Lambert sent \u201cTequila Does\u201d out to fans whose judgment may have been compromised in the midsummer heat, while Ingram covered Charlie Robison\u2019s \u201cMy Hometown\u201d 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 \u201cUp Against the Wall Redneck Mother\u201d as the sun set. When Randy Rogers joined the Panhandlers \u2014 Cleto Cordero, Josh Abbott, and William Clark Green \u2014 Cordero, the frontman of Flatland Cavalry, said, \u201cIt feels like I\u2019m on stage with my heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe last song swap featured Bingham, Jamey Johnson, and Cody Jinks, who led off by telling the crowd, \u201cI still find it as cool as you do that they put me with these two guys up here.\u201d The high point was a series of extended ovations for Bingham\u2019s \u201cBread and Water,\u201d Johnson\u2019s \u201cIn Color,\u201d and Jinks\u2019 \u201cHippies and Cowboys.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tRobert Earl Keen performs at his Applause for the Cause Texas flood benefit. Photo: Erika Goldring*<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tOn 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 \u201c17\u201d and a pair of Todd Snider covers, \u201cI Believe You\u201d and \u201cLate Last Night.\u201d Frontman Cody Canada dedicated the song \u201cBoys from Oklahoma,\u201d their longtime homage to marijuana, to Texas governor Greg Abbott, and sang the line \u201cGet your shit together, Texas, and legalize the weed.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCanada 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.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf you only knew the hell that Jason Boland and Ryan Bingham and I used to raise up the road at River Road Ice House,\u201d Canada deadpanned, before making a slight correction. \u201cIf I<\/em> only knew the hell we raised.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter Ragweed cleared out, Keen walked to a chair at center stage. The \u201call-star house band\u201d consisted largely of Keen\u2019s touring outfit, though the legendary producer Lloyd Maines sat in on steel guitar. So, when they kicked off the final set with \u201cFeelin\u2019 Good Again,\u201d it felt like a classic Keen performance.<\/p>\n \n\tKeen was acutely aware that Childers\u2019 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 \u201cDreadful Selfish Crime.\u201d That was followed by \u201cThe Road Goes on Forever,\u201d which has yet to be upstaged by any artist \u2014 Childers, Ragweed, or otherwise.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis is overwhelming for me,\u201d Keen told the crowd after the song. \u201cBut as far as a group of people, you\u2019ve done it man. Thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKeen closed the evening by bringing Canada on stage to sing \u201cMy Hometown\u201d as a duet \u2014\u00a0the second time the song was featured during the benefit \u2014 as an extended drone display lit up the sky above the stage.<\/p>\n \n\tBackstage 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.<\/p>\n\n
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