Robert Earl Keen's disco Christmas tour stops at Tannahill's on Dec. 19

The 'I Will Survive…Christmas' run brings Keen and opener Drayton Farley to Fort Worth on the second-to-last night of the tour.

Somewhere between the tinsel and the mirror ball, Robert Earl Keen found a theme for this year's holiday run. His annual Christmas tour is going disco, under the name "I Will Survive…Christmas," and it pulls into Tannahill's Tavern and Music Hall on Saturday, Dec. 19.

Here's what you need to know. Robert Earl Keen plays Tannahill's Tavern and Music Hall in Fort Worth on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 8 p.m., with Drayton Farley opening. The room holds about 1,000. Tickets are through Ticketmaster. The date was announced Oct. 21.

The tour itself, as laid out by TicketNews, opens Dec. 8 at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa and works its way into Texas for a six-night stretch in the back half of the run. That Texas leg reads like a tour of the state's big rooms: Buddy Holly Hall in Lubbock on Dec. 15, House of Blues in Houston on Dec. 16, ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin on Dec. 17, House of Blues in Dallas on Dec. 18, then Fort Worth on the 19th. The tour wraps the next night, Dec. 20, at the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio.

That puts Fort Worth on the second-to-last night — the point in a holiday run where the band knows every cue, the bits have been tested on a dozen crowds, and everybody can see the finish line. If you've ever been to a tour's penultimate show, you know it tends to be loose in the best way.

His annual Christmas tour is going disco, under the name "I Will Survive…Christmas"

The disco angle is the hook this year, and it's a fun one. A Robert Earl Keen Christmas show has long been its own kind of Texas tradition, and putting a glitter-ball spin on it is the sort of left turn that makes a familiar ritual feel new. How literally the theme gets taken — costumes, covers, a mirror ball over the stage — is part of the fun of showing up to find out.

Opening every date on the run is Drayton Farley, per TicketNews. Opening a Keen holiday tour across a string of Texas rooms is a real stage for a songwriter, and with an 8 p.m. start, it's worth getting to Tannahill's early enough to hear the opener rather than catching the last song from the bar line.

Tannahill's is a good-sized room for this. At about 1,000 capacity, it's large enough to feel like a holiday event and close enough that Keen's stories between songs carry to the back. On a Saturday night six days before Christmas, expect it to be full.

A few practical notes: the show is listed for an 8 p.m. start on a busy weekend for holiday gatherings, so plan your ride and your timing. Tickets are on sale through the Ticketmaster link above, and with only one Fort Worth date on the tour, this is the one to catch if you live on this side of the Metroplex.

Some holiday traditions stay the same every year. This one shows up in a leisure suit. Either way, it's hard to think of a better way to spend the last Saturday before Christmas in Fort Worth.

Sources: Robert Earl Keen announces I Will Survive…Christmas tour – TicketNews (ticketnews.com); Robert Earl Keen at Tannahill's Tavern and Music Hall – JamBase (jambase.com)