Robert Earl Keen brings a disco Christmas back to Cain's Ballroom

Keen's first Tulsa show since 2022 opens his "I Will Survive…Christmas" tour at Cain's on Tuesday, Dec. 8, with Drayton Farley opening.

Some Tulsa traditions skip a few years and come back anyway. Robert Earl Keen's holiday shows at Cain's Ballroom are one of them, and this year the Texas songwriter is bringing a disco ball.

Robert Earl Keen plays Cain's Ballroom on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m., with Drayton Farley opening. It will be his first Tulsa show since May 20, 2022, when he last played the same room. Tickets are on the Cain's site.

The night is the first stop of a whole tour. Keen announced his holiday run in October: ten shows billed as "I Will Survive…Christmas," with a disco theme and Drayton Farley as support the whole way, according to TicketNews. Tulsa gets the opener. The tour then heads to Kansas City on Dec. 9 and Fort Collins on Dec. 12, so the Cain's crowd will see the show before anyone else.

Keen and Christmas go back a long way. His holiday tours have run under one name or another for years, from the Countdown to Christmas tour to Christmas to the Moon and Back. No Depression once wrote up a Keen country Christmas at Cain's, and the old ballroom on Main Street has been part of that story.

The gap since 2022 is part of what makes this one worth circling. Keen has spent less time on the road than he used to. A 2024 KETR profile was titled Fewer road miles means more creative time for Robert Earl Keen. He hasn't stopped, though. This year he has been out on his Then and Now tour, a look back that marks 25 years of *Gravitational Forces* and 15 years of *Ready for Confetti*. He also put out a 25th-anniversary reissue of *Gravitational Forces* on forest-green vinyl, plus a 15th-anniversary reissue of *Ready for Confetti*. And back home he was named 2026 Texan of the Year.

So the man walking onto the Cain's stage in December has had a big year. Expect the holiday show to be loose and funny, because his Christmas tours have always leaned that way. This year's disco theme suggests he isn't planning to change that.

Drayton Farley is the right fit for the opening slot. He's touring every date with Keen this month, so Tulsa gets the full package on opening night.

Cain's is a standing-room ballroom, and holiday shows here tend to fill up. If seeing Robert Earl Keen at Cain's is how you start your December, don't wait on tickets.

Tulsa gets the opener, so the Cain's crowd sees this show before anyone else.

Keen has played plenty of rooms, but there's something about hearing him under the Cain's ceiling with the floor packed and the year winding down. This time the disco ball is new. The rest should feel familiar.

Sources: Robert Earl Keen announces I Will Survive…Christmas tour (TicketNews) (ticketnews.com); Robert Earl Keen extends the Then and Now tour (antiMusic) (musicpressbox.antimusic.com); Robert Earl Keen Announces 25th Anniversary Gravitational Forces Reissue (Grateful Web) (gratefulweb.com); Robert Earl Keen Announces 15th Anniversary Reissue of Ready for Confetti (Grateful Web) (gratefulweb.com); Robert Earl Keen named 2026 Texan of the Year (robertearlkeen.com); Fewer road miles means more creative time for Robert Earl Keen (KETR) (ketr.org); Robert Earl Keen Plots Countdown to Christmas Tour (robertearlkeen.com); Robert Earl Keen Celebrates Christmas to the Moon and Back (robertearlkeen.com); A Keen Country Christmas at Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom (No Depression) (nodepression.com); Cain's Ballroom (cainsballroom.com); JamBase listing (jambase.com)