Austin-based folk and Americana artist Sean Keel will release his new EP, Everyone Shrugged, on September 26 via Icons Creating Evil Art.

Austin-based folk and Americana artist Sean Keel will release his new EP, Everyone Shrugged, on September 26 via Icons Creating Evil Art. The three-track collection is the fourth in a series of five EPs leading up to Keel’s forthcoming fourth solo album, set for release this November.

Following the stripped-down intimacy of The Breeze That Brought Them, Keel once again works with producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Rhodes to bring his timeworn voice and stark, poetic storytelling into focus. On Everyone Shrugged, the arrangements are skeletal, often no more than piano, guitar, and voice, but within that sparseness lies an emotional weight that is uniquely Keel’s own.

The Songs

“Everyone Shrugged”

The first two tracks are part of the same story. The first, the title track, is bare bones even by Keel’s standards, just him, vocal and guitar. According to Keel “It’s one of the very few times in my collaboration with Gabe where I play the guitar. We thought to project the right mood it needed to be shitty. Gabe can do shitty (he can do pretty much anything), but it comes more naturally to me.”

“Just What You’d Do”

The second track is about the same funeral as the first. It’s a remake of a song from Keel’s family band Bill The Pony. This quite different version is the work of Keel’s producer and friend, Gabriel Rhodes, who, as usual, plays all the instruments.

“While We Were Young”

The line “Hit me like a wave. I thought that she was gone” refers to a very serious accident Keel’s wife had on her bike. Keel says “I heard a thud and I looked back. She was laying in the Road. There really was a non-zero chance that she was gone. The really basic, fundamental Things in life. Everybody, if they’ve reached a certain age, and are at least half awake, they know about them. Our daughter’s wedding. Chelle laying there in the road. First time I saw my mom’s old hands. These moments of basic fundamental truth. Everybody knows about them. Me, I never see them coming. I’m floored by them, every single time. “

About Sean Keel

Keel is not your ordinary outside. In his 60s, the longtime University of Texas professor is well known in the world of research mathematics. Over the years he ‘s written poems, short stories, and a sword and sorcery novel. Started playing guitar in his 40s, writing songs in his 50s. He made 3 folk/jazz records with his family band, Bill the Pony, and one album of “super bare-bones folk-country music”. All self-released, and all in complete obscurity.

On the suggestion of a music friend he decided to have his latest record produced by a professional. Surprised by the results, he sent the first mix of the first song to Icons Creating Evil Art, hoping they would post it on their Youtube channel (The 'Discovered by ICEA' series). By happy chance, the label’s founder and owner was the one who listened. Impressed, and in an odd mood, he decided it was time to act on his long brewing scheme of giving a promotional push to a complete unknown.

The release of a dry scary blue in the end of 2022 was the first step in the experiment, which got great reviews and landed Sean Keel an invitation to come and perform at the Live At Heart Festival in Örebro, Sweden - where he played several shows to full houses, both on his own and with his family in different settings (including a Bill the Pony show). Keel then followed that up with his latest album ferals welcome in June 2024 and went on to win Kerrville's Grassy Hill New Folk Award 2024 - landing a Texas tour in November that same year together with the other winners of the Festival.