Sparse, tender, timeless – Sean Keel releases Parade this week, leading up to his new album Dinosaur

Austin-based folk and Americana artist Sean Keel returns with Parade, his fifth and final EP leading up to the release of his new album Dinosaur. Released on October 24 via Icons Creating Evil Art, Parade closes the cycle of five intimate EPs recorded with producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Rhodes, each one distilling Keel’s weathered voice, poetic storytelling, and timeless songwriting into something raw, honest, and enduring. Parade consists of two acoustic guitar songs, and two piano songs with music written by Rick Gallagher.

The Songs

Parade

This is the third recording of one of Keel’s personal favorites. “The first was a duet with my wife on a Bill the Pony record. It was fun singing with her, but having two voices did not make much narrative sense. The second was the first song of mine Gabe produced, and the song I sent to ICEA that started our collaboration. To me Gabe’s production, though plenty cool, detracts from the words, which are the song’s main power. So we redid it, just me and (Gabe’s) guitar. I think it’s perfect – or at least as good as it’s going to get.”

Bawling Calves

A fictional rural ballad set to Rick Gallagher’s arrangement of an old hymn. “The story, set on the Irish farm where mom was raised, is almost entirely made up. The only real thing is this story is my wife’s smile, which really does warm one in the way described.”

Some Bird Built a Nest

The music is from Rick Gallagher’s instrumental Shelter. “After many years without contact I got a short letter from an old girlfriend, inviting me to her wedding. I didn’t go, but I go there sometimes in my mind.”

Sparrow

“I made this one, with Gabe, from first idea to recorded finish, in under a day. The music is as it gets, but there is a lot of life in Gabe’s chord voicings, to the point where I think the instrumental tells a story by itself. I hope some filmmaker buys it – they could get it cheap.”

Produced by Gabriel Rhodes, Parade concludes a five-part journey that has traced the contours of life’s quiet devastations and small mercies. The upcoming full-length album Dinosaur, out November 21, gathers that emotional thread into a single, long-awaited statement — a culmination of Keel’s most vulnerable and compelling work to date.

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.