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"He's not just a musical institution - he's a lifestyle."

That's how Elizabeth Cook, the host of "Outlaw Country" on Sirius Satellite Radio, introduced alternative country musician Robert Earl Keen before his headlining MusicFest spot on Tuesday night at the Steamboat Music Festival Tent.

By the end of his hit-heavy set, it would be hard to disagree with Cook's description of Keen, who for decades has used his laidback voice, witty lyrics and everyman storytelling to create songs you can't help but love.

Keen played for more than an hour, but it felt like 20 minutes. And at the end of a prolonged, feverish jam on "The Road Goes on Forever" - a song that turns 20 this year - everyone left in the tent chanted "Robert Earl Keen" in rhythm.

After a couple of warm-up songs, Keen got the MusicFest crowd going with "Dreadful Selfish Crime." Beer cups went up, people sang along, and Keen got comfortable with his super-tight backing band.

The concert's energy level was a steady climb up from there, hitting that everyone-knows-the-words mark with a string of "Corpus Christi Bay," "Feelin' Good Again" and "Gringo Honeymoon." Those three songs offer all the reasons why Keen gets to be more than an institution.

"Corpus Christi" gives us lines like, "If I could live my life all over, it wouldn't matter anyway / Because I never could stay sober, on the Corpus Christi Bay." It follows Keen's rolling lyrical style, telling a story while it delivers a sing-along chorus about drinking.

"Feelin' Good Again" is about as sincere as you can get, as Keen sings about every bar regular anyone has ever known, and brings the song home with this: "The boys from Silver City were standing by the fire, singing like they thought they were the Tabernacle Choir / And I wanted you to see them all, I wished that you were there / I looked across the room and saw you standing on the stair / And when I caught your eye I saw you break into a grin / It feels so good, feeling good again."

"Gringo Honeymoon" is hilarious, and goes back to a theme most Robert Earl Keen fans probably can identify with: You drank. You messed up. Your friends did the same, and that's why they're your friends.

Keen draws his audience in with funny, relatable - though possibly exaggerated - songs like "Merry Christmas From the Family," and he keeps it with simple, nostalgia-inspiring accounts like "I'm Comin' Home."

To reach Margaret Hair, call 871-4204 or e-mail mhair@steamboatpilot.com.