Compared to Willie Nelson or Butch Hancock, Keen fits squarely in the second rank of Texas songwriters, but even a relatively slick work like Picnic is better than the bulk of what's produced these days in Nashville. Nothing here approaches the knockout wit of Keen's "Merry Christmas from the Family," but "Shades of Gray," the story of small-town criminals almost arrested for a robbery they didn't commit, and "Then Came Lo Mein," about a guy uncorking a lifetime of frustration during a cheap Chinese dinner, are both examples of Lone Star storytelling at its best. --Keith Moerer