Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
1959: Don’t Take Your Guns To Town — Johnny Cash (Columbia)
1969: Only The Lonely — Sonny James (Capitol)
1979: Golden Tears — Dave & Sugar (RCA Records)
1989: Don’t You Ever Get Tired (Of Hurting Me) — Ronnie Milsap (RCA)
1999: No Place That Far — Sara Evans (RCA Nashville)
2009: God Love Her — Toby Keith (Show Dog Nashville)
2019: Beautiful Crazy — Luke Combs (Columbia Nashville)
2019 (Airplay): Beautiful Crazy — Luke Combs (Columbia Nashville)
John Michael Montgomery was under pressure when he and Scott Hendricks entered the studio to record his third album in 1994. The monster success of “I Swear” was so impactful he not only won ACM and CMA honors, but he also performed the song at the Grammy Awards. It pushed sales of Kickin’ It Up past 4 million units and cemented his place in country love song history.
He was also coming off of two consecutive #1s when Atlantic released “I Can Love You Like That” to country radio in February 1995. The romantic ballad, a companion piece of sorts to “I Swear,” hit #1 and was also covered by the R&B group All-4-One. It’s one of my favorite contemporary country songs of the 1990s.
Montgomery switched gears completely in May, with the release of the breakneck-paced “Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident).” The song tells the story of a guy who attends an auction in Grundy County, Tennessee. While there he lays eyes on a woman named Heather, who consumes his thoughts, and becomes his big prize.
“Sold” is an excellent record with superb instrumentation that allowed Montgomery to diversify and showcase a playful charm he wasn’t able to display on his signature ballads. The audiences loved the song so much it also hit #1 and was named Billboard’s biggest country single of the year, a feat that wasn’t even bestowed upon “I Swear.”
The album’s first two singles were such memorable hits, it left little room for “No Man’s Land” to make a significant impact. The mid-tempo ballad, about a woman adjusting to a life ‘nothin’ like she had planned,’ is a competent yet unremarkable story song in the vein of Toby Keith’s superior “Upstairs Downtown.” It performed well at radio, hitting #3, but it was forgotten as soon as it fell from the charts.
“Cowboy Love,” which hit #4, is an attempt at rekindling the charm of “Be My Baby Tonight,” and while it was moderately successful at the time, it has aged horrendously. Both songs unfortunately represent the very worst of 1990s country, a time when honky-tonk had been brought to the dance floor by people in cutoff t-shirts with denim for days. The whole aesthetic is a parody of the genre’s best traditions.
The quality of the singles only got worse with “Long As I Live,” which is a feeble attempt at adding another romantic ballad to his repertoire. The ballad is embarrassingly awful, with a cliché Hallmark lyric. It hit #4, which is a testament to Montgomery’s power with country radio at the time.
The most notable album track, “Holdin’ Onto Something,” was recorded by Jeff Carson the same year and released as a single in 1996, where it peaked at #6. Carson’s record holds significant nostalgic value for me, which clouds my judgement on its quality. Montgomery does well with the song, but Hendricks fails him with a very generic arrangement. Listening now, I can easily hear Tim McGraw singing this song during this time period, possibly bringing it to #1.
“High School Heart” is typical of contemporary ballads from the time period. It’s cheesy, but the track does still have its merits. It tells the story of a man reminiscing on his romantic past, specifically his high school days, and all that’s changed in the years since then. The twist in the chorus is the girl he loved back then is his wife today, still loving him with a high school heart. Montgomery sells the story competently, but I would very much like to hear it with a far more dynamic vocalist and a more memorable arrangement.
“Just Like A Rodeo” is so bad, it’s hard to believe it even exists, especially during this time period, when the gatekeepers knew better. In the lyric, a man is in throws of sexual intercourse comparing riding his girl to a cowboy riding a bull. It’s even more horrid than “She Thinks My Tractors Sexy” but has only been matched or eclipsed by the bro-country era, where honestly, it would probably fit right in.
“Heaven Sent Me You” has the arrangement, filled with steel, and the committed vocal from Montgomery to be a sure-fire hit. It was likely buried because the lyric is second-rate, especially as his romantic ballads are concerned.
“It’s What I Am” never really saw the light of day, but it is a watershed moment for what was to come within the next ten to twelve years. The track has Montgomery wearing his southern pride on his sleeve, singing:
I got my first guitar when I was just a boy
I was playing the blues instead of playing with toys
Listening to the Opry and dreaming of the neon lights
So it was late to bed and early to rise
I worked the field all day and the crowd all night
My finger on the trigger and Nashville in my sights
I’m the real thing and I sing songs about real life
And I never heard a fiddle called a violin
Never really worried if I fit in
Country ain’t what I sing it’s what I am
This hat ain’t something I wear for style
These boots have been around a while
Country ain’t what I sing it’s what I am
I learned to drive on a dirt road
Cruised the strip on rock and roll
And drove around on “Miles and Miles of Texas”
And as I grew Daddy showed me now
To earn a living by the sweat of my brow
But he never made me follow in his steps
He said work hard and let the good Lord do the rest
Montgomery and Hendricks needn’t worry, as this album matched Kickin’ It Up and was also certified quadruple platinum. If I had to guess, it was “Sold” and not “I Can Love You Like That” that contributed more to the sales. The album itself is of very varying quality, with the two songs I just mentioned being the only real standouts.
Grade: B-
1958: City Lights — Ray Price (Columbia)
1968: Next In Line — Conway Twitty (Decca)
1978: Sleeping Single In A Double Bed — Barbara Mandrell (ABC)
1988: Darlene — T. Graham Brown (Capitol)
1998: Honey, I’m Home — Shania Twain (Mercury)
2008: She Never Cried In Front of Me — Toby Keith (Show Dog Nashville)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay): She Got The Best of Me — Luke Combs (Columbia Nashville)
This one hurts. Lari White has passed away at the age of 52. She had been fighting a battle with cancer (which became public on January 11) and entered hospice last Friday. She collected a string of hits in the mid-to-late 1990s and had a small but significant role in the 2000 Tom Hanks film Cast Away. White teamed with Toby Keith to produce his 2006 album White Trash With Money. She was married to noted songwriter Chuck Cannon.
One of my favorite tunes of hers, “Now I Know,” was also her biggest hit, peaking at #5 in 1994:
Another favorite of mine is her duet with Travis Tritt, “Helping Me Get Over You.” The song, which appeared on his The Restless Kind album, was written by the pair. It peaked at #18 in 1997:
1957 (Sales): Wake Up Little Susie — The Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You — Ray Price (Columbia)
1967: I Don’t Wanna Play House — Tammy Wynette (Epic)
1977: Heaven’s Just a Sin Away — The Kendalls (Ovation)
1987: Fishin’ in the Dark — The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Warner Bros.)
1997: How Do I Get There — Deana Carter (Capitol)
2007: Love Me If You Can — Toby Keith (Show Dog Nashville)
2017: What Ifs — Kane Brown ft Lauren Alaina (RCA)
2017 (Airplay): All the Pretty Girls — Kenny Chesney (Blue Chair/Columbia)
Our October spotlight artist has had a career spanning more than fifty years and has enjoyed tremendous success in a variety of musical genres. Kenneth Ray Rogers was born on August 21, 1938 in Houston, Texas. His recording career dates back to the 1950s. After enjoying a minor hit in 1957 with “That Crazy Feeling” he joined a jazz group called The Bobby Doyle Three. After the group disbanded in 1965 he had a brief stint with the New Christy Minstrels. A year later, he and some of his bandmates formed a new group, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. Marketed primarily as a rock group, The First Edition dabbled in a variety of styles, including psychedelic pop, folk, and R&B. In 1969 the group enjoyed a Top 40 country hit with the Mel Tillis-penned “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town”. Although it was only a modest success on the country charts, it reached the Top 10 on both the pop and adult contemporary charts.
After The First Edition disbanded, Rogers reinvented himself as a country artist, signing a solo deal with United Artists Records 1n 1975. His first single for the label, “Love Lifted Me” reached the Top 20 on the country charts. Two more minor hits followed, and in 1977 he enjoyed his breakthrough hit “Lucille”, a story song about an aborted one-night stand that occurs shortly after the narrator witnesses the breakup of his partner’s marriage in a bar. It reached #1 on the country charts and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and enjoyed international success as well. For the rest of the 1970s and well into the 1980s, Kenny Rogers was country music’s best selling artist. Most of his records enjoyed success on both the pop and country charts.
He recorded a number of hit duets with United Artists labelmate Dottie West in the late 1970s, beginning with 1978’s “Every Time Two Fools Collide”. The exposure not only revived West’s solo career; it took it to new heights. In 1980 she enjoyed her first solo #1 hit, twenty years into her recording career.
Also in 1978, Rogers released the song with which he is most closely identified today: “The Gambler”, which led to a number of made-for-TV movies with Rogers in the starring role. In 1980 he teamed up with Lionel Richie, who wrote and produced “Lady”, Rogers’ only solo record to top the Billboard Hot 100.
United Artists was sold to EMI in 1978 and was renamed Liberty Records in 1980. Rogers remained with the label until 1983, when he signed a $20 million deal with RCA (a huge sum in those days). His last #1 hit for Liberty was a remake of Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight” performed as a duet with Scottish singer Sheena Easton. After signing with RCA, Rogers teamed up with Barry Gibb, who produced and wrote most of the material for Eyes That See In The Dark,
the debut album for his new label. The first single from that project was “Islands in the Stream”, which found Kenny collaborating for the first time with Dolly Parton. Although country in name and marketing only, the tune quickly topped the country charts and reached the top of the Hot 100 as well, marking the second and last time that either artist would top that chart. It went on to become a global hit.
At the same time, Liberty Records was still releasing Kenny Rogers singles, and “Scarlet Fever”, his final release for his former label, became a #5 country hit at the same time “Islands in the Stream” was climbing the charts. Rogers remained with RCA through the end of the decade. During his tenure with the label, his music became more adult-contemporary oriented while the rest of country music went in the opposite direction when the New Traditionalist movement got underway. In 1989, Kenny moved to Reprise Records (his label during his First Edition days), and his chart success began to become less consistent.
The 1990s marked the beginning of a long dry spell. He left Warner/Reprise and eventually started his own label Dreamcatcher. In 1999 he enjoyed a surprise late-career hit when “The Greatest”, a tune about a young boy dreaming of becoming a professional baseball player, reached #26 on the country charts. Many regarded the surprise hit as an outlier, but country music had not yet heard the last of Kenny Rogers. He enjoyed another unexpected hit in 1999 when “Buy Me a Rose” went to #1, making the 61-year-old Kenny Rogers the oldest artist to ever top the Billboard country chart. The record was broken a few years later when 69-year-old Willie Nelson topped the chart with his Toby Keith duet “Beer For My Horses”.
The success of “Buy Me a Rose” was enough to make the major labels take another look at Kenny Rogers. He released “Water & Bridges” for Capitol in 2006 and You Can’t Make Old Friends for Warner Bros in 2013. The title track of the latter paired him up once again with Dolly Parton. That same year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Two years later he announced his retirement and embarked on a farewell tour that is scheduled to conclude in Nashville at the end of this month.
Critics have often derided Kenny Rogers as not authentically country, and there is no doubt that because he tried to maintain a presence on both the pop and country charts, not all of his music will appeal to everyone. That being said, there is no denying his contributions to and impact on the country genre. We can’t possibly do justice to a 50-year career in just one month, so we’ll be focusing mainly on his country successes of the 1970s and 1980s.
1957 (Sales):Young Love — Sonny James (Capitol)
1957 (Jukebox): There You Go/Train of Love — Johnny Cash (Sun)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Young Love — Sonny James (Capitol)
1967: Where Does The Good Times Go — Buck Owens (Capitol)
1977: Heart Healer — Mel Tillis (MCA)
1987: Mornin’ Ride — Lee Greenwood (MCA)
1997: Me Too — Toby Keith (A&M)
2007: Ladies Love Country Boys — Trace Adkins (Capitol)
2017: Body Like a Back Road — Sam Hunt (MCA)
2017 (Airplay): Better Man — Little Big Town (Capitol)
One of Toby Keith’s biggest hits was the Western themed ‘Shouldve been A Cowboy’. His latest single revisits that territory, but using the metaphor to tackle some of today’s social issues.
Written by Keith with Bobby Pinson and Dean Dillon, the lyric is in the main a celebration of Texas and an idealized cowboy ethos, with some more questionable elements. Some of it is conventional and likeable enough:
There’d be a bunch more daddies sons could be proud of
We’d have half the crime, we’d have twice the fun
With a few more cowboys, be a lot less outlaws
With a few more amens, be a lot less bad calls
With a few more yes ma’ams and a lot less yes man
This world would be a better place to live in
With a few more cowboys
He strikes a chord with the current anti-politics mood by making jabs at professional politicians:
If the White House was in Texas, man, we’d get a straighter answer
Although I’m not sure his alternative of “more fist fights” is much of an improvement, it’s hardly a surprise coming from Toby. Naturally there’s a bit of trade protection and an allusion to beating the enemy, again archetypal Keith:
Met ’em at high noon, hell, it’s about high time
We looked ’em in the eye, got our head out of the sand
Hit ’em with a big John Wayne, by God they’d understand
Production is beefed up, but recognisably country; there is a prominent electric guitar but it is not too intrusive, and Keith’s robust vocals are solid (when he actually sings). It’s quite an enjoyable tune with a pleasant mid paced melody. The lyric video is quite good fun, especially the image which accompanies the fist fights line.
But there is one element to the lyric which is fundamentally misjudged, and as it comes in the second line, and is then repeated in as portentous drawl at the end of the song, it can’t be overlooked as a passing thought – it’s a central point of the song:
If they’d let us smoke what we want, we’d have a lot less cancer
Um, really? While I understand there are some trials using parts of the cannabis/marijuana plant, that’s a far cry from actually smoking it being beneficial. This isn’t the place for that debate; suffice it to say that it significantly mars the song for me.
Grade: B- (it would be B+ without the line I objected to)
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Back in the days writing for The 9513 Blog, I would post occasional reviews on Amazon. We are republishing updated versions of some of those reviews here.
I received Danielle Peck’s self-titled CD for Father’s Day. I was prepared to be disappointed but instead found myself really enjoying the CD. While Ms. Peck doesn’t have the greatest voice, it is sexy and assertive and she has it under full control (none of the “shrieking diva” approach too often found on CDs by today’s country females). The songs selected are very suitable to Ms.Peck’s voice, and very good lyrically. I say this because typically, most CDs have several songs that are out and out duds, but I liked all eleven songs on the CD.
The current song being pushed to radio is “Finding A Good Man” with “I Don’t” having also received airplay. Ms Peck has co-writer credits on several of the songs although not on the current hit.
“Kiss You On The Mouth” (a somewhat steamy ballad), “Honky-Tonk Time” and “A Woman Does Too” also would make good songs to promote to radio. The CD is a little heavy on ballads; one more uptempo number inserted near the end of the CD would have been good.
Apparently Big Machine Records is one of those independent labels associated with Toby Keith, but if so, he must be allowing the artists to have complete artistic independence as he wrote none of the songs on the CD and the disc doesn’t seem to have any of Toby’s touches to the production. Ms Peck does thank her manager, Barbara Orbison in the tray card notes – I assume this is Roy Orbison’s widow.
Anyway, I highly recommend this disc and look forward to her sophomore effort. If allowed fractional ratings I would give this album 4.5 stars
2016 comment – in retrospect I would NOT give this 4.5 stars, but would leave it at 4 stars.
Although you won’t hear these songs on radio, Toby having committed the great sin of growing older (54) than the current target demographic of country radio, Toby has released his best album in many years.
35 MPH Town reflects the weltanschauung of a more mature artist. Although the drinking songs are still present, they do not dominate the album.
The opening track, and first song released as a single is “Drunk Americans” , the only song on that album that Toby didn’t write or co-write. While I don’t think it is a great song, had it come along a decade earlier, it would have been a top five single. Released in 2014, it reached #27 on the country airplay charts. The instrumentation has somewhat of a Cajun feel to it
We ain’t East, we ain’t West
We ain’t left, we ain’t right
We ain’t black, we ain’t white
We just came here to drink
We’re all mud flap suburbans
All ball caps and turbans
All prom queens and strippers
Where the whole kitchen sink and then here,
We’re the same, everyone knows your name
“Good Gets Here” is next and it is a typical Toby Keith country rocker, complete with machine gun lead guitar and some horn accompaniment. The song is about a man who knows he’s not top shelf but is still good enough that some woman will find him interesting.
The title track was the second single, a somewhat jaded look back at life in a small town and how it has degenerated. The song reached #42 on the country airplay charts but did not chart on the country sales charts:’
Oh we can’t blame the babies for growing up lazy
And crazy it ain’t them that let them down
If they ain’t stealing, they’re suing
Why work when we’ll give it to ‘em
It’s right there in the bible that we don’t put out
Spare the rod and you’ll sour
A thirty five mile an hour town
“Rum is the Reason” is a country song with steel drums present throughout, creating a song that sounds like Bertie Higgins or Jimmy Buffett might have sung it. The song postulates that alcohol was the reason leaders of the past (Davey Crockett, Pancho Villa, Stalin, Hitler and more) couldn’t hold power for long due to the alcohol. “Rum is the reason pirates never ruled the world,” indeed. This would have made a good single thirty years ago. Whether it would chart today is uncertain, but it is a good song.
“What She Left Behind” is a mid-tempo break up song about a relationship that suddenly fell apart. The narrator details the things, real and ephemeral, that she left behind to torment him with memories of the past. This is a very good song that I would like to see released as a single
“10 Foot Pole” is another song about the end of a relationship ending, but much less nostalgic than the previous song. The song is an upbeat rocker – “burning it up like Bonnie and Clyde …”
A well executed heartbreak ballad follows with “Haggard, Hank & Her.” The steel guitar of Russ Pahl shines throughout this slow ballad. The combination of alcohol , Haggard and Hank always serves as a catalyst for releasing emotions.
Speaking of Jimmy Buffett, “Sailboat for Sale” features Buffett in a duet with Keith. Jim Hoke’s accordion gently breezes through this song of how they got drunk and traded their fishing boat for a sailboat.
“Every Time I Drink I Fall in Love” is an upbeat country song about one-night stands and fair warning that he will indeed leave in the morning. It’s a song self-aware of its immature recklessness.
The final song is “Beautiful Stranger”, It is a sentimental ballad that was recently released as the third single and it really deserves to be a major hit. The theme is about a couple rekindling the passion. The tempo is slow with a heavy dose of acoustic guitar and violins. Far more mature than most of the offerings on county radio, the song is an appropriate close to the album and our spotlight on Toby Keith.
You give in and the night begins with the red wine kiss
I whisper something crazy about your shoes
You hush me and you crush me with your fingertips
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen this side of youBeautiful stranger In the candle light
God must have told you that I needed this tonight
I’ve longed for this feeling alone here in the dark
With a beautiful stranger in my armsThere a window moon and and old love tune playing soft and low
Takes me back, I’ve always loved that song
I pull you in and there’s comfort in the shape we make
Wrapped up in each other all night long
My only complaint about 35 MPH Town is that the album contains only ten songs. Good thing that all of the songs range from very good to excellent.
Toby Keith has had a substantial career that has not always been properly acknowledged, an after-effect of his dust up with the media darling Chixie Tricks (or whatever their name was). After only George Strait and possibly Alan Jackson, Toby Keith has been the most significant and most consistent country artist of the last twenty-five years. I haven’t liked everything he’s released, but I’ve liked almost everything, and given his prodigious output, that’s saying a lot. This album is worth an A as is his career.
Grade: A
Over the past decade or so, Toby Keith has become somewhat overexposed, often making headlines for the wrong reasons, whether it was his feud with Natalie Maines, his dispute with ABC over performing “American Soldier” in its entirety or for confrontational song lyrics. I began to tune out around 2010, after the release of Bullets In The Gun, and as a result missed Clancy’s Tavern, one of his better efforts of recent years.
Catching up with this 2011 release now has been somewhat of a pleasant surprise. It is a firmly contemporary country project, but is rootsy enough not alienate most country fans, and it also lacks any awkward attempts to push the stylistic boundaries of the genre. That’s not to say that there aren’t any missteps; by Keith’s own admission, “Red Solo Cup” is the stupidest song he’s ever heard in his life (although he also labeled it “freakin’ awesome”). The Jim Beavers-Brett Beavers-Warren Brothers composition (the only song on the album that Keith had no hand in writing), is clearly not meant to be taken seriously. It’s a catchy ditty and is mildly amusing, but becomes less so with repeated listenings. Songs like this have their place as album cuts or concert staples, but they typically aren’t considered single-worthy material. Nevertheless, it landed at #9 on the country chart and #15 pop — his best showing on the Hot 100. It also sold more than 2 million copies, making it the most successful single of his career, from a commercial standpoint — further evidence that quality and commercial success are often two divergent forces.
Prior to “Red Solo Cup”, Toby scored his most recent #1 hit with “Made In America”, about a salt-of-the-earth couple from the heartland, who lament that their traditional values that are no longer in vogue. It’s not a bad song, although it lacks subtlety. It would have packed a greater punch a decade or so earlier, but by 2011 this particular theme had been overdone by Keith and others, and was wearing a little thin. “Beers Ago” a reminiscence of his teenage years written with Bobby Pinson, is my favorite of the album’s three singles. It peaked at #6 but was somewhat overshadowed by the success of “Red Solo Cup”.
“I Need to Hear a Country Song” cries out for a “three-chord, stone cold country song”, even though it sounds nothing like one itself. The upbeat “Trying to Fall In Love” is the album’s most country-sounding track, with plenty of fiddle. I’d have picked this one for a single instead of “Red Solo Cup”, although it probably wouldn’t have sold nearly as well. Also quite good is a the title track, a homage to a neighborhood watering hole and the men and women who work there. Like “Honkytonk U” a few years earlier, “Clancy’s Tavern” was inspired by the Arkansas tavern owned by Keith’s grandmother.
The standard release consists of eleven tracks, all of which can be enjoyed, though “Red Solo Cup” is the clear weakest link. The album’s deluxe version contains four bonus tracks, which were all recorded live in concert in New York City. None of them are particularly memorable, with the possible exception of Keith’s take on Chuck Berry’s “Memphis, Tennessee”.
When all is said and done, diehard Toby Keith fans are going to enjoy this album, and those who dislike his politics and personality will try their best to hate it. And those who try to keep an open mind will find it to be an enjoyable, though not perfect, album.
Grade: B+
Toby’s 2009 release is another mixed bag. He was personally responsible for bad and good alike, as producer, label owner and writer of most of the songs. Many of the songs were written with Bobby Pinson, whose own singing career sadly never quite took off, but who has turned into a successful songwriter.
The title track, a shouty rant about modern life which is the only tune Keith did not write, was the lead single and hit #1.
The second single was a sharp contrast in almost every way. ‘Crying For Me (Wayman’s Song)’ was a tribute to a late friend of Keith’s, a jazz musician. Appropriately, it features the saxophone of Dave Koz and other jazz musicians. The song itself is a beautiful ballad about the sorrow of being left behind when a dear friend dies. It peaked at #6 on Billboard.
The third and last single was one of Toby’s typical semi-comic numbers, and was written with Bobby Pinson and John Waples. In the energetic ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’ a clumsy attempt at picking up a girl is knocked back (literally – she ends up punching him in the face):
Some drunk tried to punk me, and asked my baby “do you dance”
She said “Yes I do, but not with you”
The chorus wanders off into irrelevant list territory, but it’s quite an entertaining track although it peaked at just #15.
Pinson also co-wrote most of the other songs on the album. ‘Gypsy Driftin’’, a solid song about the call of music which reminds me of some of the material on Pinson’s underrated 2005 album Man Like Me:
I learned quick my eighteenth summer
Diggin’ ditches for the man
You can’t be a guitar strummer
Cussin’ that shovel in your handTook my paycheck to a pawn shop
Bought a Silvertone guitar
Wrote a song about a beer joint
Went and played it in a barIt’s hard as hell out on this highway
But I’m still addicted to the show
When that crazy crowd calls out it keeps me
A gypsy driftin’ down the road
‘Are You Feelin’ Me’ is a passionate contemporary-styled ballad addressed to an ex, a little over produced, but a strong song. ‘Woke Up On My Own’ is a well written song about seeing the light, but grievously over produced with screaming electric guitars entirely unsuited to the song’s emotional message, and oversung to boot. Celebrating drunken behavior, ‘Loaded’ is, perhaps appropriately, an unsubtle noisy mess.
The aggressive approach and gospel style backing vocals do work on the moralistic ‘If You’re Trying You Ain’t’. ‘If I Had One’ is good humoured and enjoyable, with Toby admitting he would behave the same way he criticises in others if he had the chance. ‘You Can’t Read My Mind’ is about unspoken lust for his date; the protagonist is drunk but not too drunk to know it’s best to keep his mouth shut. The solo composition ‘Tender As I Wanna Be’ is an emotional love song with a string arrangement, which isn’t bad.
The album ends with the martial and semi-comic ‘Ballad Of Balad’, about a high school dropout who joins the army. It is a convincing portrayal which would go down well performed for a military audience, although some may find it a little too aggressive with its celebration of killing the enemy.
“You’ll meet lots of new friends and you’re sure to get paid
We’ll show you the world and we’ll teach you a trade
It’s not a job, it’s an adventure”,
Oh, yes sir, I got that
Ah, but you never told me I’d get my ass shot at
This was Toby’s last independent release before his Show Dog label took over Universal South. It’s not his best work, but has enough bright spots to make it worth checking out.
Grade: B-
That Don’t Make Me A Bad Guy, released in 2008, was the second consecutive self-produced album from Toby Keith. It produced three singles, topped the country albums chart, and reached Gold status.
Keith was still a heavy-hitter at country radio when the album came out. The Bobby Pinson co-written power ballad “She Never Cried In Front of Me” was issued as the lead single. He’s attending his ex-girlfriend’s wedding, where he finally learns a bitter truth:
How was I supposed to know?
She was slowly letting go
If I was putting her through hell
Hell, I couldn’t tell
She could’ve given me a sign
And opened up my eyes
How was I supposed to see?
She never cried in front of me
The track went #1, and while very good, the choral arrangement is too bombastic. The excellent high energy “God Love Her,” another Pinson co-write that deservedly hit #1, came next. Keith assumes the role of the bad boy stealing the heart of the rebel child, a preacher’s daughter. It’s my favorite of Keith’s more recent singles. The unremarkable ballad “Lost You Anyway” peaked at #10.
Keith and Pinson co-wrote the majority of the album together, with mixed results. My favorite of their collaborations is the title track, a wonderful steel-drenched shuffle that should’ve replaced “Lost You Anyway” as the album’s third single. I also quite enjoyed “You Already Loved Me,” a ballad with a nice dose of banjo. Another ballad, “I Got it for you Girl” leans heavy on power, but keeps the suffocating clutter in check.
“Creole Woman” is pure dreck, an electric guitar drenched mess without much appeal. Even worse is “Time That It Would Take,” an aggressive rocker smothered in electric guitars. “Hurt A Lot Worse When You Go” isn’t terrible but it is a paint-by-the-numbers Keith ballad, a little bit loud with a strong vocal, but nothing he hadn’t already done with far more intriguing results.
“Missing Me Some You” is a bluesy ballad Keith wrote solely. It doesn’t do much for me, but he turns in an astonishing vocal that showcases his goods. I quite expected to hate the album’s final track, the Eddy Raven assisted “Cabo San Lucas.” It has the steel drums you would expect, but the song is a tender ballad and not the cheesy island-y affair you would think judging by the title.
That Don’t Make Me A Bad Guy is a mixed bag at best, an album with two distinct personalities. Keith finds himself playing the game more often than not, which drags the project down. But he sprinkles in moments where he actually tries to up his standards and rise about the generic rockers he and label probably felt would appeal to the masses at the time. If he’d stuck in that vein, and offered the listener a few more surprises, this album would’ve been a slam-dunk.
Grade: B
Big Dog Daddy represents a new step in Toby Keith’s career, being the first of his albums that Toby produced entirely on his own. Released on Toby’s Show Dog Nashville label, in June 2007, the album debuted at #1 on both Billboard’s Country and Top 200 (all genres) chart; however, the album only reached Gold sales status whereas nine of his eleven previous albums went at least Platinum.
This album featured Carter’s Chord (sisters Becky, Emily and Joanna Robertson) doing the harmony vocals. Sonically it’s a nice album, but I don’t regard any of the songs on the album as being among Toby’s strongest efforts.
The album opens up with the first single, the #3 hit “High Maintenance Woman”. Written by Toby with Tim Wilson and Danny Simpson, the song is typical Toby fare
I see you laying by the poolside every day
She ain’t got a lot on
She ain’t got a lot to say
She wouldn’t look my way
But buddy what’d you expect?
I’m just the fix-it-up boy at the apartment complex
And she’ll go out dancing ’bout 7:15
Climb into the back of a long limousine
I know where she’s going
She’s going downtown
I’m going downtown too
And take a look aroundShe’s my baby doll
She’s my beauty queen
She’s my movie star
Best I ever seen
I ain’t hooked it up yet
But I’m trying as hard as I can
It’s just a high maintenance woman
Don’t want no maintenance man
The second track, “Love Me If You Can” was also the second single and it deservedly went to #1 . One of only two songs not written by Keith (Craig Wiseman and Chris Wallin wrote it) this tender ballad is the best song on the album.
Sometimes I think that war is necessary
Every night I pray for peace on Earth
I hand out my dollars to the homeless
But believe that every able soul should workMy father gave me my shotgun
That I’ll hand down to my son
Try to teach him everything it meansI’m a man of my convictions
Call me wrong, call me right
But I bring my better angels to every fight
You may not like where I’m going
But you sure know where I stand
Hate me if you want to
Love me if you can
Fred Eaglesmith penned “White Rose”, a song that rides the line between folk music and country music. I like the song and appreciate that Toby recognized the merits of the song which is nostalgic about such diverse elements as full service gas stations and teenage angst. I think this song should have been a single.
Yeah the whole town came out to watch
The day they paved the parking lot
Somebody hung a ribbon up and then they cut it out
And that big white rose up on that sign put innocence in all our lives
We could see it’s neon light half a mile down
Gas was 50 cents a gallon and they put it in for you
They bumped your tires then checked your oil and wash your windows too
And we shined those cars bright as bright we go park
Underneath that light staring at the prairie skies there was nothing else to do
Track four is the final single from the album, “Get My Drink On”. The song topped out at #11 and while it is an up-tempo and catchy song it is also silly and trivial. Toby co-wrote this song with Scotty Emerick and Dean Dillon. It is probably the most country sounding song on the album.
I
‘m gonna get my drink on, I wanna hear me a sad song.
My baby just left home, I didn’t treat her right.
Right here’s where I belong, I’m gonna stay ’till the money’s gone.
If it takes me all night long, I’m gonna get my drink on.Well I got some little problems and the only way to solve ’em is the sure-fire way I know.
And when the going gets tough, well the tough get going to the little bar down the road.
Toby had a hand in writing the remaining tracks on the album. Toby’s “Big Dog Daddy” really rocks but it is rather generic. Still I could see releasing it as a single:
Hey Daddy!
Oh yeah
Well I’m a big dog daddy you know my face
And the joint starts rockin’ when I walk in the place
The band starts stompin those rhythm guitar
And the dance floor is jumpin’ through the back of the bar
Everybody looks better in the neon lights
When a plan comes together on a Saturday nightYeah, the parking lot is packed and that’s a pretty good sign
I take it right in the back I don’t stand in line
The boys all lookin’ and a hittin’ the spot
Sayin’ the girls start shaking everything that they got
When a little cat momma gets ready to ride
I got Lincoln continental waitin’ right outside
The remaining tunes with writers in ( ) are:
“Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya” (Keith, Emerick)
“I Know She Hung the Moon” (Keith, Emerick)
“Pump Jack” (Keith, Bobby Pinson)
“Burnin’ Moonlight” (Keith, Emerick, Dillon)
“Walk It Off” (Keith, Emerick)
“Hit It” (Keith, Wiseman)
I own most of Toby’s albums and this album is the one I pull out least. For some reason, this album feels like Toby was coasting a bit or perhaps distracted by the demands of establishing his record label. There are no duds but no real gems either, other than the two songs from outside writers. Toby is in good voice throughout. He would issue better albums and singles in the years to follow. As for this album, I’d give it a B.
2006’s White Trash With Money marked a departure for Keith, as it was the first release on his own Show Dog label. Another change involved recruiting the female singer songwriter Lari White as his co-producer; this was the first time a woman had ever produced a male artist in mainstream country music. The title, at once self-deprecating and proud, was inspired by an insult offered to his daughter Krystal by a wealthy friend’s snobbish mother. Happily, it also marks a step back from the over-reliance on pandering patriotic material.
As usual Keith wrote or co-wrote all the material, but this time he had only two collaborators: Scotty Emerick on most of the songs, and quite frequently Dean Dillon. This works well, with a good set of songs all fitting well together.
The lead single was the brassy working man’s ode to the weekend when he can ‘Get Drunk And Be Somebody’, which reached #3 on the Billboard country chart. Follow-up ‘A Little Too Late reached #2. A ballad swathed with sweeping strings, it is a good song about the aftermath of a failed relationship.
The final single, ‘Crash Here Tonight’, peaked at #15. A sweet and tender ballad about being on the verge of falling in love with a friend and not wanting to scare her off, I like it a lot.
The ironic ‘Can’t Buy You Money’, which turns an old saw on its head, with money troubles not derailing the protagonist’s happy home life:
Yeah, we’d save it all up for a rainy day but it’s always sunny
Guess all the happiness in the world can’t buy you money
…
Now, I ain’t got no money, Lord
I’m knee deep in debt
We must be livin’ on love from above
We ain’t hit bottom yet
In the tongue-in-cheek ‘Grain Of Salt’ the protagonist defies a broken heart with the help of several tequilas, and seems to be too hungover to care when she comes back again:
I took your leavin’ with a grain of salt,
Tequila and a slice of lime,
Yeah the minute you left
Me and the boys went out and had a real good time,
It’s nice of you to check up on me,
Just to see how I was gettin’ along
But I’d already gotten over it baby,
Before you were even goneBy now you’ve observed
I was a little over-served last night,
I need to catch a few Z’s
Baby please
Turn off that bedroom light
The self-deprecating ‘Note To Self’ sees the collapse of a marriage thanks to bad decisions and things left undone. ‘Hell No’ is on similar lines:
Oh, she didn’t say no
But in her eyes I could see
Ah, this wouldn’t turn out to be
The fairytale ending I thought it might be
I sure found out
I got a long way to go
She didn’t say no
She said
“Hell no”
‘I Ain’t Already There’ is about a booty call which is part of a long term on-off relationship, and in which anticipation trumps the reality.
More seriously, the subdued ‘Too Far This Time’ is a downbeat ballad in which the protagonist faces the fact that his wife is cheating.
The somber ‘Ain’t No Right Way’ ponders moral choices: a teenage girl facing motherhood or giving up the baby for adoption, a father who beats his children in the name of discipline, and the controversy over prayer in schools. It’s a little muddled in places, with the three stories not quite hanging together with each other or the chorus, but the gentle melody and Toby’s obvious sincerity make it work.
The fluffy happy birthday wish of ‘Brand New Bow’ sounds like a personal gift for Toby’s wife, but has less resonance for other listeners.
This album is one of Keith’s more solid efforts. Almost every song would have been an effective single. It’s no real surprise that this was Toby at his commercial peak. Unfortunately, he can’t leave things there, and includes the gratuitously offensive ‘Runnin’ Block’, about a double date with a pair of overweight women. This aside, the album is recommended to all Toby Keith casual fans.
Grade: A
2005’s Honkytonk University was Toby Keith’s last album for DreamWorks Nashville. It performed respectably, reaching platinum status, but sold considerably less than its two immediate predecessors’ 4 million units, possibly because the label was about to fold. It’s unfortunate because it is a much better — and certainly less confrontational — collection than either Shockin’ Y’all or Unleashed. Nevertheless, a million copies sold is hardly a failure and the album’s three singles all performed well at radio, with all of them reaching the Top 10.
The autobiographical “Honkytonk U” was the first track sent to radio. It recounts Toby’s summers at his grandmother’s supper club in Arkansas, his days of playing football, working in the oil industry, and his early days in Nashville. It deserved to rise a little higher than its peak of #8. The follow-up was the excellent “As Good As I Once Was”, with Toby playing the part of an aging but not quite ready to be put out to pasture good ol’ boy. A co-write with Scotty Emerick, it spent six weeks at #1, matching the success of “Beer For My Horses”. “Big Blue Note”, another Emerick co-write, was the album’s final single. It peaked at #5, and although I don’t actively dislike it, it’s never been one of my favorites. I much prefer the album’s other song that casts Toby in the role of abandoned spouse — the tongue-in-cheek “You Ain’t Leavin’ (Thank God Are Ya)”, which finds him glad to see the back of his departing wife. Dean Dillon shares the songwriting credit with Keith and Emerick on this one, as he does on the ballad “Knock Yourself Out”. Toby gets dumped again in “She Left Me”, another humorous number that states the obvious: “We’d still be together but she left me”. Once again he seems to be taking things in stride.
Honkytonk University is one of Keith’s more solid and consistent efforts; there are no bad tracks, and certainly no cringe-inducing moments like Shockin’ Y’all’s “Sweet”, but if pressed to name a highlight, the honor would go to the Merle Haggard duet “She Ain’t Hooked On Me No More”. It’s a pity it wasn’t released as the album’s fourth single. Perhaps it would have been had DreamWorks been in better financial shape at the time, but it remains a hidden gem in the Toby Keith discography. Lacking any obnoxious moments and more consistently country than some of Keith’s work, I highly recommend this album.
Grade: A
Although Shocking’ Y’all is widely considered an in-your-face follow-up to Unleashed, it is decidedly less aggressive than its predecessor. The by-now trademark Keith humor and bravado are there, but the album itself is one of his more disjointed efforts.
The album produced three #1 singles, beginning with “I Love This Bar”, a simple, catchy and non-controversial ode to Toby’s favorite watering hole, and ending with the relatively tame “Whiskey Girl”. In between was “American Soldier” which was derided by many critics and those against the Iraq war. It admittedly sounds like a public service announcement for the US Army, but in truth it is simply an expresssion of appreciation for our armed forces, before songs in this vein became a cliche. I have no reason to doubt its sincerity and now that there is some distance from the politics of the time, I hope that those who dismissed it may give it another chance.
The rest of the album is hit or miss. “If I Was Jesus” puts an interesting spin on some of the Bible’s better known moments, but the protagonist’s comparison of himself to the Son of God made me a bit uncomfortable. “Time For Me To Ride” and “Sweet” are over-the-top bombastic messes that have nothing to do with country music. “Don’t Leave, I Think I Love You” is quite good but sonically similar to “Who’s Your Daddy?”, which may be why the label passed on it as a single. I also enjoyed “Nights I Can’t Remember, Friends I Can’t Forget”. “The Critic”, Toby’s swipe at music critics, is an interesting creative stretch that makes the case that critics are mean-spirited, frustrated musicians trying to get some attention by tearing down big name stars. It’s meant to be humorous, but ultimately it doesn’t quite work. It has a “King of the Road” type beat, and in the hands of a Roger Miller, the results might have been quite different, but Toby Keith is no Roger Miller.
The album concludes with two stripped-down live-in-concert tracks, performed with Scotty Emerick, who co-wrote most of the album’s songs with Toby. Both are tongue-in-cheek, although there are definite political undertones in “The Taliban Song”, a number that the PC crowd would undoubtedly label as culturally insensitive. “Weed With Willie”, supposedly inspired by the songwriting sessions that produced “Beer For My Horses”, is a humorous reference to the Red Headed Stranger’s well-documented love for a certain herb.
Shockin’ Y’all is one of those albums that I’m tempted to recommend that folks just download a few selected tracks, but on balance the good songs outweigh the bad, so it probably makes sense to buy it in its entirety, though I’d definitely recommend skipping “Time For Me To Ride” and “Sweet”.
Grade: B
My Kind of Country 