Toby Keith Albums (16)
'American Ride'
Release Date 8/31/2009
Tracks 12
Label Show Dog Nashville
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What The Critics Say
With most contemporary country artists, you could guarantee that a song called "American Ride" would be a slice of jingoism, but Toby Keith isn't like most country singers. His "American Ride" casts a cynical eye at desperate housewives and wannabe pop stars, not celebrating down-home values but wondering where we're all headed on this American Ride at the end of the 2000s, a sentiment not all that far removed form some of Keith's previous social commentary, which makes it a mild surprise that it is the only song here that doesn't come from his own pen. As superb and striking as it is, it's not necessarily a good keystone for the rest of the record, which does have a few tougher numbers that pick up on the lean, mean vibe of 2008's That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy -- "Every Dog Has Its Day," the sly "If I Had One," and the heavy blues stomp "Loaded" -- but spends more time on the softer side, even when he kicks up a bit of dust on the dancefloor on "You Can't Read My Mind" or does a funny, respectful salute to military life on "Ballad of Balad." In other words, the real touchstone for the rest of the record is "Tender as I Wanna Be," where he lets his guard down and lets the romance flow. This doesn't turn American Ride into a schizophrenic jumble, as Keith has always balanced these two extremes, but after spending a little bit more time swaggering than wooing, he's back to crooning and it's amiable and appealing, if not overwhelming. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy'
Release Date 10/28/2008
Tracks 11
Label Show Dog Nashville
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What The Critics Say
If 2007's Big Dog Daddy seemed like a back-to-basics move after a few years of wandering, its 2008 successor, That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy, seems downright primitive in comparison. Hard and heavy with guitars, That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy is a roadhouse album at its core with blues playing a larger role than honky tonk here. Keith cranks those three chords hard on the tough "Creole Woman," runs through a talking blues on the slyly funny "Time That It Would Take," and lets it smolder on his lonesome soldier anthem "Missing Me Some You," subtly weaving some deep Southern soul horns into the chorus. Those horns are about the only subtle thing here, as "Cabo San Lucas" hits its south-of-the-border accent shamelessly hard, while the rolling acoustic "You Already Love Me" piles guitars upon guitars and the ballad "She Never Cried in Front of Me" escalates in a crescendo suited for arenas. This pumped-up swagger comes close to exaggeration, but as a producer Keith favors well-defined muscle to steroid-fueled bluster and his writing is similarly lean and natural, turning That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy into a record that's at once brawny and humble. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'A Classic Christmas'
Release Date 10/16/2007
Tracks 20
Label Show Dog Nashville
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What The Critics Say
OK, bypass that hideous cover, which makes A Classic Christmas seem more like a piece of careless product than it actually is -- Toby Keith is one of the biggest stars in Nashville; certainly Show Dog could have put in a little more effort into the art besides Photoshopping a cartoon Santa hat on an old publicity photo -- and concentrate on the music on this two-disc, 20-track set. Granted, a holiday album of this size may seem like overkill, but this isn't one sprawling, unedited session: it's two distinct albums, the first containing secular seasonal standards, the second religious-themed carols. In both cases, they are certainly "classic" tunes -- there's not an unexpected song in the bunch, whether it's "Winter Wonderland" and "Silver Bells" or "The First Noel" and "Away in a Manger" -- which can almost be read as a reaction to his first holiday album, 1995's Christmas to Christmas, which was most decidedly not a classic Christmas album, relying on 12 newly written tunes, several by Keith himself. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorable, where this Classic Christmas often is, especially on the secular disc, as he gives those tunes looser arrangements that allow the band to lie back and have some fun, especially on a lazily loping "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" and a soulful "Please Come Home for Christmas." The carols are, perhaps expectedly, a bit stately but they're done well, and he does give "Go Tell It on the Mountain" a welcome bit of gospel fervor. This shift in tones means that the two halves of Classic Christmas feel like similar but related albums, with the first being better for parties, and the second for quiet nights at home, and both are solid holiday albums, and both are much, much better than that cover art would indicate. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Classic Christmas, Vol. 2'
Release Date 1/1/2007
Tracks 10
Label Show Dog Nashville
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Classic Christmas, Vol. 1'
Release Date 1/1/2007
Tracks 10
Label Show Dog Nashville
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Toby Keith really is a throwback to a different time, a time when artists came into their own after kicking around for a while, a time when the most popular artists were also restlessly creative. In other words, he hearkens back to the heyday of outlaw country, when Willie and Waylon were making their own way with records that sounded different each time out, a claim that certainly can be made with every record Keith released in the 2000s. With White Trash with Money, he tops himself, delivering not only his fifth excellent album in a row, but his riskiest, richest record yet. For this, his tenth studio album, Keith teams up with country renegade singer/songwriter Lari White, an underappreciated country singer/songwriter who made a shift toward country-soul on her 2004 album Green Eyed Soul. It's an unusual choice in many respects. First, it's a surprise that Keith has parted ways with producer James Stroud, who has been co-producing his records since 1997's Dream Walkin', but it's also a surprise because White isn't known for her productions, and her albums don't necessarily seem like kindred spirits with the swaggering, macho Keith. But surprises can sometimes be exactly right, and White Trash with Money is pretty damn near perfect, a testament to Keith's often underappreciated versatility and his songwriting skill. White eases Keith into new sonic territory, somewhat related to Green Eyed Soul but never far removed from the loose-limbed neo-outlaw country Keith has been mining since the turn of the millennium. By working with White, Keith has added just enough new colors to his palette to let listeners truly appreciate the range in his music. That slight yet significant shift in tone is immediately evident, as the album kicks off with the rowdy, horn-driven "Get Drunk and Be Somebody." With its soulful strut, it recalls White's work, but the album shift gears before it can get pigeonholed, with "A Little Too Late" recalling both lush Nashville country-pop productions and Dwight Yoakam's classicist spin on the same sound, and "Can't Buy You Money" bringing to mind a straight-ahead version of Bobbie Joe Gentry's neo-gothic masterpiece "An Ode to Billie Joe." Soon, the changes in mood settle down, and a spare, muscular version of Keith's country dominates the album, but the music is more robust than it was even on Honkytonk University; there are little flourishes, from soulful organs and guitars, that make these songs full-bodied. This variety brings life to what very well may be Keith's best set of songs. Like Honkytonk University, White Trash with Money lacks the ornery patriotism of the post-9/11 work that brought him fame and it keeps the focus on the basics: love, drinking, heartbreak, forgotten anniversaries, tequila, family, and happiness. Keith's humor is out in full force, and not just on the three new "Bus Session" songs that conclude the record. He's loose and limber, bringing a big heart to these tunes, and to the album as a whole. This is an addictive record, enveloping in its sound and memorable in its songs, and it's proof positive that there has been no other country artist as risky, rich, or consistent as Toby Keith this decade. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Honkytonk University'
Release Date 5/17/2005
Tracks 12
Label DreamWorks Nashville
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Snicker all you want at Toby Keith's shoutout to his "boys in Afghanistan and Baghdad City" in the chorus of "Honkytonk U" -- Keith may pander, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deliver the goods. And deliver he does on Honkytonk University, his 2005 follow-up to 2003's hit Shock'n Y'all and the second album he's released since 2002's Unleashed made him into a bonafide superstar thanks to its post-9/11 anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)." That song pegged Keith as a right-wing, red-state country singer, but that's not exactly an accurate designation. Not only is he nowhere near as simple as Darryl Worley, but his patriotic posturing was savvy, a good way to endear him to his core audience and broaden his base, all the while being able to keep his country pure, without a trace of pop schmaltz in its arrangements. Honkytonk University, as its title suggests, confirms that Keith is the biggest hardcore country singer this side of Alan Jackson, but where Jackson is a strict traditionalist, Keith is a rowdy modern man, building on the outlaw country of Waylon Jennings and the sound of latter-day Merle Haggard, throwing in traces of Dwight Yoakam along with a keen eye for contemporary life. He takes such time-honored themes as love, broken hearts, and drinking and gives them new life through his sharp details and sense of humor -- best heard on the wonderfully self-depreciating "As Good as I Once Was" and the absurd, over-the-top "You Ain't Leavin' (Thank God Are Ya)" -- and a strong sense of craft. He's been writing good barroom weepers and party tunes for a long time, but here, the love ballads and sad songs are just as good, and there are such nice, breezy changes of pace as "Where You Gonna Go" that recall the best of rolling, folk-influenced country. Indeed, there's a greater variety of sounds and styles on Honkytonk University than many Toby Keith records -- there's honky tonk, to be sure, but that's only the starting point -- and that variety, along with the consistently strong set of original songs (all bearing Keith's writing credits, many co-written by Scotty Emerick), makes this one of his very best records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Since Toby Keith not only can come across as a loudmouth redneck but seems to enjoy being a loudmouth redneck, it's easy for some listeners to dismiss him as a backwoods right-wing crank -- particularly when he succumbs to such easy impulses as mocking Dixie Chick Natalie Maines in concert and naming his 2003 album Shock'n Y'All, not so cleverly spinning the military catch phrase from the second Iraq war into a bad pun. Those listeners aren't entirely wrong, since he can succumb to reactionary politics, as on swill like "Beer for My Horses," but Keith isn't coming from a didactic right-wing standpoint. He's an old-fashioned, cantankerous outlaw who's eager to be as oversized and larger than life as legends like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson, who bucked conventions and spoke their minds. Sure, Keith enjoys pandering to the Fox News Republicans "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" won him, and his jingoistic ventures don't have the humanity and humor of Haggard's protest songs (although to Keith's credit they display far more humanity than Sean Hannity and are much more genuine than Steve Earle's post-9/11 songs), but that doesn't mean Keith doesn't have a big, warm heart. In fact, on every album prior to Shock'n Y'All he's displayed a taste for mawkish sentiment, but what makes this album work is that he's turned that sentiment into warmth while making the record into the hardest, toughest set of songs he's yet made. Unleashed gave him the clout to make any kind of music he wanted, and left to his own devices, he's lonesome, on'ry, and mean, a cheerful advocate of redneck libertarianism with a sly sense of humor. All of which wouldn't mean much if he wasn't a strong songwriter, and more than any of his previous works, Shock'n Y'All proves that he's a steady-handed journeyman, crafting songs in the tradition of classic outlaw country. It's a deliberately hard-driving, hard-drinking, gutsy country album, yet it doesn't shy away from modernism, best illustrated on "Sweet," with its funky rhythms and use of "babelicious" (which rhymes with "delicious," btw). Even with these modern flourishes, the album is firmly within the hard country tradition, with lots of barroom humor, propulsive rhythms, hearty humor, and a humanity that contradicts the rabble-rousing of Unleashed. And if Keith is more of a party-hearty hound than a profound singer -- even when he imagines "If I Was Jesus," it's only so he can turn water into wine at parties -- that's now an attribute, not a deficiency, since it gives him focus and sensibility. Keith is happy to be a dirty old SOB, cracking jokes, drinking beer, and flirting with the ladies, and that makes Shock'n Y'All a fun, rough, rowdy album that wins you over despite your better impulses. It's not polite, but Shock'n Y'All is pure Toby Keith, and the best album he's done to date. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Toby Keith was edging in on superstardom prior to the release of Unleashed -- he appeared on a national long-distance telephone commercial, after all -- but this was the record that made him a household name, thanks to the opening track "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" and the media-created controversy surrounding its release. The rabble-rousing, obstinate flip-side to Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" -- essentially, a 9-11 song for those who thought Jackson's heartbroken confusion was for pansies, but weren't redneck enough to embrace Charlie Daniels' "That Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag" or "The Last Fallen Hero" -- "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" is, as its subtitle suggests, filled with anger, telling the terrorists (whose "suckerpunch came flying in from somewhere in the back," a rhyme so tantalizingly close to "somewhere in Iraq," you will yourself to hear it every time it plays) that they'll "get a boot in their ass, it's the American way." Keith was scheduled to sing this on an ABC special on the fourth of July (not too coincidentally mentioned in the song), when apparently Peter Jennings objected to the tone of the song and asked the network to rescind the singer's invitation, which then lead to reams of print and countless TV appearances that effectively sold Unleashed before it hit the stores. As it turns out, "Courtesy" is a bit misleading of a lead single, as is the title, since most of this album is hardly tough macho posturing. Sure, there's some of it -- such as the absurdly anthemic "Beer for My Horses," a duet with Willie Nelson where the two of them hunt down modern day gangsters like cowboys, then drink to their accomplishments -- but most of this album is tuneful singer/songwriterism, particularly on the second side, where this album really takes off with a series of rolling, melodic, acoustic-based songs that truly demonstrate that Keith can be a sturdy, memorable songwriter. True, he does descend into cloying cuteness on occasion ("Huckleberry"), but the stretch of songs from "It Works for Me" through "That's Not How It Is" that ends the record is among his finest, and they're balanced by a couple of good moments from the first side (the silly fun of "Good to Go to Mexico," "Losing My Touch") and, of course, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." That song may mischaracterize what's on Unleashed, but those who are brought in by that slice of flag-waving jingoism should be pleased by the sweeter fare here since, ultimately, it proves to be more substantive. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Toby Keith's first DreamWorks album, 1999's How Do You Like Me Now?!, unveiled a new persona -- one that didn't shy away from the ballads that helped bring him hits in the '90s but put them into the background, emphasizing his humor and his bravado to winning effect. And to success, too, as it became the album that truly turned him into a country star, thereby letting him dig into this new persona on its follow-up, 2001's Pull My Chain. In every regard, this is a bigger, better record than its predecessor, possessing a richer musicality and a more confident sense of humor. That humor may be most evident on its weakest track, the mocking macho white-rap "I Wanna Talk About Me" (written by Bobby Braddock, not Keith), but it's better heard on the album opener "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight," a one-night stand anthem that's wry and clever, not obvious. That sly sense of craft has been evident in Keith's work since his debut but it truly comes to full fruition here, perhaps because of his new co-writer Scotty Emerick, who had only one credit on How Do You Like Me Now?! but five here, including "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight," the mellow soul of "I Can't Take You Anywhere," the power ballad "You Leave Me Weak," the breezy '70s soft rock of "Tryin' to Matter" and the laid-back "Yesterday's Rain." These are the backbone of the record, but they don't dominate it, as Keith's collaborations with Chuck Cannon -- "The Sha La La Song," which is the opposite of the bluster of the title track, also written with Cannon -- a rocking cover of Dave Loggins' "Pick 'Em Up and Lay 'Em Down" and two collaborations with Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin (the ballad "You Didn't Have as Much to Lose" and the bonus track "Gimme Eight Seconds," which is pure arena rock country complete with guitars resurrected from the '80s) are equally as good. All these different co-writers and covers mean that Pull My Chain isn't quite coherent, but that's also part of its charm: with his new success, Keith is empowered to try a bit of everything, to sow his wild oats, and he does so in compelling fashion here. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
