In 1984, he turned to
music full
time, playing the honky-tonk circuit in
Oklahoma and
Texas with
the band Easy
Money. A
demo tape
made the rounds in
Nashville, but there were no takers. After catching a
show in Oklahoma,
Mercury Records President Harold Shedd signed him to Mercury Records. His 1993 debut single, "Should've Been a
Cowboy," went to No. 1 on the
Billboard country singles chart, and his self-titled debut album was certified
platinum.
Affixing
labels to
Toby Keith is almost a
cottage industry at this
point. The obvious
definitions include
country music superstar, chart-topping recording artist and top-grossing
live performer. Less recognized though no less significant descriptions include perennial award
winner and nominee, subject of consistent critical
acclaim and new label president. Challenging these for prominence are the various characterizations, at times caricatures, pinned on
Keith by a mass
media that thrives on political divisiveness.
Too often
lost in the discussion, however, are the identities without which the rest would not exist: Songwriter. Vocalist. Musician. Producer. Entertainer.
Toby Keith possesses, quite frankly,
rare musical
talent. Prodigious talent, even. It is his
music that
made him arguably the most visible
country artist of this millennium. It is his
Music that made him such a
success. And it is his music that made him a lightning rod for controversy. More than anything, however, it is his music that
proves Keith's
ability to
communicate honestly and directly with millions of ordinary Americans. Of all
people, his talent isn't lost on his fans.
White Trash With
Money, then, serves as a much-needed reminder of
Toby Keith's most outstanding attributes. His approach to creating the album, from the impossibly direct songwriting effort to enlisting a new co-producer, reveals an artist with the self assurance to take
real risks. The
ever-widening range of sounds and
styles he employs
show a diversity of influence and little regard for
creative boundaries. And
the end result is a
collection of songs that reveal a deft
touch for balancing serious material with a good
bit of
fun, too.
"Get Drunk And Be Somebody," the album's first smash single, is a good example of
Keith's
dry humor and observational
eye. "A Little
Too Late" is
bit of
straightforward songwriting that enjoys as lavish a production as anything he's
ever released. And "Crash Here Tonight," which he calls the most tender
love song of his career, shows
just how far across
the music spectrum he's able to comfortably range.
"This album launches my
show Dog venture,"
Keith says, referencing the
transition from
Universal to his own independent label. "It's an honest effort and I'm
real proud of it. As
long as I can continue making
music the way I do, I couldn't be happier. I've accomplished everything else."
That he has. The
young man from
Oklahoma made a
grand entrance in
country music with 1993's "Shoulda Been A
Cowboy," a No. 1 smash that cut the
ice for his double
platinum debut album. Over
the next five years he released a string of hits including "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action," "You Ain't Much
fun" and "Who's That
Man." His career, however, not only failed to
progress but backslid as he wrestled with his label.
Eventually dropped by
Mercury Records in 1999,
Keith signed on with independent upstart
DreamWorks and turned his fortunes around almost immediately. A succession of career changing songs starting with "How Do You Like Me Now?!" and including "You Shouldn't
Kiss Me Like This," "I'm
just Talkin' About Tonight" and "I
Wanna Talk About Me" followed. Finally back to the double
platinum sales threshold at which his career began, Keith was
poised for a tremendous
step forward.
His
next single, a
reaction to September 11 titled "
Courtesy Of The
Red,
White And
Blue (The Angry
American)," was no
more or less a singular moment of honest emotion than any of his other songs. The response, however, was quite different. "Courtesy" became an anthem in the
war on terror and placed
Keith's
name at
the center of a
media debate that had
nothing to do with
music. Not given to politically correct apologies, he became a
target of criticism but wasn't inclined to defend himself from absurd johnny-
one-note portrayals. Toby was moving on, and millions of
country fans were right with him.
"Who's Your Daddy?" and the
Willie Nelson duet "Beer For My Horses" pushed his
Unleashed album past
four million in
sales, while "I
love This Bar," "
American Soldier," "
Whiskey Girl" and a couple of "
bus songs" did the same for his Shock'N Y'all release.
Fully established as
one of the top touring
acts in the
nation and with a couple of Entertainer of the Year awards under his
belt,
Keith had carried
DreamWorks to the top echelons of
country labels.
But in 2004,
DreamWorks was acquired by the
parent company of
Keith's first label. His
next studio release, Honkytonk
University, came out on
Universal and became his most critically-acclaimed release to
date. At the same
time, it spawned three
hit singles -- the title track, "
Big Blue Note" and the multi-week No. 1 "As Good As I Once Was."
Finding again that the label conglomerate structure didn't suit him,
Keith negotiated his release from
Universal and established
show Dog
Nashville, for which his newest album is the first release. Keith's departure from Universal also brings an end to his
long run with producer
James Stroud. His co-producer for this project is
Lari White, an acclaimed singer and songwriter who had a
gold country album on
RCA/Nashville in the mid-nineties. Though this is
White's highest-profile turn as a producer, her relationship with Keith stretches back many years.
"Sometimes the worst thing you can do with a
friend is get in business with them,"
Keith says. "You could get two or three songs in, figure out it's not working and that makes for
hard feelings when you have to call it off. So I said let's
just do two or three demos. We'll
listen to some new sounds and guitar
players and if we like them we'll
move on."
Toby wasn't
just happy with the demos for "Can't
Buy You
Money," "Get Drunk And Be Somebody" and "A Little
Too Late," he told
White to master them for the album. "I left
the studio with the first single and put it right in my promotion staff's hands," he
says. "Then we went back in the studio and kept
right on going to finish the album.
"
Lari's as talented a producer as
she is a singer," he continues. "
She has an incredible
bag of tricks. It wasn't any more
freedom --
James always let me do
whatever I wanted, but it was a lot of
new ideas and a
nice change."
What hasn't changed is
Keith's approach to putting an album together. "We're not setting out to achieve results," he explains. "We
go in honestly. Doing the demos with
Lari was strictly to make
sure our production partnership was going to work, but I've never done demos. I go in
the studio, sit down with an
acoustic guitar and
say to the musicians, 'Look here.' We
dick with it a
little bit, they write up a chart and we
hit record. I've cut a few songs more than once, but most of the
time it
just takes
one."
That
one-to-one ratio holds true in his songwriting as well. Toby wrote 12 songs for
White Trash With
Money and he recorded 12. The contributions of frequent co-writer Scotty Emerick (who's expected to have an album out on
show Dog this year) is again featured prominently,
as is noted
music Row songsmith
Dean Dillon. "I had a two day layover in
Albuquerque and instead of flying
home we got a
hotel suite, ate a lot of
green chili and wrote five songs for the album,"
Keith says.
Many of the co-writes with Emerick come from having the writer on the road with him. Not only does he perform as
one of the tour opening
acts, he also joins
Keith on stage to perform the "
bus songs" the two write together. "Scotty
rides my bus on the tour, so if I get a good idea we can
just sit down and write it," Keith
says. "If he wasn't around I might
play around with it for a couple weeks and eventually write it myself. But when you've got someone around who might
spring open that one door that
Just makes a song fly, all you need is that moment of
inspiration and you're off."
That constant immersion in
music and the
creative process shows in the breadth of sounds on the album. Horns on the single "Get Drunk And Be Somebody." A
lush string arrangement that harkens back to
the classic Nashville Sound on "A Little
Too Late." Subtle
passion on the ballad "Crash Here Tonight." The first pounding forcefulness of "I Ain't Already There." A
swampy, Dobro-stirred flavor with "
Brand New
Bow." Three new "
bus songs," which have
quickly become a favorite with his fans. Each song, each sound defines this moment of his
Music.
"When 9-11 happened I had a bunch of songs out that had
signs of
the times running through them,"
Keith says. "If you
listen to that pile of songs now you can kind of tell what was going on in my world at the
time. This new album is pretty much a laid back,
fun, redneck, rockin'
roadhouse group. You can tell last year was a good
one for me by listening to these songs."
Read his clips from the past 12 months and you'll see that
Toby Keith has been heralded as Billboard's top selling
country artist, positioned in a major
national television campaign for
Ford, opened his own chain of I
love This Bar &
Grill restaurants, filmed his first major
motion picture for
Paramount and launched a ground-up
Country label, among so many other milestones and
accolades. But for him, and for the millions who will
Buy his new album, the
real story is in the
music.
In 1984, he turned to
music full
time, playing the honky-tonk circuit in
Oklahoma and
Texas with
the band Easy
Money. A
demo tape
made the rounds in
Nashville, but there were no takers. After catching a
show in Oklahoma,
Mercury Records President Harold Shedd signed him to Mercury Records. His 1993 debut single, "Should've Been a
Cowboy," went to No. 1 on the
Billboard country singles chart, and his self-titled debut album was certified
platinum.
Affixing
labels to
Toby Keith is almost a
cottage industry at this
point. The obvious
definitions include
country music superstar, chart-topping recording artist and top-grossing
live performer. Less recognized though no less significant descriptions include perennial award
winner and nominee, subject of consistent critical
acclaim and new label president. Challenging these for prominence are the various characterizations, at times caricatures, pinned on
Keith by a mass
media that thrives on political divisiveness.
Too often
lost in the discussion, however, are the identities without which the rest would not exist: Songwriter. Vocalist. Musician. Producer. Entertainer.
Toby Keith possesses, quite frankly,
rare musical
talent. Prodigious talent, even. It is his
music that
made him arguably the most visible
country artist of this millennium. It is his
Music that made him such a
success. And it is his music that made him a lightning rod for controversy. More than anything, however, it is his music that
proves Keith's
ability to
communicate honestly and directly with millions of ordinary Americans. Of all
people, his talent isn't lost on his fans.
White Trash With
Money, then, serves as a much-needed reminder of
Toby Keith's most outstanding attributes. His approach to creating the album, from the impossibly direct songwriting effort to enlisting a new co-producer, reveals an artist with the self assurance to take
real risks. The
ever-widening range of sounds and
styles he employs
show a diversity of influence and little regard for
creative boundaries. And
the end result is a
collection of songs that reveal a deft
touch for balancing serious material with a good
bit of
fun, too.
"Get Drunk And Be Somebody," the album's first smash single, is a good example of
Keith's
dry humor and observational
eye. "A Little
Too Late" is
bit of
straightforward songwriting that enjoys as lavish a production as anything he's
ever released. And "Crash Here Tonight," which he calls the most tender
love song of his career, shows
just how far across
the music spectrum he's able to comfortably range.
"This album launches my
show Dog venture,"
Keith says, referencing the
transition from
Universal to his own independent label. "It's an honest effort and I'm
real proud of it. As
long as I can continue making
music the way I do, I couldn't be happier. I've accomplished everything else."
That he has. The
young man from
Oklahoma made a
grand entrance in
country music with 1993's "Shoulda Been A
Cowboy," a No. 1 smash that cut the
ice for his double
platinum debut album. Over
the next five years he released a string of hits including "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action," "You Ain't Much
fun" and "Who's That
Man." His career, however, not only failed to
progress but backslid as he wrestled with his label.
Eventually dropped by
Mercury Records in 1999,
Keith signed on with independent upstart
DreamWorks and turned his fortunes around almost immediately. A succession of career changing songs starting with "How Do You Like Me Now?!" and including "You Shouldn't
Kiss Me Like This," "I'm
just Talkin' About Tonight" and "I
Wanna Talk About Me" followed. Finally back to the double
platinum sales threshold at which his career began, Keith was
poised for a tremendous
step forward.
His
next single, a
reaction to September 11 titled "
Courtesy Of The
Red,
White And
Blue (The Angry
American)," was no
more or less a singular moment of honest emotion than any of his other songs. The response, however, was quite different. "Courtesy" became an anthem in the
war on terror and placed
Keith's
name at
the center of a
media debate that had
nothing to do with
music. Not given to politically correct apologies, he became a
target of criticism but wasn't inclined to defend himself from absurd johnny-
one-note portrayals. Toby was moving on, and millions of
country fans were right with him.
"Who's Your Daddy?" and the
Willie Nelson duet "Beer For My Horses" pushed his
Unleashed album past
four million in
sales, while "I
love This Bar," "
American Soldier," "
Whiskey Girl" and a couple of "
bus songs" did the same for his Shock'N Y'all release.
Fully established as
one of the top touring
acts in the
nation and with a couple of Entertainer of the Year awards under his
belt,
Keith had carried
DreamWorks to the top echelons of
country labels.
But in 2004,
DreamWorks was acquired by the
parent company of
Keith's first label. His
next studio release, Honkytonk
University, came out on
Universal and became his most critically-acclaimed release to
date. At the same
time, it spawned three
hit singles -- the title track, "
Big Blue Note" and the multi-week No. 1 "As Good As I Once Was."
Finding again that the label conglomerate structure didn't suit him,
Keith negotiated his release from
Universal and established
show Dog
Nashville, for which his newest album is the first release. Keith's departure from Universal also brings an end to his
long run with producer
James Stroud. His co-producer for this project is
Lari White, an acclaimed singer and songwriter who had a
gold country album on
RCA/Nashville in the mid-nineties. Though this is
White's highest-profile turn as a producer, her relationship with Keith stretches back many years.
"Sometimes the worst thing you can do with a
friend is get in business with them,"
Keith says. "You could get two or three songs in, figure out it's not working and that makes for
hard feelings when you have to call it off. So I said let's
just do two or three demos. We'll
listen to some new sounds and guitar
players and if we like them we'll
move on."
Toby wasn't
just happy with the demos for "Can't
Buy You
Money," "Get Drunk And Be Somebody" and "A Little
Too Late," he told
White to master them for the album. "I left
the studio with the first single and put it right in my promotion staff's hands," he
says. "Then we went back in the studio and kept
right on going to finish the album.
"
Lari's as talented a producer as
she is a singer," he continues. "
She has an incredible
bag of tricks. It wasn't any more
freedom --
James always let me do
whatever I wanted, but it was a lot of
new ideas and a
nice change."
What hasn't changed is
Keith's approach to putting an album together. "We're not setting out to achieve results," he explains. "We
go in honestly. Doing the demos with
Lari was strictly to make
sure our production partnership was going to work, but I've never done demos. I go in
the studio, sit down with an
acoustic guitar and
say to the musicians, 'Look here.' We
dick with it a
little bit, they write up a chart and we
hit record. I've cut a few songs more than once, but most of the
time it
just takes
one."
That
one-to-one ratio holds true in his songwriting as well. Toby wrote 12 songs for
White Trash With
Money and he recorded 12. The contributions of frequent co-writer Scotty Emerick (who's expected to have an album out on
show Dog this year) is again featured prominently,
as is noted
music Row songsmith
Dean Dillon. "I had a two day layover in
Albuquerque and instead of flying
home we got a
hotel suite, ate a lot of
green chili and wrote five songs for the album,"
Keith says.
Many of the co-writes with Emerick come from having the writer on the road with him. Not only does he perform as
one of the tour opening
acts, he also joins
Keith on stage to perform the "
bus songs" the two write together. "Scotty
rides my bus on the tour, so if I get a good idea we can
just sit down and write it," Keith
says. "If he wasn't around I might
play around with it for a couple weeks and eventually write it myself. But when you've got someone around who might
spring open that one door that
Just makes a song fly, all you need is that moment of
inspiration and you're off."
That constant immersion in
music and the
creative process shows in the breadth of sounds on the album. Horns on the single "Get Drunk And Be Somebody." A
lush string arrangement that harkens back to
the classic Nashville Sound on "A Little
Too Late." Subtle
passion on the ballad "Crash Here Tonight." The first pounding forcefulness of "I Ain't Already There." A
swampy, Dobro-stirred flavor with "
Brand New
Bow." Three new "
bus songs," which have
quickly become a favorite with his fans. Each song, each sound defines this moment of his
Music.
"When 9-11 happened I had a bunch of songs out that had
signs of
the times running through them,"
Keith says. "If you
listen to that pile of songs now you can kind of tell what was going on in my world at the
time. This new album is pretty much a laid back,
fun, redneck, rockin'
roadhouse group. You can tell last year was a good
one for me by listening to these songs."
Read his clips from the past 12 months and you'll see that
Toby Keith has been heralded as Billboard's top selling
country artist, positioned in a major
national television campaign for
Ford, opened his own chain of I
love This Bar &
Grill restaurants, filmed his first major
motion picture for
Paramount and launched a ground-up
Country label, among so many other milestones and
accolades. But for him, and for the millions who will
Buy his new album, the
real story is in the
music.