Details
Track Listing
1. Honkytonk U
2. As Good as I Once Was
3. She Ain't Hooked on Me No More - (with Merle Haggard)
4. Big Blue Note
5. Just the Guy to Do It
6. She Left Me
7. Knock Yourself Out
8. You Ain't Leavin' (Thank God Are Ya)
9. I Got It Bad
10. Your Smile
11. Where You Gonna Go
12. You Caught Me at a Bad Time
Album Notes
Personnel include: Toby Keith (vocals); Merle Haggard (vocals); Mark Casstevens, Scotty Emerick, B. James Lowry, Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Jerry McPherson, Johnny Hiland, Brent Mason, Brent Rowan (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Steve Nathan (piano, Hammond b-3 organ, keyboards); David Hungate, Glenn Worf (bass instrument); Eddie Bayers, Shannon Forest (drums); Wes Hightower (background vocals).
Recording information: Shrimp Boat Sound Studio, Key West, Florida; Upstairs Productions, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Loud Recording, Nashville, TN.
After Toby Keith achieved household-name status with two chart-topping albums full of defiant songs and right-wing politics, listeners may have expected more of the same. With 2005's HONKYTONK UNIVERSITY, however, Keith matches his outlaw aspirations to a set of tunes that remind his audience that he is a country singer first and a media icon second.
The opening "Honkytonk U" is an autobiographical tune that sounds like an outtake from Waylon Jennings's HONKY TONK HEROES, complete with phase-shifted guitar and a four-in-the-morning vocal delivery. Many of the other tunes here have a 1970s vibe as well, but with a poppier slant; the smooth melody of "Knock Yourself Out" recalls Ronnie Milsap, while the breezy feel of "Big Blue Note" wouldn't sound out of place on a Jimmy Buffett record. "You Caught Me at a Bad Time" is so sensitive, fans might be hard-pressed to believe this is the same guy who sang "The Taliban Song." Of course, none of these stylistic variations would work if Keith wasn't a top-notch writer with a resonant baritone. Lurking behind the super-stud image is a master craftsman capable of delivering rowdy barroom anthems and laid-back love ballads with equal panache.
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
All rights reserved.
