CD review: “Beer for My Horses” soundtrack

Posted by brandy

on August 29, 2008M at 8:13 am

From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.

Soundtrack

Original soundtrack “Beer for My Horses” (Show Dog Nashville)

Norman country music star Toby Keith and Tulsa comic songwriter Rodney Carrington co-wrote and co-star in the action-comedy “Beer for My Horses.”

As expected, both are featured on the soundtrack, but turn in only three of the 12 tracks, with several others in the cast contributing to the mix of scorching rock, rollicking country and pretty ballads.

The title song, the hit 2003 Keith-Willie Nelson duet, serves as the disc’s appropriate opener. Keith adds another duet with “Let’s Get Trashed,” a raucous pairing with his backing vocalist and fellow Oklahoman Mica Roberts.

Carrington offers his roguish, slyly melodic “Show Them to Me.” But his spirited rendition of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” the movie’s lone musical number, is missing.

Co-star Ted Nugent provides two of his hits, “Cat Scratch Fever” and “Stranglehold,” while David Allan Coe drawls his outlaw anthem “If That Ain’t Country (Part 2).” The trio Trailer Choir boosts the energy level with the rousing country dance track “Off the Hillbilly Hook,” while actress Gina Gershon seduces with the “La Di Da,” a siren song with a spaghetti Western vibe.

But some of the album’s best songs don’t come from artists who appeared in the movie. James McMurtry tells the sprawling tale of a rowdy family traveling to a reunion in Oklahoma in “Choctaw Bingo,” while the sister act Carter’s Chord, who is on Keith’s record label, croons the lovely “Song of Blue.”

- BAM

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