CD review: Toby Keith’s “That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. Â
Country
Toby Keith “That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy” (Show Dog Nashville)
Country star Toby Keith revels in do-it-yourself freedom on his new studio album, “That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy.” The album taps both his brash bad-boy image and his sensitive balladeer side, with some stylistic surprises adding diversity.
The Oklahoma native wrote or co-wrote all 11 tracks. He also self-produces for the second time, and seems a bit more comfortable in the role than on 2007’s “Big Dog Daddy.”
He turns on the cocky machismo, drawling about drinking, carousing and exasperating his woman on the two-stepping title track, the catchy come-on “Time That It Would Take” and only sometimes apologetic “You Already Love Me.”
Keith’s polarizing, larger-than-life persona often overshadows his genuine talent as a balladeer, and the disc includes two of the best heartbreakers of his long career. His rich baritone resonates with bitterness on the No. 1 hit “She Never Cried in Front of Me” and with knowing pain on “Lost You Anyway.”
The Norman resident also shows a willingness to branch out, going for an uptempo rock sound on the anthemic “God Love Her” and finding a suitably swampy vibe on the sultry “Creole Woman.”
Keith’s twang is the only country aspect of one of the best tracks, “Missing Me Some You,” an effective, straight-up blues ballad about a deployed soldier pining for his lady.
 - BAM
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