CD review: Toby Keith “Clancy’s Tavern Deluxe Edition”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. To read my interview with Toby Keith about his new album, click here.
Country
Toby Keith “Clancy’s Tavern Deluxe Edition” (Show Dog-Universal)
Oklahoma music megastar and successful business mogul Toby Keith still regards himself primarily as a songwriter, and his sturdy, often deeply personal songcraft characterizes his latest album, “Clancy’s Tavern.”
With his career nearing the two-decade mark, Keith has honed his keen knack for knowing a solid songwriting opportunity when he spots it.
With the title track of his new album, due out Monday, the Norman resident revisits his boyhood memories of the nightclub his grandmother owned in Fort Smith, Ark. The singer-songwriter alluded to Billy Garner’s Supper Club in his galloping autobiographical hit “Honkytonk U,” but with “Clancy’s Tavern” he goes into vivid detail about the bygone place and its colorful characters. This time, his story takes the form of an Irish waltz that not only contrasts effectively with the 2005 rendition but also emphasizes the emotional resonance the reminiscences still have for him.
The album’s lead-off single “Made in America” has more in common with his career-defining hit “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” than just the obvious. Like his signature smash, the new chart-topper combines authentic storytelling with zeitgeist-capturing themes. When Keith declares “my old man’s that old man” who only buys American, fixes his car with a Craftsmen wrench and does all those once-common things that have become increasingly unlikely in these changing times, you absolutely believe him.
Since the Clinton native releases an album a year, longtime fans can’t help but notice recurring thematic and stylistic patterns. But his 2011 efforts are particularly strong, from his earnest old-school country tribute (“I Need to Hear a Country Song”) and his intriguing foray into Cajun territory (“Club Zydeco Moon”) to his entertaining wordplay challenge (“Beers Ago”) and his sympathetic self-deprecating ballad (“I Won’t Let You Down”). But he misfires with “Chillaxin’,” which sounds like an ill-conceived commercial for his new mezcal spirit.
While Keith wrote or co-wrote 10 of the album’s 11 original tracks, he scores a ridiculously fun party anthem with “Red Solo Cup,” a goofy homage to the familiar plastic partyware penned by the Warren Brothers and the Beaver Brothers.
The Deluxe Edition includes four more stout covers from Keith’s 2010 New York club date as Incognito Bandito: Buck Owens’ “Truck Drivin’ Man,” Waylon Jennings’ “High Time (You Quit Your Lowdown Ways”), Johnny Rivers’ “Memphis” and, most surprising, Three Dog Night’s “Shambala.”
— BAM
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The lead single is not called “American Made”, it’s called “Made in America”.