If you're up for a rodeo, I'll put a Texas-sized smile on your face...

Ah yes, Toby Keith. The mere mention of the name evokes in some people either revulsion or zeal. With a career that was already getting hot with the release of his How Do You Like Me Now? album, he found stratospheric success cashing in on the flag-waving ugly-American market, cashing in over and over again with crappy, I mean real crappy drivel like "Courtesy Of The Red, White & Blue" (with requisite jingoistic ignorance) and "American Soldier" (gotta be in my top-10 worst songs of all time). However, for all the mud flug back at him through the years, I've got to admit that he's a damn good artist when he wants to be. For every "American Soldier", there's four or five gems like "Wish I Didn't Know How" and "Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine On You". So now that the "patriotic" fad has pretty much faded with the reality of a complete failure of a war in Iraq and a country still waiting for justice for 9/11, how does that start to reflect on it's flagship songsmith?

Well with Honkytonk U, Keith's final album for Dreamworks Nashville, it's mostly and thankfully short on posturing, and more back-to-basics barroom songs. You wouldn't know it though at the start, with the god-friggin'-awful "Honkytonk U", a typical piece of fist-pumping man-drag that finds another reason to stick "Iraq" and "Afghanistan" into a song. However this time, radio mostly semi-balked, sending the single quickly up to only #8 on the country chart, spending 3 weeks in the top-10, which is really dismal for a Toby Keith album-opening single. Luckily, the album had more up its sleeve than that. Next up is the smash "As Good As I Once Was", which played up Keith's self-deprecating joking side, which turned his fortunes around, hitting #1 for six weeks. "Big Blue Note", another cute and humble ditty about a cluelessly dumped man, followed up to #5. The remainder of the album intermixes competent if not really notable sad-guy ballads like "I Got It Bad" and "Knock Yourself Out" with saloon rockers like "She Left Me". There's only a couple more clunkers like the over-silly Jimmy Buffett knock-off "Just The Guy To Do It" and cliche-ridden duet with Waylon Jennings, "She Ain't Hooked On Me No More".

The album as a whole does have a relaxed, but throw-away feel, which I'm not sure if it's because the honky-tonk theme, or the final-album-for-the-label letdown. Though save the intolerable title song (hit that skip forward button), this is a decent listen for a night in a western dive.

Grade: C+
Best Cuts: "As Good As I Once Was", "Knock Yourself Out"
Weakest Links: "Honky Tonk U", "She Ain't Hooked On Me No More"

"Honkytonk U" - Country #8, Pop#61
"As Good As I Once Was" - Country #1 (six weeks), Pop#28
"Big Blue Note" - Country #5, Pop#55

Listen to "She Left Me" (right click to get download page)

Buy It Here