Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #514 in Music
- Released on: 2012-10-30
- Number of discs: 1
- Dimensions: .20" h x
5.00" w x
5.50" l,
.16 pounds
Product Description
There are few safe bets in life, even fewer when it comes to entertainment. A new Toby Keith album, however, is as close to a sure thing as can be found. As he releases Hope On The Rocks, Keith is coming off yet another No. 1 country album Clancy's Tavern which included the biggest viral event in the genre's history, "Red Solo Cup." That effort was just the latest in a long run of chart-topping albums and singles that form an unmatched model of consistency. So much so as to fuel and attract other notable endeavors.
Keith's tours, and his long running association with title sponsor Ford Trucks, are annually among the nation's top draws. His I Love This Bar And Grill restaurants are perhaps the fastest growing of any such celebrity chain. And his signature Wild Shot Mezcal has almost single handedly stoked growth in an entire segment of the spirits industry. Those successes lead Forbes to regularly rank Keith as one of the top-earning musicians in the entertainment industry.
Remarkable as they are, however, those achievements pale in comparison to the singular vision behind an astonishingly focused creative process. The principle songwriter behind the incredible career of Toby Keith has been and remains Toby Keith to the tune of more than 75 million airplay performances, according to BMI. That number puts him among the top songwriter/artists of all time in any genre.
Clocks could be set by Keith's creative calendar. His devotion to and protectiveness of this music making structure even led him to recently turn down one of the biggest opportunities in entertainment. But his expertly constructed creative workflow did not come easily to its current fine-tuned state.
Songwriting, it turns out, is also a way Keith marks time. "You can look at a list of songs and may not know exactly when you wrote them, but you can remember where you were in your life," he explains. "If I look at my first album, I know that every one of my songs was written prior to having a record contract. I know what house I was living in. I look at my second album and think it could have been better, but I only had a year to write that one and I had my whole life to write the first one.
"By the time you get to Dream Walkin', you start to see improvement as I start settling in and figuring out how hard I have to work to produce an album every year. How much volume you need. Past that you start to see the albums true-up and become something that could have had five or six singles. When you cross into the 2000s and How Do You Like Me Now?!, you start seeing those monster back-to-back hits. You really see the writing hit its stride. So when I look at this album, people I trust are telling me it's the best group of 10 I've ever turned in. They feel like we could pretty much have a single on any of them. You'd have to be more blessed than I am to figure out how to accomplish that without doing it for 18 or 19 years."
In that sense, Hope On The Rocks is an accumulation of a career's worth of experience, craftsmanship and a deep understanding of how to channel inspiration. "I write all year and record at the end of the year," he says. "Once in a while an outside song like 'I Wanna Talk About Me' or 'Red Solo Cup' comes along and I've always said I'm not going to pass up a hit that sounds like I wrote it. But most of the time it's just me cutting whatever I wrote in the last year. So there's never a theme or a pre-conceived plan."
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
By Darren O'Neill
Anyone that tries to dismiss Toby Keith as just another one trick pony is totally missing out on the point that people REALLY seem to like the trick! "Hope On The Rocks" gives Toby's fans more of what they've come to expect from him which is country music with a lot of attitude and a fair share of humor."Hope on the Rocks" has Toby cranking out a lot of songs about drinking that will surely get plenty of radio and jukebox play. The song "The Size I Wear" is about a group of guys out on the town looking for women with a firm tongue in cheek delivery featuring the lines "She was five foot two 'bout ninety-five pounds/She was round in the places she's supposed to be round.""I Like Girls That Drink Beer" is fairly self-explanatory lyrically and is just a fun hard driving track about the virtues of the down to Earth ladies that like to throw back a brew.The bluesy "Haven't Had A Drink All Day" reminds me a lot of Hank Williams Jr. at his prime in both delivery and subject matter. One of the best tracks on the album in my opinion.Toby's humor is on full display in the last track of the album's deluxe edition with the song "Get Out Of My Car" which is laugh out loud funny and a reason to find the deluxe version! It's a live cut that Toby introduces as a song that will never be on the radio. That honor is earned by lines like "We've already kissed/We've already danced/And you're wondering if you should put on your shoes or take off your pants" and a chorus that ends with "Get out of your clothes or get out of my car." Classic tongue in cheek Toby Keith that sums up the album perfectly, a whole lot of fun!The bottom line is if you like Toby Keith's previous work you're going to love this album. Buy it!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
By Constant Reader
I love Toby's music....I've often championed his work to those who would dismiss him as a simpleton redneck. He's always managed to make relevant country music without succumbing to the trends plaguing today's pop/country Nashville scene. He's a great performer and puts on an incredible stage show. All that being said, there is not one "stand out" song on this record. The bright moments are relegated to a nice guitar riff or a clever lyric here and there, but overall, these songs feel like they are leftover material from his last three or four records, the songs that didn't make the cut. The best song on the record is the live version of "Whiskey Girl." The remixes of "Red Solo Cup" and "Beers Ago" are just bad. I can handle the "Red Solo Cup" remix as the song is simply a throw away party song, and while catchy, it's no indication of Toby's talent. Good thing he didn't write it. But "Beers Ago" is a great song about growing up in a small town and adding a bad drum sample and techno sounds does not do it justice. I'll go ahead and put this record on my ITunes, but I'll stick with his more recent efforts of the last couple years as they stand head and shoulders over "Hope on the Rocks."
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
By Jason Luokka
Toby Keith has continued his string of excelent albums with this just released title! The only reason for my not giving it a 5 star rating is that he resorted to what I consider the cheesyest of all gimmicks with the remix of Red solo cup. Which in it's self was a funny novalty from his last Cd, and plenty enjoyable the way it was. I would imagine it was an attempt to capture the club or dance market, and to reach younger listeners. But I think this idea in my opinion is a flop. Don't get me wrong, the arangement, and style of this album is otherwise excelent, and Pink Floyd fans may especially appreciate the style of IF Your Not With Me, You're Not Alone, as it seems to take on the feel of the first track out of Floyd's "dark Side OF the Moon." So by no means should anyone hesitate in buying this otherwise excelent deluxe Eddition of "Hope ON The Rocks."
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