MUSIC REVIEW

Toby Keith throws back a few more

By AP's Rob Merrill

[October 30, 2012]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Toby Keith, "Hope On The Rocks" (Show Dog-Universal)

Toby Keith wants you to know he's not just a beer man. Whiskey will do in a pinch.

Perhaps expected from the album title, only two of the 10 new songs don't reference some sort of drinking.

Most feature his favorite malt beverage in their titles or lyrics ("I Like Girls That Drink Beer," "Cold Beer Country," "Haven't Had A Drink All Day" and a bonus remix of 2011's "Beers Ago"), but whiskey gets its share of shout outs.

"Daddy makes the whiskey and mama say the prayers," Keith sings in "Scat Cat," a song about a family of moonshiners.

The songs are full of practical drinking advice as well.

"Always drink upstream from your cattle," says an old man to a younger one in "Get Got." "Don't mix your whiskey with decision/Ask forgiveness not permission," Keith sings later in the same song.

As for the music, Keith is smart enough not to mess with a winning formula. There are weeping steel guitars, omnipresent drums and an occasional fiddle. It all makes for sing-along stuff that's sure to keep his fans happy and provide more than a few toast-worthy moments in concert.

He certainly shouldn't have any problem finding a tour sponsor.

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: "The Size I Wear" with the unforgettable rhyme: "She was five foot two `bout ninety-five pounds/She was round in the places she's supposed to be round."

[Associated Press; By ROB MERRILL]

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