Toby Keith

He's already sung 11 top-10 hits including seven No. 1 smashes. He's already recorded three gold or platinum albums. He's already written five songs that have been aired more than a million times a piece on radio. He's already starred in three videos that hit the top of the charts and six others that became top-10 favorites. He's already performed for a million people a year and been inducted into the "Walkway of Stars" at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Now it's time for Toby Keith to get serious about this country music career of his. 

"I'm not content, not by a long shot," says the strapping singer-songwriter from Oklahoma. "I'm too competitive to be satisfied. I want more. I want it all. And with this album, I think I'm finally a real contender." Toby Keith's Dream Walkin' raises the bar and ups the ante on everything that has gone before it. Songs like "Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine On You" and "Me Too" have demonstrated Keith's soft, romantic side. "Should've Been A Cowboy" and "A Little Less Talk And A Lot More Action" were masculine, rough-and-tumble anthems. Lyrics such as "You Ain't Much Fun" and "Big Ol' Truck" showed his allegiance to the American working class; while the sophisticated melodies and imagery of "Wish I Didn't Know Now," "Who's That Man" and "Upstairs Downtown" made him the envy of his fellow troubadours. This time, all of those qualities are polished and perfected even further. Dream Walkin' is that rare collection, a "career record." 

With a wink and a smile, Toby swings through "I Don't Understand My Girl 
Friend" as though he'd just stepped out of the front line of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys. The insistent groove of "Dream Walkin'" could have come from U2 or The Police, yet boasts a lyric that is straight from a honky-tonk "one night stand." Toby takes a different twist on cowgirl relationships in "She Ran Away With A Rodeo Clown," and lets his "redneck rock' side cut loose on "Jacky Don Tucker (Play By The Rules Miss All The Fun)" and "Double Wide Paradise." 

The country heartache lyrics of "Strangers Again" and "You Don't Anymore" could become instant classics; while new love has seldom sounded more sensuous and swooning than in "Yet." 

Unquestionably the most striking word portrait on the album is "Tired," a bleak depiction of unrewarding labor, unfulfilled dreams and an unchanging future. And then there is "We Were In Love," a thrilling recollection of the surge of young love pleading for the recapture of passion. 

Toby goes smooth on "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying," a tune by rock star Sting, who sings harmony and does a couple of step-out lines on the cut. Toby flew into Nashville, recorded his vocals, then the song went 
to England, where Sting added his parts. These songs are the most potent of his career. And Toby Keith is singing them with a fire that has never before been captured in the studios. 

"James Stroud is a new producer for me," Toby explains. "I was comfortable with the records I'd made before. But the minute I put his headphones on and started to sing, my voice jumped out at me. I don't think my vocals have ever been any more powerful than they are on this album. Everybody's been saying, 'Man, your voice is bigger.' I owe that to James and his team. He didn't piece things together. What you hear is pretty much me singing, right there." 

Toby says the shift in sound has a definite purpose. Put in its simplest terms, he wants to wake up country music again. "I'm a little bit concerned with the fact that we've lost some of the young audience who've gone over to the great music that's going on in the pop and alternative fields. My approach to this whole album was to try and draw some fans who are not listening to country right now. We 
need them to come back over." 

Pleasing audiences is something that Toby Keith knows inside out; and few contemporary country acts have as broad appeal. The 6'4'' hunk is a "man's man" who has done oil field work, bucked broncos and played semi-pro football. Yet he's equally appealing to women with his soft, sensitive, big-hearted side. You get the impression he could waltz with a debutante or slug it out in a beer brawl with equal finesse. Prior to his country stardom, he served a long apprenticeship as the leader of the Easy Money Band, one of the most successful country groups on the Southwestern nightclub circuit. That's where he learned to rock for kids or sing it sweet for the old folks. 

"I don't' think most of the other new country guys have worked nearly as many beer joints as I did," Toby chuckles. "I'm a pro when it comes to dealing with different kinds of crowds, because I've played all of them. I've even had empty rooms rocking!" 

He came of age in Oklahoma City, where he still lives. He got his beginner guitar at age eight, but his athletic abilities were the first to shine in the spotlight. After stints with a rodeo company and in the oil fields, Toby played defensive end in the United States Football League system in the 1980s. During the same time, he began joining area country bands. 

Toby finally chose music over football in 1984. By 1988, Easy Money had cracked the lucrative Oklahoma/Texas dance hall circuit. The band had its own bus and its own album. But Toby Keith wanted more than that. He came to Nashville with a tape of original songs in search of a big label recording contract. 

"Well, they told me my songs sucked, spanked me and sent me home," he 
recalls. He tried recording standard Music Row tunes, but still couldn't get a deal. Finally, Mercury Records signed him to record his own songs. Toby Keith exploded on the country scene in 1993 with four massive hits from his debut CD, three of them from his own pen. Mercury sent him on tour with Shania Twain, who soon followed Toby into stardom. The Toby Keith album went platinum, Billboard named him its top new country artist of the year and BMI showered him with songwriter awards. 

Boomtown, the 1994 follow-up collection, was his statement as a blue-collar poet. The album went gold and spawned four more big radio hits. Reba McEntire chose him as her opening act, putting him in front of a million fans that summer. In 1995, Toby released Christmas to Christmas, rated by Music Row Magazine as "an A-plus," for being the best produced and most socially conscious holiday record of the year. 

With Blue Moon, Toby began co-producing his own records. This 1996 album 
yielded two No. 1 hits and quickly became gold. USA Today expressed 
delight at his "sharp romantic turn," while Tower Pulse! dubbed him "country's gentle giant" and Country Music International called its songs "perfect country gems." 

In the wake of the wildly successful Blue Moon, Toby Keith was inducted 
into the "Walkway of Stars" in Nashville. Superstar quarterback Troy Aikman tapped him for a duet on the NFL Country CD. Toby traveled to Japan for his first overseas concerts. He rounded the corner into 1997 with another No. 1 hit, "Me Too." 

Now it's star time. It's time for Dream Walkin'.

Discography:

 

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