Toby Keith - “That’s Country Bro”

[sabre14]

Artist: Toby Keith
Single: “That’s Country Bro”
Writers: Toby Keith, Bobby Pinson
Label: Show Dog Nashville
Impact Date: May 20th, 2019

Just sent to country radio. New Toby Keith Single, “That’s Country Bro.”

[recordyear]

This is the lead single from Greatest Hits: The Show Dog Years.

[LBTrocks]

Toby.... does not sound good here.

The song itself is mediocre too. I was hoping to like this, but I'm not there yet. And the lyric 'that's country bro' is pretty cringey. I'm hoping this will grow on me.

[phil1996]

Toby sounds baddddd. And I love Toby.

And this song is quite bad. He’s just listing names and saying That’s Country Bro

[Deleted]

The production drowns out his voice.

I don’t understand how the same artist can produce such abysmal songs in-between moments of brilliance.

[bigd79]

i went to a concert of his last fall and he sounded pretty good there, so its not for lack of not having a voice anymore, agree with above the production on this is just off. And the song...is not good. Some songs you just have to wonder what they are thinking when they decide to release them.... Come on Toby, you're better than this.

[ClevelandRox]

He is too damn old to be using the word "bro".

[Deleted]

It makes no sense why this is being released as a single.

[dm2081]

May 3, 2019 14:33:52 GMT -5 @jacobl18 said:

It makes no sense why this is being released as a single.

Because it's country bro.

[someguy]

May 3, 2019 8:18:43 GMT -5 @stephanie said:

The production drowns out his voice.

I don’t understand how the same artist can produce such abysmal songs in-between moments of brilliance.

Toby has a few songs that are fantastic, but there is so much of this nonsense mixed in with them. I really don't get it either.

[.indulgecountry]

This is positively awful. I mean, the title already left me with the lowest of expectations but... yeah, nothing about this makes me want to revisit it. It's basically just a tuneless, drunken, rambled laundry list with an incredibly weak hook to try and tie everything together. Plus as others have said above, the production and his vocal performance do exactly nothing to elevate this. It's noisy, bland, and forgettable.

[slowmo]

For many years I've wondered if Toby has anyone in his camp that can tell him "no, that's not a good song." So many of his releases sound like songs that were written after drinking a little too much, screwing around in the studio and thinking they're the smartest and funniest around.... but they're not. He needs a good editor, but he's not a good one for himself.

This one is just sort of there. It'll fit in perfectly at his concerts and will play right to his crowd, but as a single it's a miss.

[sabre14]

May 4, 2019 14:15:56 GMT -5 slowmo said:

For many years I've wondered if Toby has anyone in his camp that can tell him "no, that's not a good song." So many of his releases sound like songs that were written after drinking a little too much, screwing around in the studio and thinking they're the smartest and funniest around.... but they're not. He needs a good editor, but he's not a good one for himself.

This one is just sort of there. It'll fit in perfectly at his concerts and will play right to his crowd, but as a single it's a miss.

It's the same thing with Garth, probably on a bigger scale however. They don't have many "no" people in their camps since they own their own labels. Garth wanted "Stronger Than Me" as a radio single simply because he liked it and thought it related to his life. I think it's obvious that was a bad decision but who at Pearl Records is going to oppose that call? Same with Toby. I don't think any song can get Toby back to the top 30 at radio but he's been making the calls on his singles since "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" back in December of 2005. I think the quality of Toby's singles have gone down the past 5 years and the choices on what goes to radio or even what's recorded is a huge factor, all of which is his call. There's also the chance Toby doesn't care -- he has plenty of money and past accolades to live off of, this might be just for his own personal comfort.

I agree this song is not that great. I don't mind listing songs but my goodness, that's literally the entire track and it doesn't go anywhere.

[Wackadoodle]

Toby Keith was one of my favorite artists back in his prime. I really miss his older stuff like "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This," "Wayman's Song," "My List," and "Love Me If You Can." Even his catchy, light-hearted jams used to be more fun. I wish he'd just find himself again. That's actually how I feel about a lot of artists. Tney get away from what made them popular.

[onebuffalo]

I'm guessing the greatest hits album will be a two CD set. More top twenties than top tens.

[rbundy1987]

May 4, 2019 20:01:43 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

I'm guessing the greatest hits album will be a two CD set. More top twenties than top tens.

Going to guess the tracklist:

1. Get Drunk And Be Somebody
2. A Little Too Late
3. Crash Here Tonight ? - peaked at #15 in 2006
4. High Maintenance Woman
5. Love Me If You Can
6. Get My Drink On
7. She's A Hottie
8. She Never Cried In Front Of Me
9. God Love Her
10. Lost You Anyway
11. American Ride
12. Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)
13. Every Dog Has It's Day
14. Trailerhood ?
15. Bullets In The Gun
16. Somewhere Else
17. Made In America
18. Red Solo Cup
19. Beers Ago
20. I Like Girls That Drink Beer ?
21. Hope On The Rocks ?
22. Drinks After Work ?
23. That's Country Bro
24. New song?

Not sure if "Drunk Americans" will make the cut

[jimmy's carhartt]

I actually like it a decent amount as a song. But it should have been an album cut, maybe pre-released ahead of the album. Horrible as a lead single choice, for all the reasons people have been stating above.

[rbundy1987]

Lyric video is out!!!

[d3vin44]

I can not stand Toby Keith, and the title to this song is not helping.

[kim8]

Saw this performed last night on the Voice. Ugh what an awful song. Anyone could write this song listing all the country music influences. How did we get to this low point? And the fact that he says bro. Ugh just cringeworthy.

[House Lannister]

Had low expectations for this song from the Billboards ads and this underwhelmed.

It almost sounds like this was the meeting they had for this song:

Exec 1: You know that Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire"?

Exec 2: Yeah.

Exec 1: Let's do that, but instead of world events, we drop in the name of country artists.

Toby: I can dig that. But can I include the word bro in the title and every 30 seconds or so?

Exec 1: Sure, you're the boss.

[rsandcm1]

Is it well written or well sung? No. But I can't say that I hate it, just because I'm such a fan of country music history and love hear all of those names in the song.

[austin]

This is all over Sirius and each time it gets worse. I understand it takes *some* talent to rhyme all of these names and etc, but this is so uninspired and he sounds worse than he ever has. This was a major mistake to even record.

[gonecountry]

Looking for the positive, this IS better than Shut Up and Hold On

[countrymusicjunkie]

Toby's normally a very good singer so why does he sound so bad on this one? Was he drunk when he recorded it?

[onebuffalo]

Tobykeith.com has the track listing to the greatest hits album. Sixteen songs and it will be released in October.

[bboat11]

Hey guys, I figured out how to get copy/paste to work!


Toby Keith Greatest Hits, The Show Dog Years
Track listing:

1. That's Country Bro*
2. Made In America
3. Beers Ago
4. Red Solo Cup
5. American Ride
6. Don't Let the Old Man In*
7. God Love Her
8. Hope On The Rocks
9. Trailerhood
10. Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)
11. She Never Cried In Front Of Me
12. High Maintenance Woman
13. Love Me If You Can
14. Lost You Anyway
15. Back In The 405*
16. American Ride (Official Remix)*

* Newly recorded songs