Category Archives: Toby Keith

Summer ‘06

The summer of 2006 is when I began anticipating songs that would play on country music radio stations. It was a  time in my life when no other genre of music  influenced me as much as country. I had always been so happy listening to songs in the car and singing along. However, my passion for country music grew much stronger when I discovered Country Music Television (CMT). I spent almost everyday that summer watching music videos on CMT. They had one show in particular that I loved; they would play the top videos of the year. Over the years, a few of those videos have been carved into my memory.

“Every Time I Hear Your Name” by Keith Anderson is my favorite song of that year. Keith Anderson had a few other hits in his career like “Pickin’ Wildflowers” and “I Still Miss You” but he never became well known as a country artist.  “Every Time I Hear Your Name” was the first ballad Anderson released and it reached No. 7 in the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and the accompanying video was average. Regardless, I think this music video has been stuck in my mind for all of these years simply because I loved this song. Whenever they aired it on CMT I would get really excited and sing along. Now looking back as an adult, I realize there is nothing special about the video; but it will always be my theme song for the summer of 2006.

“A Little Too Late” by Toby Keith is another music video I remember from that summer. Toby Keith is an outrageous person in general, so you can imagine the type of music video he would make for a song that’s about an ex-girlfriend.  “A Little Too Late” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. I recall memorizing the entire video because of how often they would play it on CMT. The reason this video stuck out so much is because of its intensity. Toby tries to trap his ex-girlfriend in the basement and leave her there for dead. I was never actually afraid of watching it, but the video left a negative impression on me.

“Not Ready to Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks is the last memorable music video from the summer of 2006. This song is the band’s biggest hit to date. It’s about the band’s reaction to the impending Iraq war and the controversy over a comment  by lead singer, Natalie Maines. At a concert in London, Maines stated, “…We don’t want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” This remark caused the Dixie Chick’s music to be banned from country radio and damaged their careers. Back then, I didn’t understand the controversy or what this music video is about.  However, I became  frightened when CMT would air it because of it’s dark themes. Mostly I  remember this video as the one with all of the black paint with creepy people. For an 11 year old it’s understandably an intense music video. Today the Dixie Chicks are making a comeback.  And, I can’t wait to see what they have in store!

Even though these songs seem unrelated, they have a permanent place in my memory.  It’s strange that out of all of the videos I watched, these three are the only ones that I specifically remember. I continued to watch music videos on CMT and YouTube growing up, but never as often as I did during the summer of 2006.

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Filed under Blog Post 4, Dixie Chicks, Music Videos, Toby Keith

Toby Just ‘Ain’t As Good As He Once Was’…

635687599432167722-TobyKeith17My Monday started out as one of the best Mondays one can have—my parents handed me two front row tickets to see Toby Keith at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo that evening. The excitement that poured over me to finally have the opportunity to see one of the first country stars that influenced my love for the country genre was surreal. Immediately I opened my Spotify app to start preparing for my night, I started out with some classic oldies like “I Wanna Talk About Me” and “Beer for my Horses” before I decided to try a few songs off of his new album… Meh. At first I didn’t even think about the fact that Toby had released a new album within the past couple of months and I hadn’t heard a thing about it… I realize now that that was the first red flag.

Towards the end of the day, after endlessly hyping myself up and teaching my ill-informed boyfriend some of my favorite Toby songs, we were just about ready to head to the rodeo. We spent the first hour or two walking around the stockyards and eating corndogs, completely submerged in hundreds of fellow fans wearing Toby paraphernalia—it was Toby Keith mania. Nothing made me more excited to hear him play than to be surrounded by so many other people who shared the same passion for his music as me. As the sun went down and the trailers started packing up their livestock, we headed for the entertainment arena.

The rodeo was amazing. I have grown up going to the show every year of my life, yet never growing tired of seeing the same events in the same order with the same smells and the same atmosphere. There’s something so comforting about returning every year to an event that seems to never be influenced by change.

As soon as the last bull rider barely made it past his eight seconds of whiplash, the lights went down and I actually got butterflies in my stomach. Toby came out in a Ford truck with nothing other than a Red Solo Cup shooting through the sunroof. As hilarious as I thought that was, it wasn’t less than a minute later when my excitement vanished and I quickly felt a yawn engulfing my face.

FullSizeRenderEverything was off. The drums and the guitar were louder than the vocals; I could barely even hear him considering I was in the front row. The dancers had little energy and were completely off beat. And unfortunately the worst of all was how wasted Toby was. I had seen drunk performers before, such as Pat Green and Tim McGraw, and obviously I had had something to drink as well because drinking and country music go so well together, but there was something so sad and disappointing to see someone who you liked so much as child now as a fat old drunk. He played some of the songs I knew, but mostly many songs that neither the audience nor I had ever heard of, which was obvious by the amount of people sitting down or leaving. I made myself stay until the end in hopes of hearing my all-time favorite song, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue”, but left in complete disappointment as he never even sang it. There was something so upsetting to me about seeing him in such a bad state, almost like going back to a place you loved when you were young and innocent, only to see it old and corrupted. Although I still will probably jam out when I hear an old Toby Keith song on the radio or at a party, I won’t forget the fact that his song speaks the truth, he really just ain’t as good as he once was.

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Filed under Blog Post 3, Concert, Rodeo, Toby Keith