Toby Keith - "Clancy's Tavern"

[StevePulaski]

Clancy's Tavern (2011)
By: Toby Keith

Rating: ★★★½

Toby Keith's Clancy's Tavern is the homiest album he has yet to make, and when I say that, I mean this is an album that transmits down-home vibes like any I've ever heard before. This album feels like Keith's personal setlist for the local, mom and pop tavern or the hole-in-the-wall bar downtown that never draws a fraction as much as the nightclub, but has more customer loyalty than that place could ever hope. Having frequented a great deal of small and large bars over the years with my father, I know the environment, the clientele, and the atmosphere all too well, and part of me, next time I go to the local town hole-in-the-wall, just wants to get about six dollars, waltz over to the jukebox, and play every song on Clancy's Tavern just to affirm this belief.

Following the rather lukewarm success of his previous album, the underrated and thoroughly strong Bullets in the Gun, it would appear that Keith has tried to strip his music down to what makes him successful, which is why Clancy's Tavern has songs about drinking and the drinking lifestyle as its primary makeup. It's as if Keith is trying to replicate the success of one of his biggest hit singles, "I Love This Bar," and the album's titular tune is so good as a storytelling song and a totally immersive, slice-of-home experience that, I feel, it fares better than the aforementioned song. "Clancy's Tavern" tells of the old tavern Keith used to frequent, speaking highly of the owner, the floor/kitchen staff, and the "welders, the drivers, and the old 95ers" who made up the joint. The song is entirely infectious, and put to Keith's mellow and wholly effective guitar, it's a tune that demands being replayed a few times. It may indeed be one of my favorite Toby Keith songs (but that's a list for another day).

Even the more mainstream tracks, like the uproariously funny and nostalgic "Beers Ago," measuring how time marches on by the number of longnecks been downed since a certain event, and "Red Solo Cup," an ode to the wonderful, blood-red plastic device that comes in handy during parties and get-togethers, are soaked with humor and good-natured fun, never becoming too repetitive or whitewashed in their own quasi-experimental, desperate-need-to-sound-relevant attitude. Keith keeps the humor coming on the album, singing "Red Solo Cup" like he's slightly-inebriated (even taking shots at Freddie Mac) and saying such lines as "if women come a dime a dozen, I ain't got a penny" on the infectious "Tryin' to Fall in Love."

Keith dabs back into old habits of tiresome patriotism on the song "Made in America," but thankfully not in an emotionally manipulative way, just a questionably relevant way. Thankfully, the album is more concerned with environments and atmospheres along the lines of the tavern that Keith is dedicating this album to, with other tunes like "Club Zydeco Moon" fondly reminiscing about loves gone past and "I Need to Hear a Country Song" nicely replicating that worn feeling you get during a heartbreak when all you want to do is hear a song that exudes some sense of empathy.

Clancy's Tavern isn't as raucous as Bullets in the Gun, which saw Keith incorporate hard rock and fast-paced country music at times, whereas this particular effort remains consistently mellow through and through. It's a breezy listen, but don't mistake that as being unsubstantial and basic. It's a delightful mix of humor, nostalgia, and nicely-conceived storytelling, and creates the down-home feel necessary to make an album like this succeed.

Recommended tracks (in order): "Clancy's Tavern," "Beers Ago," "Tryin' to Fall in Love," "Red Solo Cup," and "I Need to Hear a Country Song."