Toby Keith throws back a few more
This CD cover image released by Show Dog - Universal Music shows the latest release by Toby Keith, "Hope on the Rocks." (AP Photo/Show Dog - Universal Music)
This CD cover image released by Reprise Records shows the latest release by Neil Young, "Psychedelic Pill." (AP Photo/Reprise)
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, “Hope of the Rocks,” 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.”
Neil Young is in a nostalgic mood on “Psychedelic Pill,” a triumphant if somewhat meandering release with his band, Crazy Horse. The opening track, the 27-minute “Driftin’ Back,” sets the tone, as a reflective Young sings about turning back the clock and revisiting his past. Sure, at nearly half an hour, it takes its time getting there. Cut the guy some slack. At 66, it takes him some time to get where he needs to be.”Psychedelic Pill” is the latest in a series of moves by Young retracing his steps. Last month he released his memoir, “Heavy Peace,” and this summer director Jonathan Demme released “Neil Young Journeys,” a documentary in which Young revisits his Canadian childhood home.Sure, some of the riffs on “Psychedelic Pill” have more than a passing resemblance to some of Young’s best-known songs. And maybe some of the longer ones could have used some judicious editing.Three of the eight tracks on the double- disc release are 16 minutes or longer. The other four are four minutes or less.It’s not like these extended play songs represent unprecedented territory for the craggy Young. As anyone who’s played Young’s 1969 song “Down by the River” on a bar jukebox knows, you definitely get your money’s worth.”Psychedelic Pill” comes 43 years after that recording and Crazy Horse sounds as good as ever, setting the mood with their signature harmonies, driving guitars and pulsating back beat.Check out this track: “Twisted Road” throws in references to pal and fellow aging baby boomer Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Roy Orbison, Hank Williams and letting the good times roll. It’s nostalgic without being corny, rocking without being forced. In other words, it’s classic Neil.