| Product: |
Dream Walkin' - Toby Keith |
| Date: |
21/01/01 (55 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: A good selection of good songs, well sung
Disadvantages: THis man can sing and therefore can do much better !
I decided to bring out my collection of ‘New Country’ albums and give them an airing as they had been in their boxes for too many months and it’s simply not right, I mean, how would you like it, all bound up in one of those stupid boxes they use to hold CD’s?
You would want the occasional airing, wouldn’t you!
The album I’ve selected from the pile is one of my 'lesser favourites' and therefore I should (repeat, should) be able to revue it without getting ‘all steamed up’ or ‘melting’ over the good carpet, just because, “Alan Jackson is singing, just to me.”
I have been known to demonstrate the above symptoms in the past and if there is any doubt about that, - you just take a look at my ‘good carpet’.
Down to business:
WE WERE IN LOVE
This little ditty is all about remembering being young and in love. It’s all in there, the moonlit nights, the back of the car, the way in which you just ‘know’ that the world turns around you and yours.
The man in the song is trying to rejuvenate the old feelings that he had with his lady, when they were younger. It’s also about the pictures we all keep in our minds. pictures of the good times when we were young. Well, I know I do, - don’t you?
The verses are a bit ‘bland ballad syndrome’ but the slightly more up-tempo chorus more than make up for all that and the end result is a very likeable love song. It should bring out ‘the romantic’ - in some of us at least.
7/10
DREAM WALKIN’
This is the title track and one of the better tracks, with Toby singing of a ‘one night stand’ that has left him with only his dreams to remember *her* by; - he doesn’t even know her name.
- should I go on, I mean, isn’t this a family site . . . Oh well, if you insist. ;-)
The lady in question i
s really quite ‘a lady’, as she leaves a rose on his pillow but, as I said, doesn’t leave her name. The only way the guy has to find her is to keep dreaming about her even when he’s awake and walking around, hence the title of the track.
What I like about this track is the way it demonstrates the various lovely qualities in Toby’s voice. There is more than a hint of timbre in there, nearly enough to curl the odd little toe or two.
8/10
YOU DON’T ANYMORE
There is a lovely ‘play on words’ in this track, with Toby talking about the way, on their wedding day, he says, “I said I do, - and I did, - but you don’t anymore.”
The man has been trying and trying to save his marriage, but all seems doomed, but - even if she leaves he’ll still love her. All say after me, “Ahhhhhhh.”
7/10
JACK DON TUCKER
Now this track is ‘a totally different animal’, with Toby getting ‘real up-tempo’ and really letting it ‘rock-a-little’.
The song is about one of Toby’s friends, from when he was a boy.
A “skinny-dipping and finger clicking, son-of-a-gun” in fact.
Jack Don Tucker says,
“If you play by the rules, - you miss all the fun.”
This young lad is an obvious ‘no-hoper’ - but don’t you just lurv him?
Anyway, I get the feeling this boy is real - actually existed in Toby’s boyhood; who knows . ..?
7/10
TIRED
This laid-back little number is the kind of track I try to avoid. It portrays life as-is. No polish, no glamour, as-is.
As a result it does absolutely nothing for me,
but as it is a lovely s-l-o-w track, it might find a place out there among you ‘real-life’ types of folks. It tells of the way there is, “no rest for the weary”, something of which I am more than sufficiently aware of, than
k you very much.
That being said, in its favour - this track demonstrates even more of the subtleties in Toby’s voice, and therefore, I have to give it a reasonable score;
7/10
DOUBLE-WIDE PARADISE
This track is one that I think would make an ideal ‘slow line-dance’ track but, as I have never had the ‘pleasure’, I can’t comment, can I. Only problem with it is that it is another ‘sad song’.
Even though I agree with Messrs. Taupin and John, when they say that “Sad Songs Say So Much, the ones on this album only go to show Toby’s position as (when this album was produced) a relative ‘new-comer’ to the country scene.
6/10
YET
Yes. This one I like as it is all about ‘new love’ and the way you can sit for hours just listening to your lover breathing on the other end of the phone.
Been there, done that. I’d doo it again too, although I’m glad to say, I don’t have to - as he is right here beside me, writing and rating as any good dooyooer should be at this time of night.
Not a ‘great’ song, but I can’t help likeing it, quite a bit in fact.
7/10
SHE RAN AWAY WITH A RODEO CLOWN
Toby is ‘back on the beat’ again with this one. It fairly races along while telling in its up-tempo fashion about a ‘lady’ who, “drinks Bacardi like it’s going out of style” and who “Runs Away With A Rodeo Clown”.
7/10
STRANGERS AGAIN
Now, we come to possibly the best written and produced track on the CD.
Strangers Again, is a gorgeous love song which tells of a guy reminiscing about his love, of how strangers became lovers, but are strangers again. Another ‘sad’ song, but this time the sadness is tinged with a hope that love will come again too.
8/10
I’M SO HAPPY I CAN’T STOP CRYIN’ (Duet
with STING)
Sting guests on this track and he may have written it too. As I said at the start, the cover has been ‘got at’ and is ever-so-slightly illegible. Anyway, it sounds a little like a ‘Sting’ song. Sting ‘lifts’ this track admirably and the pair make a fair attempt at harmonies although, I’m not entirely sure that they manage it.
(Thinks, I am in a critical mode tonight, aren’t I ?!! ` ) In its favour, this track is more like ‘real’ country music and has some fine guitar work running through its entire length.
8/10
I DON’T UNDERSTAND MY GIRLFRIEND
All you Bob Wills fans out there in country music land, this final track is for you. (and me) I’ve had a liking for this type of country musicfrom ‘day one’, which for me was back in 1989, although the “eehaw” bits can be a little wearing at times. Bob Wills has left the world of country music with some fine Texas ‘swing’, and with the new incumbent in the White House being from Texas, we might be hearing more of this type of country in the near future.
I mean, after all, “George W”. has to have *something* going for him, surely?
(even if it is only a fine taste in music ???, we can but hope) ;-7
8/10
SUMMARY
This is one of Toby Keith’s earlier releases, although the cover on my CD is torn and I can’t quite see what the date of release is exactly.
As a fan of Toby’s the year of issue doesn’t really matter to me and I hope it doesn’t matter to you, either.
What does matter is that this man is a ‘natural’ country singer who is most unlikely to ‘cross-over’ into another genre.
In my opinion, country music has lost too many fine singers to the 'pop mmusic' scene recently, although, again in my opinion, it’s ‘their loss’, as they will
all be swallowed up by the ‘gubbing’ machine that is the pop-music industry.
Many fine artists are already having a hard time, getting their brand of country across to the general public without their record company directing them into oblivion,
simply because their voice, their style or their face does not fit in with what is the ‘big-boys’/’big-money’ idea of the ‘right Product’.
GG
Summary:
|
|
