Big Dog Daddy

Toby Keith has been in business for nearly 15 years, and he’s now fully comfortable in his role as the self-styled “big dog daddy.” The title song and “Hit It” epitomize the singer’s outsized persona, but Keith does best when he blends his ferocious attitude with some old-fashioned twang, as on “Get My Drink On” and “Pump Jack.” A good part of Big Dog Daddy deals with nostalgia for a long- gone time and place. “White Rose” memorializes a legendary filling station that has fallen to concrete and plywood, while “Burnin’ Moonlight” outlines the night one young couple lost their virginity. In their own way, both songs address the loss of innocence. Over the course of the album it becomes clear that when the fervor of “The Angry American” cooled off, Keith found himself in a more subdued state of mind. With “Love Me If You Can” we find the singer attempting to scale back the jingoism of his most famous anthem: “I stand by my right to speak freely / But I worry 'bout what kids learn from TV / And before all the debatin' turns to angry words and hate / Sometimes we should just agree to disagree.”