''Clancy's Tavern'' is the fifteenth studio album by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
artist
Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel (July 8, 1961 – February 5, 2024) was an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and businessman.
Keith released his chart-topping debut single, "Should've Been a Cowboy", in 1993. During the 1990s ...
.
It was released on October 25, 2011 by
Show Dog-Universal Music.
Lead-off single "
Made in America" was released on June 13, 2011, reaching number one on the country charts in October 2011. ''Clancy's Tavern'' draws its name from the title track, which Keith wrote about his grandmother’s bar in
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the List of municipalities in Arkansas, third-most populous city in Arkansas, United States, and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County, Arkansas, Sebastian County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the pop ...
.
[ A deluxe edition of the album includes four cover songs recorded live at a small venue in ]New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
Reception
Commercial
''Clancy's Tavern'' debuted at number 5 of the US ''Billboard'' 200, and at the top of the US ''Billboard'' Top Country Albums chart. As of the chart dated January 7, 2012, the album has sold 318,000 copies in the US.
Critical
''Clancy's Tavern'' by Toby Keith received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns an averaged rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 79, based on 6 reviews.[ ]About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...
's Robert Silva stated that "If you bought the Deluxe Edition of ''Clancy's Tavern'', it wasn't a complete waste of money", and affirmed that "This dude rocks. And I am very confused."[ ]AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
's Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...
took note of that when compared to Keith's previous album, '' Bullets in the Gun'' (released in 2010), ''Clancy's Tavern'' "pushes humor to the forefront and generally isn’t so insistent on driving the beat into arena country territory, letting the melodies and music relax." He continues by stating that Keith is no longer at the height of his career and that "he’s now the guy he sang about being on “As Good as I Once Was." However, toward the end of the review, Erlewine commended Keith for delivering one of his best albums in "many a moon."[ Randy Lewis of the '']Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' noted that "Like the corner bar, this is familiar territory for Keith and his fans, and he doesn’t seem to give a whit about stepping out of his comfort zone. That makes this an eminently dependable outing that’s strong on solidly crafted, confidently delivered songs but nearly devoid of surprises or revelations about his artistry."[ Roughstock's Matt Bjorke found that "as almost all singers are, to entertain us, not to enlighten us but if something enlightening happens to come along, all the better but remember this: don’t expect too much from him and he wont’ let you down, which exactly what happens with ''Clancy’s Tavern''. It’s a strong collection of songs that may be his best album in years".][ ]Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
's Jonathan Keefe criticized "''Clancy's Tavern'' is a fairly rote reiteration of the same album that Toby Keith has been re-recording once a year since 2005's ''Honkytonk University''. While there's something to be said for his work ethic and relative dependability, a good-sized chunk of ''Clancy's Tavern'' feels phoned in, and Keith is simply too big a personality and too dynamic a singer to get away with something lackadaisical. It's unfortunate that the couple of brighter moments on the album happen to be counterbalanced by some genuinely gross songs that play into the worst stereotypes about both Keith and country music as a whole."[ ]Taste of Country
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...
's Billy Dukes found that "'Clancy’s Tavern' is as humble a Toby Keith album as one can remember. There isn’t a moment to be found where it feels like the singer is standing over you thumping his chest. This is a welcome change of pace from a man who at age 50 shows no signs of losing touch with what’s hot."[ ]Brian Mansfield
Brian Mansfield (born September 24, 1963) is an American writer and journalist.
Early life and education
Mansfield grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from David Lipscomb High School.
In 1984, Mansfield received a bachelor's degre ...
of the ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' surmised that "Other than the opening ''Made in America'', Keith seems to have worked through the ultra-patriotic anthems and macho declarations that have been staples of his recent albums. That leaves plenty of room to sing about bars and the people who haunt them. Keith's got an affinity for the subject, whether it's a character sketch like the title track or a drinking ditty like ''Red Solo Cup''."[
]
Track listing
Personnel
Adapted from liner notes.
*Brett Beavers
Brett Beavers (born in Waco, Texas) is an American country music songwriter and producer and a co-author of a book, ''Something Worth Leaving Behind''.
Education and early career
Beavers attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he earne ...
- bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
(track 10), background vocals (track 10)
*Jim Beavers
Jim Beavers is an American country music songwriter. He is also the brother of songwriter Brett Beavers.
Early life and education
Jim Beavers grew up in Garland and Jacksonville, Texas. His educational background includes a BBA from Baylor U ...
- six-string banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
...
(track 10), background vocals (track 10)
*Tom Bukovac
Tom Bukovac (born December 20, 1968) is an American session guitarist and producer. He is also a popular YouTube personality with over 100,000 subscribers. He is a five-time winner of Music Row's Top Ten Album All-Stars award in the guitar categ ...
- electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
(track 9)
*Pat Bergeson
Patrick Bergeson (born March 11, 1961) is an American guitarist, harmonica player and occasional songwriter. Based in Nashville, he is best known for his live and session work with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Suzy Bogguss and Les Brers.
Biography ...
- harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...
(tracks 8, 9)
*Perry Coleman - background vocals
*Chad Cromwell
Chad Cromwell (born June 14, 1957) is an American rock drummer whose music career has spanned more than 30 years. He is the founding member of a band called Fortunate Sons, which released a self-titled album in 2004.
Cromwell has worked with mu ...
- drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
*Eric Darken
Eric A. Darken is an American percussionist, composer, and programmer.
Biography
Drawing inspiration from his grandfather, a band leader. Darken began playing drums at age 12, and played timpani and mallets in high school. Darken attended ...
- percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
* Paul Franklin - steel guitar
A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar i ...
(tracks 8, 9)
*Kevin "Swine" Grantt - bass guitar
*Kenny Greenberg
Kenneth S. Greenberg is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and session musician. He is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions.
Biography
Greenberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio but attended junio ...
- electric guitar
*Aubrey Haynie
Aubrey E. Haynie (born March 27, 1974) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle and mandolin. In his career, he has recorded three studio albums for the Sugar Hill Records label, all three of which contained mostly songs that he w ...
- fiddle
A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...
(tracks 2–7, 11), mandolin
A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
(tracks 2–7, 11)
*Jim Hoke - saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...
(track 9), horn arrangements (track 9)
*Bill Huber - trombone
The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
(track 9)
*Scotty Huff - trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
(track 9)
*Charlie Judge - accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...
(tracks 3, 8)
*Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel (July 8, 1961 – February 5, 2024) was an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and businessman.
Keith released his chart-topping debut single, "Should've Been a Cowboy", in 1993. During the 1990s ...
- lead vocals
*Phil Madeira - B-3 organ (track 9)
*Rob McNelley - electric guitar (tracks 2, 7)
*Steve Nathan
Steven Jay Nathan (born April 20, 1951) is an American keyboardist. He is known for his session work in Muscle Shoals and Nashville studios.
Biography
Nathan was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. In 1977, Nathan moved to Muscle Shoals, A ...
- B-3 organ (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 11), piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
(tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 11), Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...
(tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 11)
*Russ Pahl - steel guitar (tracks 1–3, 6, 7, 11)
* Michael Rhodes - bass guitar (track 9)
*Mica Roberts
Mica Roberts (born in Locust Grove, Oklahoma) is an American country music artist signed to Show Dog Nashville, a label owned by country singer Toby Keith.
In 2008, she released her debut single, "Things a Mama Don't Know", a duet with Toby Kei ...
- background vocals (tracks 2, 3, 7, 8)
*Ilya Toshinsky
Bering Strait was a Russian country music band, whose style was sometimes called "redgrass". In 2003, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award and appeared on the TV show ''60 Minutes''. The group disbanded in 2006. The lineup on their first al ...
- acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin
* Brad Warren - acoustic guitar (track 10), background vocals (track 10)
* Brett Warren - acoustic guitar (track 10), background vocals (track 10)
*Biff Watson
Fletcher Bangs "Biff" Watson (born 1952) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. His musicianship has been a part of recording sessions for many artists.
Biography Early years
Raised in Chatham, Virginia, Watson learned how to play ...
- acoustic guitar (tracks 1, 4–7)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2011 albums
Show Dog-Universal Music albums
Toby Keith albums
Albums produced by Toby Keith