Single Review: ‘Hope On The Rocks’ – Toby Keith
11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Single Review: ‘Hope On The Rocks’ – Toby Keith
Songwriter: Toby Keith
The old adage goes that whether times are good or bad, people always drink.
Toby Keith’s newest single comes from the perspective of a bartender, one not often written about in country music, or any other genre for that matter. The verses are simple but effective one- or two-line musings on the various regulars of the bar he works at. He doesn’t go terribly deep with any of the descriptions of the clientele, but he doesn’t need to. Many of them are characters that exist in many bars all over the country (and as an ex-bartender myself, I can back this up).
One thing he does well, with a single line, is capture the somewhat transient nature of bar regulars. As things in their lives change, they don’t come in as much, or maybe not at all. A line like ‘All and the ones you used to know / Don’t drop in or say hello, really drives the point home in a simple but effective way. I even remember a few of these folks from my own bartending days; they’d be there almost every night, and then all of the sudden, you’d never see them again. It’s something that everyone who’s ever been a bartender probably knows, but doesn’t really think about, which is one of the things that made it stand out to me so much.
Musically the track is pretty simple, but the effective dynamics (something Toby Keith has always been really good at) make the song go somewhere. His voice can be powerful whether he’s singing loudly or quietly, a characteristic that I think makes him one of the best voices in country music, and he uses it really well in this song. This one is about the lyrics, but his voice really brings a sense of humanity to the topic at hand that I don’t think would be there had someone else cut this.
I don’t know if this will be a huge hit (I hope it will be though!) but it is a great song, and in my less-than-humble opinion, it’s the best of its kind since Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man.’ TK really captured some of the essence of what being a bartender can be like in a great way while making a song that’s listenable to a radio audience.
LISTEN: ‘Hope On The Rocks’-Toby Keith
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
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