Toby Keith, who for a long time has had the reputation of being one of Country Music's bad boys, has released his latest CD titled Honkytonk U.

The tracks in this collection are quite different from some of his earlier offerings. Songs like Who's Your Daddy, How Do You Like Me Now? and Beer for My Horses. Diehard fans will enjoy the Toby Keith fingerprint on tunes like Honkytonk U and As Good As I Once was, but this is in large part a whole new Toby.

With tunes like Your Smile and Where You Gonna Go?, we're being treated to a more mature and almost mellow Toby Keith. I don't see that as a necessarily good or bad thing, but simply part of the artistic maturation process.

With Merle Haggard joining him on track 3, She Ain't Hooked On Me No More, Keith is definitely showing versatility he's never shown before on the Honkytonk University collection. Singing somber and genuine songs like Knock Yourself Out, and also then delivering the goods just as well on the fun Honkytonk U. Not everyone does, but I have to admit I kind of like the humor and sarcasm Keith injects into his music.

Overall Honkytonk U is a real pleasure to listen to. In my opinion taken as an entire collection this is some of his best work to date.

The standout tunes on Honkytonk University are of course the title track Honkytonk U [track 1], As Good As I Once Was [track 2], and I Got It Bad [track 9]. My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 6, Lost Without Your Love. Very nice!

Release Notes:

Toby Keith originally released Honkytonk University on May 17, 2005 on the Dreamworks Nashville record label.

CD track list follows:

1. Honkytonk U 2. As Good As I Once Was 3. She Ain't Hooked On Me No More 4. Big Blue Note 5. Just The Guy To Do It 6. She Left Me 7. Knock Yourself Out 8. You Ain't Leavin' (Thank God Are Ya) 9. I Got It Bad 10. Your Smile 11. Where You Gonna Go 12. You Caught Me At A Bad Time

To listen to samples of each song on Honkytonk University by Toby Keith go to: Toby Keith CD - Honkytonk University MP3 Samples