Dream Walkin' (CD - 1997)

Personnel: Toby Keith, Sting (vocals); Larry Byrom (acoustic guitar); Brent Rowan, Michael Landau, Brent Mason, Dann Huff (electric guitar); Dan Dugmore, Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Clayton Ivey (piano); Steve Nathan (keyboards); Mike Brignardello (bass); Owen Hale (drums); Curtis Young, Curtis Wright, Dennis Wilson, Paul Thorn (background vocals).

Recorded at Loud Recording, Nashville, Tennessee.

DREAM WALKIN' was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals.

Personnel: Toby Keith (vocals).

The very title of Dream Walkin' has a hazy, laid-back quality, which is rather appropriate since this, Toby Keith's fourth album, comes from the close of his time at Mercury Records, when he was singing more ballads than rockers and when he was cutting nearly as many covers as he was originals. It was all part of an attempt to have Keith fit within the country music machine and he's good enough of a ballad singer to have this work well, although the tunes not written by Keith -- "We Were in Love," Sting's "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" -- don't showcase his underrated, understated subtle singing as well as his original ballads, which have a nice sense of grace. Similarly, the wannabe swagger of "Double Wide Paradise" doesn't have the snap of Keith's own livelier material such as the rip-roaring "Jacky Don Tucker (Play by the Rules Miss All the Fun)" and the refurbished Western swing of "I Don't Understand My Girlfriend," both of which go a long way on Keith's outsized humor, or his excellent "She Ran Away with a Rodeo Clown," which plays like a deserved tribute to Moe Bandy. There aren't many of these livelier tunes here -- enough to make an impact, enough to make you wish there were more, but even if this is heavy on the smooth stuff, Dream Walkin' rides its mellow vibes in an appealing fashion. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Toby Keith has the kind of deep, assured but ever-so-slightly vulnerable country voice that sells records, platinum-style. This guy used to work in the oil fields of Oklahoma, as well as play a little semi-pro football,and that may explain the slightly rough edges that get wrapped around his tunes. Keith's music has a real from-the-gut quality. And just about every one of those tunes emerges as a strong, carefully-crafted country song. The title track is a catchy little honky-tonker of a tune, about a guy who wakes up to a lipstick-penned note reading "I had a good time." Potent, real-life images like that elevate this record from the "just-another-hat-act" category, and into the realm of must-haves for any country fan. minimize