Shock'n Y'all

Toby Keith swaggers through 2003 with a barroom romp and a soldier's tribute wedged onto the same disc, and somehow refuses to blink at the contradiction.

"American Soldier" arrives in the same breath as "I Love This Bar," the first a straight-backed salute delivered without a wink, the second a jukebox anthem cataloging the winos, lookers, and truckers who prop up the counter. Keith trusts a bar stool and a flag equally, and the two live cuts tacked on the end — "The Taliban Song" and "Weed with Willie" — make plain he'd rather crack a joke than clean up his image. "Whiskey Girl" turns a shot of liquor into a romance, all revved-up guitar and grin. The record works because it never apologizes for wanting to be both the guy at the microphone and the guy nursing a beer in the back.