American Ride (Toby Keith album)

American Ride is the thirteenth studio album by American country music artist Toby Keith. It was released on October 6, 2009, under Keith's personal label, Show Dog Nashville. Its lead-off single is the title track, which became his 19th No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in October. The album includes 12 songs, 11 of which Keith wrote or co-wrote, and one of which is a tribute to Wayman Tisdale. This was Keith's last album of the Show Dog Nashville label before merging with Universal South into Show Dog-Universal Music. As of June 2014, the album has sold 500,000 copies and was certified Gold in the U.S. by the RIAA.

American Ride
Studio album by
Toby Keith
ReleasedOctober 6, 2009 (2009-10-06)
Recorded2009
GenreCountry
Length42:20
LabelShow Dog Nashville
ProducerToby Keith
Toby Keith chronology
That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy
(2008)		 American Ride
(2009)		 Bullets in the Gun
(2010)
Singles from American Ride
  1. "American Ride"
    Released: July 28, 2009
  2. "Cryin' for Me (Wayman's Song)"
    Released: October 26, 2009
  3. "Every Dog Has Its Day"
    Released: March 8, 2010

Content

As with his last album, 2008's That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy, Keith produced the album himself and wrote most of the songs either by himself or with Bobby Pinson. The title track, also its lead-off single, was written by Joe West and Dave Pahanish; it is the only song on the album which Keith did not co-write, and one of the only singles in his career that he did not co-write.[1] Pahanish and West gave Keith this song because they considered him "the only guy in the world that could get away with cutting it,"[2] and he had the demo on his iPod for nearly a year before recording it.[3] On the Billboard Hot Country Songs dated for the week of October 10, 2009, it became his nineteenth Number One hit.[4]

The second single, "Cryin' for Me (Wayman's Song)," was written as a tribute to basketball player and jazz musician Wayman Tisdale, a close friend of Keith's who died on May 15, 2009.[2] This song was released to radio in October 2009. "Every Dog Has Its Day," which Keith and Pinson wrote with John Waples, debuted in March 2010 as the third single release.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(72/100)[5]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[6]
BBC Music(unfavorable)[7]
Billboard(favorable)[1]
Entertainment WeeklyB−[8]
Robert Christgau[9]
Slant Magazine[10]

The album so far has a score of 72 out of 100 from Metacritic based on 4 "generally positive reviews".[5] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave American Ride a three-and-a-half star rating out of five. Erlewine's review describes the title track positively, saying that it "casts a cynical eye[…]not celebrating down-home values but wondering where we're all headed[.]"[6] He added that the album "spends more time on the softer side" in comparison to the "swaggering" of most of his previous albums.[6] Ken Tucker of Billboard said that it had "a little less bluster and bravado," calling "Are You Feelin' Me" a "rare show of vulnerability" and "Loaded" a "rocking and rousing" song.[1] It received a B-minus rating from Entertainment Weekly critic Whitney Pastorek, who said that the "brash mockery of current events in the title track offset[s…] a sweet tribute to a friend who passed away" but added, "too few of these samey-sounding songs are memorable."[8] Slant Magazine critic Jonathan Keefe wrote that Keith "walks a fine line between self-mythologizing and self-parody" and said that the "uptempo numbers[…]don't amount to much more than empty posturing," rating the album three stars out of five.[10] In his Consumer Guide, Robert Christgau picked out two songs from the album ("Ballad of Balad" and "Cryin' for Me [Wayman's Song]") as a "choice cut".[9]

Track listing
  1. "American Ride" (Joe West, Dave Pahanish) – 2:49
  2. "Gypsy Driftin'" (Toby Keith, Bobby Pinson) – 4:33
  3. "Are You Feelin' Me?" (Keith, Pinson) – 3:09
  4. "Every Dog Has Its Day" (Keith, Pinson, John Waples) – 3:32
  5. "Woke Up on My Own" (Keith, Pinson) – 3:08
  6. "If You're Tryin' You Ain't" (Keith) – 3:24
  7. "Cryin' for Me (Wayman's Song)" (Keith) – 4:46
  8. "If I Had One" (Keith, Pinson) – 3:14
  9. "You Can't Read My Mind" (Keith, Pinson) – 3:30
  10. "Tender as I Wanna Be" (Keith) – 3:28
  11. "Loaded" (Keith, Pinson) – 2:43
  12. "Ballad of Balad" (Keith) – 4:02

Personnel

Chart performance
Chart (2009) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums 1
U.S. Billboard 200 3
Norwegian VG-lista Albums 8

End of year charts
Chart (2010) Year-end
2010
US Billboard 200 178[11]
US Billboard Top Country Albums 29[12]

Certifications
Region Certification
United States (RIAA)[13] Gold
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References
  1. Tucker, Ken (September 25, 2009). "Toby Keith, 'American Ride'". Billboard. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
  2. Graff, Gary (June 13, 2009). "Toby Keith's American Ride in High Gear". Billboard. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013.
  3. "The Scoop". Country Weekly. 16 (26): 10. August 10, 2009.
  4. "Toby Keith scores number one song". Country Standard Time. October 1, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
  5. "Critic Reviews for American Ride". Metacritic. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  6. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "American Ride - Toby Keith". Allmusic. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
  7. Barraclough, Nick (November 5, 2009). "Review of Toby Keith - American Ride". BBC Music. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  8. Pastorek, Whitney (September 30, 2009). "American Ride Review". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 7, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
  9. Christgau, Robert. "CG: Toby Keith". Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  10. Keefe, Jonathan. "Toby Keith: American Ride". Slant Magazine. Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on October 13, 2009. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
  11. "Best of 2010 – Billboard Top 200". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Archived from the original on December 30, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
  12. "Best of 2010 – Top Country Albums". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Archived from the original on December 30, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
  13. "American album certifications – Toby Keith – American Ride". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 
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