“I Love This Bar”
Toby Keith
Written by Scotty Emerick and Toby Keith
Radio & Records
#1 (6 weeks)
November 7 – December 12, 2003
Billboard
#1 (5 weeks)
November 15 – December 13, 2003
Another Toby Keith smash from this era that has aged like wine.
It felt a bit understated – and maybe even low effort – at the time, coming off the bluster of his “Red, White, and Blue”- fueled persona.
Hearing it today, it sounds assured in its deliberate pace, like he’s taking a slow scan around the room and soaking it all in.
If not quite cinematic, it has the intimacy of hanging with lived in characters that we visit every week, as if “I Love This Bar” is the love child of Dukes of Hazzard and Cheers.
It’s a reminder that Keith’s appeal during this time was a throwback to Willie and Waylon and Merle, but borrowed more heavily from their late seventies and early eighties pop culture personality days than from their identity-defining breakthrough material.
It’s a take on outlaw country that’s suburban friendly enough to launch a casual themed restaurant chain.
This is a groovy little record, and it pairs great with Big T’s Smoked Prime Rib.
“I Love This Bar” gets an A.
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I’ve never been a bar enthusiast so this wasn’t a lyric I could instinctively connect with, but Toby Keith sure wrote and delivered it in a way that sold his favorite watering hole. I didn’t think it rose to the level of Sammy Kershaw’s “Honkytonk America” in its portrait of a bar as the heartbeat of a working-class community, but “I Love This Bar” offered a more colorfully comedic take with a distinct Toby Keith signature. I may or may not have paraphrased my own version of his “I like my truck…I like my girlfriend….” lyric as a point of contrast to something that I “love” at some point in the past. It was a fun song in 2003, standing out for its unique style and subject matter. And as you said, it holds up nicely with recurrent play today.
I have a fond personal connection with this song. I’ve always been a road trip enthusiast and in August 2003, I embarked on a three-day excursion deep into South Dakota and North Dakota and then drove along the Minnesota-Canadian border before heading back home. It was my first multi-day road trip adventure but definitely not the last. “I Love This Bar” had just been released to radio and was already getting a lot of airplay. My car radio was keeping me company for several hours on those long days of driving and “I Love This Bar” became something of a soundtrack for that ride. Even 22 years later, every time I hear the song, it takes me back to that sweltering 100-plus degree weekend on the open road.
Grade: B+
This is one of my favorite Toby songs. It’s interesting to now listen to it with “Fresh Ears” after not hearing it in almost 13 years for me. I really enjoy it and there are a few more songs coming up that I’m looking forward to revesting for this feature. That being said I still am burned out on “American Ride”. Lol I remember that one being played into the ground and even today I can’t listen to it.
I agree with the “A”. Another very good song from Toby.
Although I am a big fan of Honky-Tonk Country and the endless ballads of booze and broads that have fallen from favor, the truth is that I never was much of a drinker and if I went to a bar to hear a musical act, I would switch to club soda or diet Pepsi after the first or second drink. Consequently, for me there was never a bar that served as a “home away from home”. Still, I can appreciate the function that neighbor bars can serve, especially in small communities.
While my favorite honky-tonk singer remains Hank Thompson, I always liked Toby Keith and I regard this as one of the better songs of this subgenre over the last fifty years – a solid “A”
WATZ used to have a PD who was a massive Toby Keith fan and would play this one at least twice a day, every day… a full year and a half after its release. I got burnt out on it, but after that PD left, so did the station’s obsession with Toby Keith.
I think this is about as good as you can get for a list song of this sort. I love the chill inclusive vibe.
Just another example of how good Toby Keith was and how special the spirit of inclusivity was as well.
This song was sneakily good at getting the attention of non-country fans.
There have been so many good bar songs in country music: witty, clever, sentimental, etc.: “Smoky the Bar” (Hank T.), “Red Necks, “White Sox, Blue Ribbon” (Johnny Russel). “Set ‘Em Up” (Vern), “Redneck, Rock & Roll Bar,” (Jerry Reed)”Desperados,” (Guy) “Y’all Come Back” (Oak Ridge Boys,” “Wino” (David Frizzell) “Boy Named Sue,” (Cash), “N)othing’s News,” (Clint) “Buuba,” (Mark Chesnutt),”Low Places,” Garth, “Third Rock” (Diffie), “Boot Scootin'” (B&D), (“Honky Tonkin’ Fool,” (Supernaw), “Dixie Rose Deluxe’s.” (Trent Willmon) “I Love This Bar” kind of sucks, IMO.