Toby Keith can do just about anything he wants. Heck, any dude touting the No. 2 album in America featuring these lyrics (see below) can totally do whatever he wants:
She's my baby doll,
She's my beauty queen,
She's my movie star,
Best I've ever seen.
I ain't hooked it up yet,
But I'm trying as hard as I can.
It's just a high maintenance woman,
Don't want no maintenance man.
And, any man who ends his show with, "Be Patriotic, f@ck ‘em," more than proves his place in Americana, much less Milwaukee's 40th version of Summerfest.
It was only fitting that Toby Keith's "Big Dog Daddy" tour closed the 40th version of our city's wonderful Big Gig Sunday night.
Steamy on stage and in the sold out crowd, the big time tour rolled in from a Saturday night gig in Fort Loramie, Ohio. Full of confetti cannons, Ford commercials, fireworks and an HD screen that was about as resolute as I've even seen, the "Daddy" tour rocked, sounded amazing and worked the Honkytonk U. faithful into a tizzy.
Now, before you start saying Keith is too this or too that -- stop. The dude is only too entertaining. Sure, he knows his audience, but he also knows himself. What another rock star can sing about our troops and "Weed With Willie" all in the same show? None.
Keith has it down. And his current commercialist tour is all fun, all action and all entertainment.
He cranked "Get Drunk and Be Somebody," "Stays in Mexico," "As Good As I Once Was," "High Maintenance Women," "I Wanna Talk About Me," "Who's Your Daddy," "I Love This Bar," "Beer For My Horses," the "old school" "Coulda Been a Cowboy" and many others during the nearly two-hour set.
Through every tune, the crowd sang, grinned and saluted the nine-piece band that more than made the man. I will admit that I wanted to hear "He Ain't Worth Missing," but his stunning acoustic version of "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This" more than made up for it.
Then there was the encore. Yes, it was all red, white and blue. And, I know it's here where you anti-country fans will perk up and say, "see I told you he's a George Bush loving, right-wing, this or that." But, my friends, he's is not. He's an American, a capitalist and on his birthday on Sunday night, right here in our festive city of Milwaukee, he closed his show with "American Solider" and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."
As he bellowed, "My daddy served in the army, where he lost his right eye. But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died. He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me. To grow up and live happy in the land of the free," there wasn't a fan in the stands (Democrat or Republican) who wasn't proud. Not only of our soldiers but of Keith, who proved that entertainment and fun trump politics and that people, good Summerfest people, make the world -- or, at least our city -- go round.
Cowboy hats off to Summerfest for closing with Toby Keith. On his 46th birthday on Sunday he was a fitting tribute to our 40-year old lakefront gem.
See you next year, y'all
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
