Toby Keith

Mullins Center

UMass

Tomorrow

$40.75-$50.75

Country music’s “king of controversy” Toby Keith takes on the Mullins Center in his first appearance at the University of Massachusetts tomorrow night. Keith has been touring the United States promoting his most recent album, “Shock’n Y’all,” which dropped last November.

Accompanied by Oklahoma native Blake Shelton, the “Shock’n Y’all” tour promises to be an experience for any country music fan. Big name country music has made a home in the Mullins before and again in the future.

Within recent years country music has grown greatly in popularity, especially in typically “non-country” environments like Massachusetts. Keith is largely to thank for this growing audience because of all the publicity he has brought to the genre.

Last year, Keith was crowned as Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. He has four platinum albums and is the winner of numerous other awards.

Keith drew headlines for his post-9/11 song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (the Angry American),” which has been called a theme song for the grief and shock of the American people after the attacks in 2001. Many critics, fans and fellow artists, however, felt the song went over the line and presented the American public as vengeful, gun-toting war hawks.

Keith gained further publicity for the controversial track “The Taliban Song,” from “Shock ‘N Y’all.” The record is a comedic spoof on life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Keith has never claimed to be soft-spoken in anything, especially in his political views. Staunchly pro-soldier and a Bush supporter, Keith has been very vocal on many national issues.

Standing up for his beliefs has gotten Keith into a few squabbles. His most public dispute is with Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. After Maines called “Angry American” “ignorant,” a feud was born. It fully matured with Maines’ anti-Bush statements – saying she was embarrassed to be from the same state as the president. After that, Keith was no longer willing to keep his mouth shut on her criticism of his music.

“I’m a songwriter. She’s not. She can say my song is ignorant, then it’s ignorant for her to say that because she’s not a songwriter,” he said in an interview with cmt.com.

The debate has been ongoing although Maines has issued an apology for her anti-Bush statement.

For many fans, though, the controversy takes a backseat to the music.

An accomplished songwriter and performer, Keith promises not to disappoint tomorrow. The concert should feature many tracks from “Shock’n Y’all” including the hit singles, “I Love this Bar” and his duet with country music legend Willie Nelson, “Beer for My Horses” along with classic favorites from previous albums like “How Do You Like Me Now?”

The show will highlight Keith’s unique mixture of classic honky-tonk, high-energy country rock, and light-hearted humor.

Information from tobykeith.com and cmt.com were used in the article.