Brows, Low & High

RIP Toby Keith, King Charles, Architecture, &tc.

Dear Friends,

Today’s Quarter Inch is going to be short and sweet. I’ve got a lot of “irons in the fire,” as the cowboys say. I had a book review to write and get out the door (forthcoming at a major online ministry outlet near you) and, of course, it is concert week for The Bailey Band so we’ve been rehearsing as much as possible!

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Speaking of music (and cowboys), I remember hearing Toby Keith’s very first radio single. It was 1993 and I was driving an old, hideous-looking mustard-yellow Plymouth Duster (or was it called a “Dasher?”—I can’t remember). It wasn’t in great shape, but the AM radio worked and I had become hooked on country music. Those were, in many ways, the glory days of country. Diamond Rio, Sawyer Brown, Brooks & Dunn, Tracy Lawrence, Reba McEntire, Garth—even Alabama was still making hits in those days. And then I heard the new kid: Toby Keith. “I Should Have Been a Cowboy” was a number one Billboard single. Not a bad way to start a career!

I don’t want to oversell it. I never became a huge Toby Keith fan. He had a fine singing voice and I admired his songwriting, but I just wasn’t that into his music.

I also vividly remember hearing another Toby Keith song. It was early 2002 and I was driving my tan Toyota Corolla in urban Philadelphia home to our row house. I don’t know if I can adequately describe to you how fresh and raw 9/11 was. It had happened just a few months before, and large urban cities like Philly were still reeling (my wife worked in a high rise in Center City—this stuff was serious); it was all anyone could talk about. Certainly, it was all the talk radio hosts could talk about. And I switched the station away from WPHT Talk Radio (must have been a commercial break) and landed on a song I hadn’t heard. Toby Keith’s powerful voice sang a song that put words to deep and patriotic emotions. By the time he got to his final “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” I am not ashamed to say that tears were streaming down my face.

Toby Keith passed away yesterday at the age of 62, following a battle with stomach cancer. So, so young. He had a fine career, a fine family, and personally testified to a fervent faith. Here’s a recent news segment with him that you might enjoy. A great generation of country music just lost a good one.

RIP