Country star stays more than busy

Country superstar Toby Keith is on tour this summer, but his mind seems to largely be on his new movie, "Beer for My Horses."

Keith is finished with the launch of his latest album, a two-disc greatest-hits collection, so now he can turn much of his attention to the film, due in theaters Aug. 8.

"It's my first screenplay, and I think everybody is going to be surprised how it turned out," says Keith, who cowrote the film with comic-singer Rodney Carrington.

This time, Keith brings a boatload of Hollywood and Nashville stars onboard, albeit some just for cameos. Musicians Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent, David Allan Coe and Mac Davis appear, as do actors Barry Corbin, Tom Skerritt and Claire Forlani.

Spun off a No. 1 hit of the same name recorded by Keith and Nelson in 2003, "Beer for My Horses" focuses on an action-packed road trip taken by two small-town deputies, played by Keith and Carrington.

"I had the story for two or three years," says Keith, who adds that he teamed with Carrington to pull together all the bits and pieces.

Keith turned to Carrington after an attempt to write with a Los Angeles screenwriter ended up "taking my dream and turning it into a nightmare."

Keith and Carrington, natives of Oklahoma and Texas, respectively, followed their blue-collar instincts as they wrote. "We didn't know what the Hollywood way of doing things was," Keith recalls. "We just wrote them (scenes) like little songs."

Keith, 47, points to television's "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Seinfeld" as character-rich productions that inspired his writing. "I didn't want it to be punch-line comedy; I wanted the humor to come from the situations the characters were in."

Keith financed the movie with $4 million of his own funds before Roadside Attractions, an independent film distributor, acquired the rights.

Although he acknowledges having worried about how his Hollywood costars would react to his acting, Keith says he relaxed once filming started. "Amazing as it is, it doesn't matter if there are three cameras rolling at once -- I somehow never see the camera. I never think about it."

Despite his focus on the film, Keith still delivers solid performances in his concerts. They feature such hits as "I Love This Bar," "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight" and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)."

He also found time to guest on a jazz-flavored CD by former NBA star Wayman Tisdale, a fellow Oklahoman, singing Barry White's "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up."

"I drove up to Tulsa one afternoon and got into his studio and sang, and the next thing I know, it's his current single," Keith says with a laugh.

Miley Cyrus, as her true self

Miley Cyrus, as her true self

T'CHA DUNLEVY
The Gazette
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Miley Cyrus
Breakout
Hollywood/Universal
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The phenomenon that is Hannah Montana should not be underestimated. It is vast, all-encompassing and ongoing. But even as she signs in for another season of the smash hit TV show about a regular teenage girl who moonlights as a pop star, Miley Cyrus is looking ahead. Which means setting herself up for the post-Hannah Montana career. Hey, when you're 15 years old, you gotta think of your future.

So, after releasing two albums as her TV alter-ego (well, 11/2 albums, technically - the 2007 double CD Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus featured one disc from each of her personae), Cyrus steps out, all on her own, as a solo artist.

But she's hardly leaving it all behind. While Cyrus claims this is a more mature album, it remains generic teen pop, through and through. Even Avril Lavigne seems edgy by comparison. Fans of Hillary Duff, listen up.

Cyrus's concerns are set out from the opening title track: "Every week's the same / Stuck in school's so lame / My parents say that I'm lazy / Getting up at 8 a.m.'s crazy."

The pop-punky first single, 7 Things, is a breakup song (one of many) that scratches the surface just enough to allude to an alleged relationship ("You make me laugh you make me cry / I don't know which side to buy"), without getting into details. Power-ballad The Driveway follows suit. This is cookie-cutter, multi-format radio pop for Hannah Montana fans who are starting to look for something - but not much - more in their music.

Most won't get the reference in Cyrus's uptempo, orchestrally enhanced but spontaneity-challenged cover of Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Fly on the Wall is powered with vapid electro-pop raunch; Bottom of the Ocean is a lush, '80s-tinged tearjerker; Wake Up America tackles global warming to a cheeky riff-rock backdrop; These 4 Walls has a country twang; and the remixed See You Again is bubblegum dance-pop.
Cyrus has all the bases covered, at least in terms of providing bright-eyed ditties for wide-eyed kiddies craving a safe, squeaky-clean introduction to the pop world. For an album that actually expresses a more textured musical and emotional maturity, we may have to wait until she graduates from high school.