Ella Langley and Riley Green are just two of the artists who are honoring Toby Keith with a new project. Apple Music Nashville Sessions: Toby Keith Covered will be released on July 8, on what would have been Keith’s 64th birthday. The album includes covers of some of his biggest songs, sung by today’s reigning hitmakers.
Langley will sing “Wish I Didn’t Know Now,” while Green will sing “Should’ve Been a Cowboy. Other artists on Toby Keith Covered include “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action” by Ashley McBryde, Megan Moroney singing “Who’s Your Daddy?,” Parker McCollum on “Who’s That Man,” and Tucker Wetmore singing “As Good As I Once Was.”
“Toby Keith loved music and especially singer-songwriters,” Keith’s longtime manager, TK Kimbrell, says of the album. “He would be so proud of this group of monster talent that covered his songs.”
The artists chose the songs they performed. For Langley, it is a way to honor one of her biggest musical inspirations, someone whose legacy she compares to Dolly Parton.
“Give your all, let your fans in and let them see who you are as a human being — because we’re just human beings at the end of the day,” Langley says (via The Tennessean), explaining what she learns from Keith’s life and career. “Whether it was through being onstage or being in a writers’ room, he just told the truth and was honest about what he believed in.”
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Green resonates with “Shoul’ve Been a Cowboy” because of how he grew up.
“I think because growing up in Alabama, we didn’t have a lot of cowboys,” Green reflects. “We didn’t have horses; we didn’t have big, long pastures like they got out in Texas and Oklahoma and all that. For me, that lifestyle of being out on the open range was so foreign to me, but also just seemed cool.”
“A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action” is one of McBryde’s favorite songs, especially when she is off the stage.
“When I think of the word ‘honky-tonk’ and what that would sound like, this is one of my references, like Brooks & Dunn would be a reference,” McBryde explains. “Mark Chesnutt would be a reference. Toby Keith is definitely a reference, especially this song. And then, in my adult life, this song has stayed on my playlist, my bonfire playlist, my go-hang-out-on-a-boat-with-my-friends playlist, or pools or whatever the event is. This is one of my mainstays.”
McCollum chose “Who’s That Man” because of the songwriting, one of the many songs that Keith penned by himself.
“You never had to wonder whose song it was when you heard a Toby song, and this one’s at the top of my list in his catalog. It’s an honor to get to do it,” McCollum says.
Preview Apple Music Nashville Sessions: Toby Keith Covered here.
Photo Credit: CMA / John Russell