Toby Keith - Should've Been A Cowboy (25th Anniversary Edition) (1993/2018) Hi Res

The 1993 debut album that started the incredibly successful career of country superstar Toby Keith will be released in a 25th anniversary edition on 30 November by Mercury Nashville/UMe. It’s been renamed Should’ve Been A Cowboy in honour of Keith’s trademark debut hit from the set.

‘Should’ve Been A Cowboy’ was Keith’s first single and first No. 1 country hit, and went on to be the most played country song of the 1990s, turning platinum in the process. It marked the arrival of a notable, self-contained talent: Keith wrote eight of the ten tracks on the record solo. “The singer rode in from Oklahoma armed with some of the strongest material that the city had seen in quite some time,” wrote Billboard.

The liner notes for the new release include Toby’s story of the signature track. “Me and some friends wandered into a bar in Dodge City, Kansas, where the old TV show Gunsmoke was set, and watched a buddy get shot down by the pretty girl he asked to dance. Young guy in a hat walked up after and she went right off to the floor with him. Someone turned to our friend and said, ‘You should have been a cowboy.’ We got back to the hotel and I wrote it in the bathroom once everyone fell asleep. Turned it in with my whole life’s work to that point once I got a record deal.