Characterizing Toby Keith's fourteenth studio album as a breakthrough may seem hyperbolic. After all, here's an artist whose music has sold more than 25 million albums in this decade alone, untold millions of concert tickets and formed the basis for an entertainment empire that includes movies, restaurants, a record label and more.

But That Don't Make Me A Bad Guy is more than just another infusion of music by which the rest of Keith's endeavors will benefit (though that will surely happen). Amazingly enough, the album is a moment of musical transcendence in which Toby Keith the recording artist brings his creativity into previously unattained balance. As a writer, as a vocalist, as a producer, Keith has developed himself into a complete music maker of the highest order. The table has no short leg. There are no holes in his game.

Certainly as a songwriter, Toby has nothing to prove. He left Oklahoma for Nashville with a handful of demos that formed the basis of his self-titled 1993 debut album. "Should've Been A Cowboy" was his first No. 1, and touched off a string of self-penned hits that form the foundation of his career: "Wish I Didn't Know Now," "Who's That Man," "You Ain't Much Fun," "Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine On You," "We Were In Love," "How Do You Like Me Now?!" "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight," "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue," "Who's Your Daddy?" "I Love This Bar," "American Soldier," "As Good As I Once Was," "A Little Too Late" and "High Maintenance Woman." And that's barely scratching the surface.

In fact, BMI recently honored Keith for 50 million airplay performances of his songs, a figure that puts him in company with hit makers like Elton John, The Bee Gees and John Lennon. What's remarkable, then, about Keith's 11 writing credits on That Don't Make Me A Bad Guy is simply longevity – the enduring relevance of his writing. As they say in the publishing world, the only thing harder than having a hit is having two.

All these years later, however, Keith isn't just writing songs for his album, he's writing the kind of hits that launch discs to multi-platinum certification and keep concert venues full nationwide. Bad Guy's first single, "She Never Cried In Front Of Me," elicited exactly that kind of response, rocketing to No. 1 in advance of the album's release.

Toby Keith photo courtesy of Show Dog Nashville.

Keith still writes solo, as on the stirringly blue lament "Missing Me Some You." And he also enlists a select group of co-writers, including one of his biggest influences Eddy Raven on "Cabo San Lucas," a slightly sad (though unintended) sequel to Keith's previous hit "Stays In Mexico." He also brings in prolific Nashville songwriter Vicky McGehee for "God Love Her," the story of a preacher's daughter, a runaway couple, rebellion and redemption. And as he's done with other writers in the past, Toby has tapped a creative mother load with Bobby Pinson, who has eight co-writes.

"Bobby rides my bus a lot," Toby explains. "When me and Scotty Emerick wrote all those great songs through the years, that was because he was on my bus. Whoever you're around and inspires you, you end up writing a lot of songs with. It was not unusual for me and Scott to have six or seven songs on an album, and it's not unusual now for me and Bobby to have a bunch."