Often the offspring of stars take great pains to separate themselves from their parents. That's not the case with
Krystal Keith. Not only has the country singer hired her father
Toby to co-produce her 2013 debut, Whiskey & Lace, with Mark Wright, but she's cut four of Toby's songs (including a revival of "Cabo San Lucas" from 2008's That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy), and her first single is "Daddy Dance with Me," a sweet ballad dedicated to her father. Uncharitable observers might call this riding her dad's coattails, but Whiskey & Lace reveals that Krystal Keith isn't capitalizing on her blood ties, she's carrying on a family tradition.
Krystal can sound convincing on bluesy numbers -- she flourishes on the roaring "Down Into Muddy Water" -- but her voice is inherently sweet and she uses this in her favor, particularly on the suite of
Toby-penned songs that open the record. These songs sound familiar to latter-day
Toby Keith fans — "Doin' It" has a bit of an insistent pop pulse, the
Scotty Emerick-co-written "Can't Buy You Money" gets into a deep groove, "What Did You Think I Do" is one of Keith's clever story songs -- and
Krystal never oversells the songs; she sounds comfortable and right singing the songs daddy wrote for her. She's a promising songwriter in her own right, too: "Daddy Dance with Me" is an effective tear-jerker, "Get Your Redneck On" is appealingly laid-back, and the stripper saga of the title song carries some nice details. What is nicest about
Whiskey & Lace is that sense of Keith continuity: finding a way to develop her own voice within what's turning into a family tradition. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine