Days separating Toby Keith's Cajundome appearance with Henry Rollins' House of Blues show: five.

Miles separating the venues: 137.

Ticket difference: $16.75-$25.75

Ideological differences between Keith's Shock'n Y'all tour and Rollins' Shock 'n' Awe, My Ass spoken word tour: immeasurable.

It's safe to say that the booking agents who sent Rollins to New Orleans and Keith to Lafayette did their homework. Keith's latest album, Shock'n Y'all, and his new Angry American image (angry with, not at) will play right at home in conservative Lafayette. In other words, it will be safe to break the matching stars and stripes shirt ˆ la Brooks & Dunn out of the closet. The Dixie Chicks tee, it would be wise to leave in the hamper.

The previous decade heard Keith croon good ol' fashioned, blue-collar country (a farm boy and guitar player most of his life) that - while shattering the charts - never quite cracked the everyday lexicon of honky-tonks and hot country radio. His admission to the household country name club - Garth, Waylon and Hank were holding his seat at the bar - came courtesy of the red, white and blue, literally. In 2002, as America dropped coin after coin for all things patriotic, Keith punched out "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)." The song features lyrics along the lines of "And you'll be sorry that you messed with The U.S. of A./'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass/It's the American way." Needless to say, Joe Blow's Wal-Mart shopping cart soon filled with a flag for the car window and a copy of Unleashed.

To his credit, Keith spent his formative years listening to Bob Willis and taking notes from Merle Haggard's "Fightin' Side of Me." Later, he would moonlight in a country rock band while busting his hump as an oilfield worker. Before being discovered by a former Alabama producer, he laid the groundwork for his tough guy image with a stint at semipro football.

In the years before Unleashed, Keith racked up an impressive résumé: plenty of No. 1 songs, many of which he wrote; platinum and gold sales; and awards like the Academy Of Country Music Entertainer Of The Year.

Believe it or not, that all paled in comparison to the reaction for "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)." Some tagged it the voice of a patriotic nation in the throes of a war on terror and a slumping economy, others squawked jingoism. ABC News' Peter Jennings only fueled the fire when he vetoed Keith's appearance on the network's Fourth of July program. The song hit No. 1 on the country charts, cracked the Pop Top 25 and the album debuted at No. 1 on both country and pop charts. His latest, Shock'n Y'all, hit stores in November. Although he dabbled in something a little more daring ("Weed with Willie"), the album featured the good ol' boy antics that brought him to the dance ("I Love This Bar") and stuck close to what got the dance renamed in his honor ("The Taliban Song," "American Soldier").