In nineteen years of recording and touring, Toby Keith has managed to establish himself as a fixture of country music, and since 2003’s “Shock’n Y’all,” he has become even more prolific, putting out an album every year, an achievement he has kept going with his sixteenth studio album, “Hope on the Rocks.”

That might sound like an anti-Obama statement, but it is actually much simpler than that. The title track paints Keith as an emotional bartender for all the people there to “drown in their sorrow and cry in their beer.” For “Hope on the Rocks,” Keith seems determined to write a lot more songs about beer, from “I Like Girls That Drink Beer” to “Cold Beer Country” and even “Haven’t Had A Beer All Day.” (Forgive us if we do not believe you.)

Keith’s country drawl is at a high level here, and his band’s playing is rock-solid, as expected from any self-respecting group of Nashville musicians. But after a few songs, everything starts to blur together in a mash-up of sameness, whether it is a lovelorn ballad or an up-tempo down home rocker. There are a few good songs here, like the moonshiner’s anthem “Scat Cat,” but there just is not anything groundbreaking or interesting enough to hold one’s attention all through the album.

For better or worse, this is the way country music was meant to be, simple and gloriously unrefined. But sadly that does not leave any room for any new musical exploration.