"Bullets in the Gun" is the title of a song co-written by Toby Keith

Toby Keith

Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...

 and Rivers Rutherford

Rivers Rutherford

Rivers Rutherford is an American country music songwriter. Active since the mid-1990s as a songwriter, he has penned several Number One country hits, including "Ain't Nothing 'bout You" by Brooks & Dunn, which was the Number One country song of 2001 according to Billboard...

, and recorded by Keith. It is the title track to, and second single from, his 2010 album Bullets in the Gun

Bullets in the Gun

Upon its release, Bullets in the Gun received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 6 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable...

. The song was released on September 27, 2010 and entered the country music charts at number 37.

Content

The song plays on the Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934...

 story to give a modernized account of a vagabond outlaw couple. The song concludes where guns blazing as the couple goes out in a firefight with the law.

Critical reception

Juli Thanki of The 9513 gave the song a "thumbs up", saying that Keith's vocals had "nearly tangible bravado". Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

called the song "cinematic" and compared it to Marty Robbins

Marty Robbins

Martin David Robinson , known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...

's "El Paso

El Paso (song)

"El Paso" is a country and western ballad written and originally recorded by Marty Robbins, and first released on Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in September 1959. It was released as a single the following month, and became a major hit on both the country and pop music charts, reaching number...

". Reviewing for the New York Times, Jon Caramanica called the song "a pumped-up and comically desperate tale" and "almost parodic". Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave the song a positive review, saying that it was Keith's best single in a decade. He also called it "a fantastic reminder of how a strongly lyrical song can take us places and into a movie in our minds." Bjorke also said that "even if you don’t condone the fictional story being told, it’s still a damn good song with a melody which suits the lyric perfectly."

In January 2011, Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks

Dixie Chicks

The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...

 stated during a video chat that she thought the song resembled Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen, Junior is an American Texas Country singer-songwriter. He is popular with fans of traditional country music, folk music, college radio, and alt-country. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.-Early life:Growing up in Houston, Texas,...

's "The Road Goes On Forever".

Music video

Michael Salomon

Michael Salomon

Michael Salomon is a music video/film director, who has directed many music videos, including many of Toby Keith's music videos...

 directed the song's music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

. It stars Danielle Vasinova and Chad Bannon

Chad Bannon

Chad Bannon , also credited as Chad Ullery, is an American television and movie actor. He stands 6'4" and weighs 280 pounds. He is best known for his role as Killer Karl in House of 1000 Corpses and playing D.O.A...

.

Chart performance

"Bullets in the Gun" debuted at number 37 on the Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart dated for the week ending October 9, 2010. It also debuted at number 97 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of November 20, 2010.
> >

Chart (2010)	Peak position