C/ D : Alan Jackson

Seriously though, "Chattahoochee" is a killer tune.

I give my Mom shit every time I see her for liking this douche.

My first job in radio was in the early nineties, and "Don't Rock the Jukebox" is one of those songs that is permanently engraved into my brain.

Anyway, I find him a bit boring, not terrible by any means, sometimes good, as on his last album, and his latest video equating song doctoring and car repair is pretty funny in its way. Not as good a singer as Randy Travis, not as conceptually fine as Dwight Yoakam, not as funny as Blake Shelton...you get the idea.

I have really been getting into Here In The Real World lately after hearing it a ton in the background as a kid but never really knowing any of the songs that well. It's pretty great, and doesn't overstay its welcome at all. I could lose at least one of the nostalgic "we grew up poor but wholesome" tracks, and "Dog River Blues" doesn't do much to improve on "Blue Blooded Woman," but you get some really spirited performances of great material: the spirited and hooky "Ace of Hearts," the classified-ad apology of "Wanted," and the PERFECTLY crafted ballads "I'd Love You All Over Again" and the title track. That last is the best I think - solely through the strength of the vocal performance he transcends the "life doesn't have happy endings like the movies" premise and manages to make me feel for the sad sack protagonist. Thumbs up!

I just bought Drive for 40 cents. What's next?

http://www.amazon.com/Very-Best-Alan-Jackson/dp/B00021LQ6O or Greatest Hits Vols I and II
Like Red on a Rose

There's plenty of stuff about him on the Rolling Country threads (including this year's, re: his new album, and the last couple years, re: Like Red On A Rose, which is still the only great album I've ever heard by him); also, there's a really good Kelefah Sanneh piece on him in today's NY Times but here's some stuff I wrote here last year:

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Here's what's said about Alan Jackson's 16 Greatest Hits at countryuniverse.net:

Track Listing: Chattahoochee/Gone Country/It Must Be Love/Midnight in Montgomery/Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow/Don’t Rock the Jukebox/Mercury Blues/Here in the Real World/Pop a Top/That’d Be Alright/I Don’t Even Know Your Name/Gone Crazy/I’ll Go On Loving You/Little Man/Who’s Cheatin’ Who/Summertime Blues

It’s a tough call to make, given that every track here ranges from very good to legendary, but Alan Jacdkson already has two excellent Greatest Hits collections on the market, with a stunning 20-track first volume that covers his early career and a second volume with another 18 hits. Sure, this is the first compilation that covers both eras, but it doesn’t do it particularly well. Five of these sixteen songs are covers, which is far too many for a collection by one of the genre’s best singer-songwriters. And they didn’t have the courage to really include all of the biggest hits: “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”, “Drive (For Daddy Gene)”, “Livin’ on Love”, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and “Remember When” would be needed for this live up to its title.

Well, I agree that the CD would be better if “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”, “Drive (For Daddy Gene)”, and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” were on it; I'd toss in "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues," too. But no way does "every track here range from very good to legendary," sorry. In fact, the only track I really really love is "Little Man," about big-money capitalism unseating the grass-roots mom-and-pop kind in a small town (though even in that one, the specifics about what items the store shelves are stocking don't always make a whole lot of sense). "Gone Country" (basically about folk singers and serious composers etc. selling out to Nashville) is better than I used to think (good characters, but that repeated "here she comes" hook still gets on my nerves); "Chatahoochie" is probably not as good as I used to think; "Don't Rock the Jukebox" was never all that great to begin with, but sure, they're all true hits. Lots of the other stuff is shrug-worthy though ("That'd Be Alright": zzzzzz), and yeah, too many covers -- "Pop A Top" is not bad, but "Mercury Blues" is pretty limp, and I seriously doubt anybody has ever hit with a lamer and more sexless version of "Summertime Blues." Otherwise, "Who's Cheatin' Who" and "I Don't Even Know Your Name" are mildly energetic at least (still weird hearing Alan say "I've never been too good at all those sexual games"). What's intersting, though, is that some of the better stuff I'd never thought much about before ("Midnight in Montgomery," "Gone Crazy," "I'll Go On Loving You") is sort of dark and understated in a way that prefigures Like Red On A Rose, still the only great Alan Jackson album I've ever heard. Not sure how it all adds up to Alan having any kind of personality, though; mostly, it convinces me he was born without one, which is what I've always thought. Still, I'm glad to own the best-of. But I could've made a much better one myself, and it would have had fewer than 16 songs on it.

-- xhuxk, Saturday, September 15, 2007 2:18 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Link

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"Chatahoochie" is probably not as good as I used to think

But that's mainly because I used to think it was truly great -- like, Creedence Clearwater Revival great, if I remember what I first wrote about it in Radio On, where I probably gave it a half-point or so more than it deserved. But it's still probably my second-favorite song of the best-of's 16. Cool surf riff -- If, I dunno, the Black Lips or somebody like that covered it, it still has the potential to turn into a great record someday.

"better stuff I'd never thought much about before ("Midnight in Montgomery," "Gone Crazy," "I'll Go On Loving You")

The latter two of which are not all that memorable, regardless. But they sound decent when they're on.

-- xhuxk, Saturday, September 15, 2007 11:42 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Link

thanks, chuck! the Sanneh piece inspired me. I'd heard plenty of stuff over the years without succumbing, until the one-two of hearing the title track of Like Red on a Rose and the Sanneh thing did it.

he was one of my favorite artists when I was 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smgVLKoA1sE my jam

His new album is great

I'm not so sure. It's definitely nowhere near as good as his previous one -- it's got a lot of run-of-the-mill hackwork on it; it's really long for a country album, as Sanneh pointed out, and that doesn't help. But the 1976 song and the one about eating bologna are good, and there are probably others. I need to spend more time with the thing, sorting through the dullness (more on that one on Rolling Country, too, especially from Edd Hurt, who says its best song is "When The Love Factor's High.")

i haven't heard the greatest-hits collections, but i own that import above and it's great

Sanneh's piece, fwiw:

http://www.articlesmodern.com/%20/music/a-country-music-veteran-proves-he%E2%80%99s-no-mere-hat-act/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW5UEW2kYvc

This song is so stuck in my head. Also Black Lips cover otm, i had that exact thought earlier today!

"So You Don't Have to Love Me Anymore" was real good.

Last night i pulled that up for some friends - and it's such an awesome 90s video, with the grunge jeans, that day-glo life vest, etc - but i tried thinking of more 90s country videos and i think i just hated that stuff for so long that my memory erased them all.

I did find a weird one for Garth Brooks "Friends in Low Places". Sadly that song did not get a music video treatment but there's something where he's performing it live on stage and it starts with everyone around him dressed up like they are about to go to the opera or something.

Like Red on a Rose album is so great

Best album imo. Was thinking aboit the title track while listening to Ashley Monroe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jOKGbq8ARE

Classic.

"Gone Country"'s mild snobbery, if that's the right word, has never sat quite well, as much as I really like the song, and he has his corny commercial side (Chattahoochee), but the guy seems to mean pretty well, and I've always (i.e. for more than two decades) liked his never-distinguished but always-solid voice. It may stop him from ever being great, but I think his humble unassumingness is the key to his appeal, and it gives an extra kick to when he allows himself some earthly pleasures, as on "Drive," or the Jimmy Buffett collab.

Not much discussion about the new one, his best since 2006.

I'm a fan. I don't know what to say about it though!

Bold statement here: like red on a rose is the most romantic country album ever released by a man. The only comparison I can make is to like Teddy Pendergrass or maybe Maxwell. Just a deep, deep album about love.

I had never listened to like red on a rose til I saw this thread and now it’s all I can listen too. I definitely can’t think of another more romantic country album by a man off the top of my head. I especially like his voice on this one, still twangy enough to know what he’s about but doesn’t overwhelm the soft rock production. Really makes the moments when the wailing guitar arrives hit harder.

I’m so obsessed with “the firefly’s song” right now

I heard a lot of Alan Jackson as a kid but I never knew he cut an album like this. it's great, totally up my alley

it's his last train to paris

one of his best

yeah thanks for this revive, i’d never heard this record and it’s fantastic

His new album is pretty good! First since 2015? It sounds straight out of, well ... I dunno, he's pretty timeless.

He sounds good.

Angels and Alcohol was good, I'll check this one out for sure

Waaayy at the end of this long but good album is my favorite song “the older I get.” Classic Alan Jackson song