Public Announcement #40
Alan Jackson Was The First!!!
Who was the first singer that resonated with you? Most people will probably say Elvis, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna, Cher, Shania Twain, Dolly Parton. For me it was a man tall man with a mustache, a white cowboy hat who wrote most of his own songs. They were about love, heartache, dancing, drinking (which I proudly no longer do), and the everyday situations we all go through. That man sang a lot about livin’ and a little about love and his name is Alan Jackson. He was my father’s favorite modern male country singer and was in heavy rotation in his Corvette. It was my favorite of the modern stuff he had in the car next to Brooks & Dunn which will be the subject of #41!!! One article at a time one day at a time I like to say.
Alan Jackson was the very singer I ever heard in my life I can safely say that. Exactly WHEN I first heard Alan was around 1991. I say this because of the files I read about my Autism diagnosis that when I was between ages three and four I could name every country singer and song they made. The sound was clear. The steel guitars & fiddles were beautiful. Many of the people including Alan wrote their own songs. It was also truthful even when it was melancholy but I loved the 90’s attitude it took with uplifting tunes about friends & family that I also love about country music. These were the themes Alan wrote about.
The story of Alan begins in 1958 in Georgia. As the story goes in his famous song “Home” which I always say to any new fan listen to that song first, Alan is the youngest of five kids and he the was only boy. His father was a mechanic and the mother was a mom unless she had to take a par time job to “pay a bill or two.” As you can see, Alan writes for country the way James Taylor has for pop and Bob Dylan has for folk. Descriptive, honest, authentic. The shocking thing is the only music Alan really listened to was primarily gospel. But as a teenager, Alan discovered John Anderson, Hank Williams Jr, and Alan’s biggest inspiration George Jones. George always seemed the most excited about Alan when asked about the new singers, he seemed to light about him the most.
Alan’s other passion was naturally cars. Alan’s first car was 1955 Thunderbird which Alan said he paid $3,000 for and had his first date with a more important love whose name was Denise. They married in 1979 and Alan sold that car as a down payment for their first home as a married couple. Years later, Denise tracked that famous Thunderbird for a Christmas present for Alan. Alan cried and he almost never cries. The only other times I can think of was when his friend George Jones died or when Alan got a Lifetime Achievement Award AND the man thanked a fan who named their dog after Alan!! During the 1980’s, Alan had jobs as a construction worker and not surprisingly he sold used cars. Once he began writing music he eventually put together a band The Strayhorns. Alan & Denise decided to give the big city of country music Nashville a try. At the time in the second half of the 1980’s country music was in between two arenas. The first arena led by Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, etc. And the second wave was a new wave of traditionalists like Alan that also included George Strait, Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis, and of course Ricky Skaggs who were putting twang back in country when at the start of the 1980s, there was a lack of traditional country music on radio.
With the move to Nashville, Alan Jackson worked in the mailroom for a small cable channel called TNN (The Nashville Network) which is now called Paramount, I’m not sure why. One day Alan was in the audience of the TNN’s series You Can Be A Star and host Dan Miller pulled Alan up and asked him to sing “He Stopped Loving Her Today” as the program was going into commercial. That episode, Alan caught the attention of record producer Keith Stegall and with the help of country music legend Glen Campbell who Denise met on an airplane while she was a flight attendant. This encounter with a country legend led Alan being signed to the newly formed Arista Nashville. In February 1990, Alan made his debut album Here In The Real World which brought three songs to the #5 which included the title track, “Wanted,” and of course “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow.” I loved at the end of the video for the last song the bartender said Alan “had something” and offered him $10 a set three sets on Friday nights!!! I’m sure the bartender was tempted to dance with the other folks. One thing you could tell, the folks in that honky tonk were happy Alan and The Strayhorns take over the stage. “I’d Love You All Over Again” which Alan wrote for his lovely Denise celebrating at that time a decade married. I’m happy they’ve survived almost 50 years together and they’ve been through a lot but I’m glad they stuck together and God has been with them & their beautiful family which has three daughters plus two grandchildren with more to come later this year.
Our Public Announcement Time Machine enters the year 1989 and Nashville were the right time & place for the young aspiring country singer/songwriter as the pendulum had swung back to twang, fiddles, and steel guitars. Alan, Vince Gill, Clint Black, Travis Tritt and Garth Brooks all took part of this wave called “The Class of 89.” To many new listeners this new “traditional country” music as it would later be called sounded revolutionary and to me it was as a little boy. It was way more entertaining than Barney!!! When you asked others about “The Class of 89,” they would the music is great BUT that country music sounded like that in the 1960s and early 1970’s. I also loved that these guys wrote MOST of their own songs. I don’t care what genre you are, IF you write your own songs and you sing them well, I respect your art! and I want to hear you. The public was excited to hear it too and as a result Here In The Real World went on to sell two million copies. Alan’s follow up albums would be even more successful.
Don’t Rock The Jukebox came out in 1992 and scored FOUR #1 singles that included the title track which is a personal favorite of mine. I loved the music video and it turns out Alan’s bass player & Alan were playing in Virginia and they saw a leg was down and Roger said “don’t rock the jukebox” and I’d prefer George Jones over The Rolling Stones if I experienced heartache and I have in the past but who hasn’t? The album went on to sell FOUR Million Copies!!!!! Garth & Randy Travis were notorious for this too. Their first album does great and their second album does even better!!! Proving YOU can hit the target even if you don’t see it ONCE you hit the target that you DO see first.
I also enjoyed “Someday” which is about a man trying to get his life straight so his woman will come home. In the music video for the song, we find Alan fixing up his car to win his woman back. The lyric “all I ever wanted is to love you. And somewhere deep inside me, I still do.” The surprise comes when the woman sees the car fully restored and her entire work is cheering the car as it backs out and our lovebirds ride off into the sunset.
Don’t Rock The Jukebox also features the beautiful tribute to one of Alan’s heroes Hank Williams with ‘Midnight In Montgomery” and in the song Alan claims he saw the ghost of Hank who died in the back of a Cadillac to a New Year’s Eve show on the last day of 1952 going in 1953. Alan was visiting the grave of Hank and he saw as the song does “a drunk man in a cowboy hat” who came up by surprise and told Alan “Friend, it’s good to see. It’s nice to know you care.” I do believe Alan saw that ghost because Hank Jr claims he saw the ghost of his father after falling off a Montana mountain who told Jr to make music his own way & be his own man. I hope the next sentence was “I love you, son. I’m proud of you.”
The momentum continued with my favorite Alan album of the 90s A Lot About Living (And A Little ‘bout Love) which toped the first two albums selling SIX MILLION COPIES!!!! His follow up Who I Am sold over five million. Both albums feature Alan’s excellent songwriting but this time, we got covers and an epic Rodney Crowell tune called “Song For The Life” which my good friend Will has performed in my church a few times. I also enjoyed hearing “Summertime Blues” unaware the song had been a rockabilly hit for Eddie Cochran and the video with the mud fight was priceless. Another cover like “Summertime Blues” which I think it’s safe to say now belongs to Alan is “Mercury Blues.” Alan was the first person I saw to make classic cars cool.
I was very moved by the ballad “Tonight I Climbed The Wall” and surprised when Alan shaved his mustache for the video and the only other time we saw Alan without a mustache on camera was for the video “So You Don’t Have To Love Me Anymore” which is a wonderful tune Alan’s nephew Adam co-wrote. I will go on to say “Chattahoochee” is not only another one of my personal favorites of the “happy songs” from Alan’s but the video also is a big giant party. Riding trucks through the water hole while learnin’ “a lot bout livin’ and a little ‘bout love” Alan got to waterski which I know he enjoyed and we saw people dancing with Alan & the band. For someone who once said he don’t like making music videos, Alan sure made a lot of them plus many looked fun and in fact BOTH “Midnight In Montgomery” and “Chattahoochee” were named CMA Music Video Of The Year in 1992 and 1993!!! I also enjoyed the self-penned “Livin’ On Love” which is an uplifting tune about first love and endearing love.
The success of both albums led to Alan being named Entertainer Of The Year by the Country Music Association in 1995. Alan got to record “A Good Year For The Roses” with George Jones on an all-star duet album The Bradley Barn Sessions which is a brilliant country album and duets album as a whole. Alan also made his first Greatest Hits Collection which spawned TWO more #1 singles: The George Jones classic “Tall Tall Trees” and another song about love & commitment that will tear your heart “I’ll Try.” That was the first time I saw an artist make a Greatest Hits and have the new singles become this!!! And after only a few albums no doubt!! I’ve seen Martina McBride do that too which was awesome.
Alan continued success for the remainder of the 90s with two more successful albums Everything I Love and High Milage. Both great albums but vastly different. The first album features two more great covers “Little Bitty” written by the late great Tom T. Hall and “Who’s Cheatin’ Who?” which takes us the race track with the greatest NASCAR drivers of the 90’s. But Alan, whose car is parked next to mine? For “Little Bitty,” Alan gathers the kids around to sing them a song about "what’s important in life.” Pay attention, boys & girls as Uncle Alan tells us a story.
I tend to enjoy High Milage a little more and I’m very moved by the tunes “Gone Crazy,” “Little Man” and “I’ll Go On Loving You” which songwriter from Queens, New York named Kieran Kane wrote. Alan is speaking the song Conway Twitty/George Jones style in this tune then begins singing the title with an orchestra is speaking of themes of saying no matter what happens after a beautiful passionate moment that the love will never stop. I was quite surprised Alan took on that song but as I listen to it again, no one else BUT Alan can sing it.
High Milage is a way more serious album and “Gone Crazy” is one of the saddest heartache songs I’ve heard. Alan & Denise were separated at the time of making this album but God led them back to each other not long after which we’re all thrilled because I know they love each other very much. The opening along goes “here I am alone tonight in this old empty house” and the man examines his wrongs. We all do as men but we do go crazy when it’s someone we vowed the vow then walked the walk as Alan reminded us in “Remember When”
If that doesn’t haunt you, well my guess is that you probably haven’t had a woman leave you. I wouldn’t recommend that, it’s painful. “Little Man” is about the dissolution of small businesses getting taking over big businesses everything. I’m probably the last generation who remembers a gas station attendant pumping your gas for you. Everything I Love sold three millions copies but High Milage only sold a million and my guess probably because the vastly more serious sounds of both albums but I give Alan credit for bearing his soul on the latter. Both albums are excellent and they are like picking your favorite dog, I won’t choose between two things I love. I just accept they are great for different reasons.
With the industry was going sexy & poppy, Alan ended the decade of the 1990s by diving head first into traditional country music with the beautiful cover tunes Under The Influence which features covers like:
-”Pop A Top” by Jim Ed Brown
-”It Must Be Love” by Don Williams
-”Kiss An Angel Good Mornin” by Charley Pride
-”Margaritavile” by Jimmy Buffett
-”Once You’ve Had The Best” by George Jones
-”The Blues Man” by Hank Williams Jr
The first two are better than the original thanks to Alan’s touch on both songs. I was unaware these songs were covers but when I saw the Jimmy & Charley song, the cat was out of the bag. I was also very intrigued after finding it at a local library years later and it sounded great on my to school when I attended Edison College. 1999 also saw Alan make one of the boldest decisions I’ve ever seen a country singer do at an Awards Show and one of the greatest decisions ever. At The CMA Awards that year, George Jones was slated to perform his latest single at the time “Choices” which is one of my favorite by George. The CMA wanted George to sing a short version into commercial. George said NO to that very outlandish decision. As luck would have it, Alan was slated to perform “Pop A Top” that night which he did with his band all wearing tuxedos all smiling having a great time. Midway through the song Alan began to sing “Choices” as a giant middle finger to the CMA for their decision toward George Jones. The song got a standing ovation and Alan calmly left the theater as I would have done.
When Somebody Loves You was Alan’s first album of the 21st Century and we got happy tunes again!!! The opening track “Meat And Potato Man” I relate to in a lot of ways. Like Alan.. I love
-steak well done or medium well (sorry Alan!!!)
-taters fried
-blue jeans
-cornbread
-beans
and l am proud to say I’m a Haggard fan too!!!
I also do not like…
-The IRS
-caviar
-phony stars
and
-hypocrites
My friend Ben who I often call my brother said one of his favorite songs is on this album is “Where I Come From” and Ben was hooked on the line “where I come from, it’s cornbread and chicken” to which I said “yeah it’s a great song.” Ben loves cornbread too!! The funny tune “www.memory” hit me out of the blue but it’s a very moving “email me and come home” song. The year 2000 ALSO saw King George Strait and Alan work together for the first time on one of my all time favorite duets “Murder On Music Row” which asks the question to the jury in Nashville and the entire United States really “what happens to real authentic country music?” They hear the drums & rock & roll guitars but they shouldn’t be overpowered from the steel, the fiddle or lyrics that will knock the paint off your wall. The jury should find guilty. The song won two awards by The CMA for George & Alan for Vocal Event Of The Year and also the following year for the songwriters Larry Cordle & Larry Shell for Song Of The Year.
On September 11th, 2001 darkness descended on America. The country was in shock of what happened from the terror attacks and how to unite again. Alan was moved by the event like many of us in America and around the world were. Over a month after the attack, the words for Alan’s emotions and everyone’s came. The song was “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” and my opinion it is the best written song about America being united that I’ve ever heard. I was moved like everyone who heard Alan sing it on the CMA Awards in 2001 and even some pop stations played the tune!!! The song debuted at #25 on the charts and eventually spent five weeks at #1!!!! The song won Alan his first Grammy and was even nominated for Song Of The Year. For the record, Song Of The Year has been won by a country song only FOUR times:
-”The Battle Of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton (written by Jimmy Driftwood)
-”Always On My Mind” by Willie Nelson (written by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson)
-”Not Ready To Make Nice” by The Chicks (written by Emily Robinson, Natalie Maines and Martie Maines & Dan Wilson)
and
-”Need You Now” by Lady A (written by Hilary Scott, Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Josh Kear)
The award goes to the songwriters so they will get credit here too. Alan also is a songwriter first and EVERYTHING else professionally comes after. Let’s go back to that number FOUR?? How the actual Haggard & Jones is that possible?? I feel sorry for anyone who can’t get into country music, they’re missing out.
“Where Were You” was first tune off my favorite Alan Jackson album of all time Drive!!!! Drive features great songwriting and perfect of blend of upbeat love songs, heartache tunes, and the title track is about riding on a speedboat or driving a car. Alan also teamed up with George Strait again for the very duet “Designated Drinker”
I especially loved the lyrics:
“A little slower son, you’re doing just fine” which I think every kid wants to hear from their dad driving.
and
“Straighten up girl, you’re doing just fine” which Alan said to his three daughters when he taught them to drive at a pasture near their home.
I also want to pay respect to the funny “Work In Progress” which Alan speaks for all of us married men who love our wives but what we are trying to say:
-we read the book you recommended even if we think it’s a goofy.
-we don't want to miss dinner even if it is just to go Shoney’s on a weeknight so we can be home in time to love like that Charley Pride song said to do after you get home!!
-we ask God for guidance
-low fat and not fat sometimes is hard to chew.
-I love you honey!!!!
and let me be clear… I also would say wear the clogs when you aren’t on your motorcycle, Alan!!! Easy compromise, sir!!
“Once In A Lifetime Love” is so beautiful and I suspects sounds like seems an inspiration to Alan’s 2003 beautiful ballad “Remember When” with the mandolin and acoustic guitar leading. As Alan reminds us, it may go disguised right before your eyes, so be mindful. Lyrically both songs will move your heart. I also loved seeing Alan & Denise slow dance in the video for “Remember When.”
Drive sold five million copies and it proved country music still rules with three chords & the truth through waves will win in the end. The CMA Awards came not just for the album for Alan was named Entertainer Of The Year in 2002 and again in 2003 with George Jones presenting the award to his good friend. I think George knew Alan would win because George didn’t even read the other nominees he opened the envelope saying “This is the big one!! And the award goes to.. Alan Jackson!!!” Alan was named Male Vocalist Of The Year in 2002 and 2003. I remember in 2002, Alan’s youngest daughter fell asleep on Denise when Alan was named Entertainer Of The Year by award host & epic guitarist Vince Gill AND The “Coal Miner’s Daughter” Loretta Lynn!!! If that weren’t enough, Alan’s duet with Jimmy Buffett “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” won the Vocal Event Of The Year for 2003. I’m glad Jimmy got love & respect from the country music community in the last couple decades of his life especially from Alan, Toby Keith who I also miss terribly (RIP) & of course Kenny Chesney. Most artists are usually remembered for work at the start of their career and right before they die.
How do you top another masterpiece? You keep writing and Alan did that with the 2004 follow What I Do which is an exceptional album and even People magazine said Alan sounds more like Merle Haggard the older he gets and I hear it especially when he sings about heartache. You hear it on ballads like heartbreaking ballads like “Monday Morning Church” but you also hear it on other songs especially a funny one called “If French Fries Were Fat Free” & the always witty “USA Today” which again if we hear his tune “Wanted” from the first album, sounds like a sequel to me although “USA Today” is way more uptempo. I also love the first track “Too Much Of A Good Thing” along with “The Talkin’ Song Repair Song Blues” which features Anthony Clark & Mike O’Malley from the CBS Sitcom Yes, Dear. Must say I was surprised Alan didn’t guest star in an episode. I liked the show along with my mother and also let’s not forget that Travis Tritt & Trace Adkins played convicts in an episode who later surprised the audience by doing “Heartbreak Hotel” with a full prison band behind them!!! Probably best Alan enjoyed that from the comfort of the bus.
Alan struck it rich again in the 2000s with the album Good Time where for the first time Alan was the sole songwriter for all 17 tunes. The title track I dug which in the music video, we see an attempt for a place in the Book of World Records (Ben’s second favorite book next to the Good Book) by attempting the longest line dance ever with live coverage of it all. I also enjoyed “Small Town Southern Man” which Alan said is not about his father or grandfather but many men in the South he knew who were always devoted to their wife & kids. I’m glad his last run at the top 10 featured two fun songs and a poignant ballad. Now I mentioned “Good Time” is fun one song I mentioned and the second was also Alan’s very last #1 where we saw Alan hooking up with a new group called Zac Brown Band for one of my favorite duets “As She’s Walking Away.” In the story, we find a young guy trying to talk a woman he digs and he doesn’t have the nerve to make a move or come up with an awesome opener. I like that better than pick-up lines plus they are ineffective no matter how used. The wise man in the corner played by Alan said “ask her to dance, Go on, Son.” The wise man missed his chance and he didn’t want that to happen to anyone else. The song won Alan his second Grammy and I believe opened a new audience up for Alan who were discovering his stuff for the first time.
Alan has continued to make awesome tunes in the last fifteen years. He even made two gospel albums for his very sweet mother after promising for ten years. I was very moved by “Amazing Grace” especially after Sting told a story about the roots of that song. I also enjoyed “I’ll Fly Away” which is also a personal hymn of mine and I always dance to it, I don’t know why. Some of these upbeat hymns have that effect while others like “The Old Rugged Cross” and “How Great Thou Art” make you pay attention.
Alan gave us Angels & Alcohol in 2015 and it’s an excellent album all the way. The drum on some songs are so minimal and the songs speak for themselves as always. The title track reminds all of us that sometimes the bottle isn’t worth it especially if your attention needs to be in better places. The song has moved me to tears to remind me how far I’ve come since I threw the bottle away three years ago. “The One You’re Waiting On” reminds the woman who is too picky that perhaps the guy she needs is the narrator who sees her pattern but also her beauty that others don’t. “Leave A Light On” lyrically is the same but more steel on this one plus very moving. The mandolin on “The One You’re Waiting On” flows beautifully plus lyrically it’s beautifully.
I also enjoy upbeat songs like “Jim, Jack and Hank” Never had Jim Bean sadly but that’s okay. The Hank is Williams of course both father & son. The song tells the tale of a guy who breaks up with his girlfriend who doesn’t get his truck, his favorite drink or his country music while he didn’t get her damn perfume, her little spoiled puppy. I loved that his father reminded he can fish & golf and that the girl was a “total blank!!” I loved how Alan cleaned out the whole closet and began looking at his classic country records which is very impressive.
Alan was touring non-stop as well until a couple years ago with a diagnosis Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease put a hault to nonstop touring. CMT is a neurological disorder that affects the peripheral nerves responsible for transmitting signals between the brain, spinal cord, and the rest of the body. Alan told The Today Show in 2021 this and I was sad knowing this might be last album he was promoting at the time an album Where Have You Gone which is a love song asking two important questions:
#1: where did authentic country music and will it come back? I think it went in a direction of with way too many pop overtones. I saw it and I stopped listening to country radio for a very long time. It got away from themes mentioned in “Murder On Music Row.” I’m all for the future but when the steel guitar & fiddle are nowhere to be found… Nashville, We Have A Problem!!! When there are a lack of songs about life that Alan, George Strait, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and others wrote & sang about… Country Radio, I hope you are paying attention. When roots of an art form are diminished, where will it go except toward superficiality? I began to see that and I quit listening to country radio for a very long time I thank GOD for Apple Music & Sirius XM among the many places that I can find what I want but the labels & the arenas that play the music need to categorize better and perhaps scout more talent
Now let’s get to the second part of the question… I think the industry is shifting back to traditional country very slowly as we can see but I like it. I think one of Alan’s opening acts Jon Pardi who I think is talented plus he’s pure country all the way and he’s from Northern California!!! Alan invited Jon to be the first Opry member from California!!! Lainey Wilson is a gorgeous cowgirl who can sing like an angel, Cody Johnson cool man’s man just like Alan is, Randall King who opened for Willie Nelson has a pure voice like Keith Whitley. Ella Langley is a great singer with this Stevie Nicks meets Miranda Lambert vibe I just love it and the soul that Barbara Mandrell brought to the game I see in Ella A LOT actually which I enjoy. I like Hailey Whitters I heard her sing Alan’s 1994 hit “Gone Country'“ on Apple Music and it moved my heart. Oh and Hailey co-wrote “The Older I Get” for Alan on Where Have You Gone so clearly he gets her talent as I do. I also admire Josh Turner, Dierks Bentley, Chris Stapleton & Luke Combs a lot because they’re good songwriters first plus their voices are country with traces of rock and Stapleton’s case rock & soul. But it’s still principally country!!! Dierks has touches of bluegrass that I really dig especially on Tom Petty’s “American Girl.”
The pendulum is swinging back in the right direction because enough people including myself are saying cut the nonsense, Nashville. The public has clearly made the call especially with Ella’s latest single “Be Her” ending up at #1 on both the country and pop charts. Country music CAN sell just let the artist be the artist along with the songwriter which is often the case thankfully and promote it well. Don’t try to make it something that it isn’t and let the song speak for themselves. That’s the job of a songwriter after all!!!