Country Update Features

ALAN JACKSON - IN HIS OWN
WORDS

Alan Jackson wrote twenty two tracks for his celebrated new album Good Time and he and
long time producer Keith Stegall ended up culling those down to seventeen. Jackson has written
21 of his 31 No 1 hits.

He has sold over forty million albums in a career of twenty years since his first hit in 1990 with
'Here In The Real World.' Still here, and still very firmly planted in the real world, Alan Jackson
talks about Good Time, songwriting, the music industry and life as he sees it.

"'Good Time' is a honky-tonk jam that kicks on for an easygoing five minutes-plus. It's a Friday night country tune sung by a dog-tired dude who has worked straight through the week yet aint about to sleep - not now; not when all the conditions are right for something sweeter. The guy has cashed his cheque, cleaned his truck, picked up his girl across town, and as the sun goes down, he's heading out for some fun - some beer, some Bocephus, some relief.

"'Small Town Southern Man' is just pulled from our family life. Some of it is my Daddy and my Granddaddy. Not all of it, but most of it. There are folks everywhere working for a living and raising families and they all have the same feelings and ambitions as a small town southern man.

"'1976' She (childhood sweetheart & wife Denise) is the only wife I've had so she's the only one I had to write about. I wrote that title down back in 1976. I wrote this thing for fun, for her, and it's just about the things going on when we started out dating, around us and around the world.

"'Sissy's Song,' was for a lady who worked here at our house; someone I saw everyday like family. She died suddenly of an accident this past spring, and it was really hard on me and all of us. This is the same track that we played at the funeral. It's a real pretty song, and a lot of people told me how much it made them feel better so I was very proud of it."

Good Time runs the gamut from great '60s-based country-soul 'When the Love Factor's High,' the deceptive dittiness of 'I Still Like Bologna,' to the sexually sly 'Nothin' Left To Do.' The album also features a duet with Martina McBride, 'Never Loved Before,' as well as songs with a gospel undercurrent and others that celebrate playtime.

"Early reviews for the album have been positive. The Los Angeles Times said it's 'especially rewarding,' The Chicago Tribune called it "a potent reminder of why Jackson matters so much," and The Boston Globe predicted it "will stand the test of time." However, one review had Alan's associates scratching their heads. A critic with The Village Voice said his songs' "word-shy inertia suggests a sly detumescence that only the very successful can imagine, let alone turn to the service of their art." He also referred to the album as "a musically prolix and verbally laconic record."

"I'd probably have to get the dictionary out on some of those words," Alan told The Tennessean.
"I didn't know what he was talking about. I couldn't decide if he liked some of it, or none of it, or just had a lot of issues of his own."

Songwriting & Inspiration
"Memories are some source of inspiration, but typically some of the better hooks come from when you are with a group of people and everybody is just talking a bunch of nonsense. Somebody will just phrase something differently. Something you have heard a hundred times, but the way they phrase it will sound like a song title. I have heard them in dialogue in movies or in a magazine ad or a billboard. And then some of them come clean out of thin air. Suddenly you are humming the melody and this hook just pops up. It's pretty strange.
"Most artists or writers, once they become successful seem to become a little more separated from the fan base in the clubs or wherever they started out playing, and start writing to get approval from the industry, writing for other writers, and move apart from the fans.
"A lot of times you get too cool or artsy, and lose what made your music connect. I keep to what I woulda liked twenty years ago and keep it real.

"I guess I'm lucky I don't have the ability to write something that far left of centre and its easy to keep it simple, straight and relatable. If it sounds and feels right to me I don't worry about it. I've heard some Merle and Hank Williams lyrics that were questionable rhymes, but if I think I can get away with it I will".

Life changes
"You definitely change; you have to, because you're removed from everyday normal life -I mean, I don't get up and go to work anymore. I made a lot of money, and I am not struggling to get by every day and pay the bills. I mean, I aint pumped gas at a gas station in fifteen years now.

"I didn't come out of high school and come right to country music. I had worked since I was twelve years old, and I was thirty years old before I got a record deal, so I had done a lot of things and acquired a lot of information from real life and real people to be able to pull material from that retrospectively.

"From a small town kid in Georgia with no live music, through garage bands with school friends and working honky tonks and day jobs, I then spent five or six years working my way through being rejected by every record label on Music Row too, so I know about paying dues".
(Alan's initial songwriting recognition was being signed to Glen Campbell's publishing company in 1985)
"Since then, although its been a celebrity lifestyle, when I'm at home I wear my tennis shoes and ball cap, I fill my car at the same garage, and go fishing and what all.

"I've never been comfortable being a celebrity or thrive on being a star, I just wanna be a singer songwriter. I try to have a normal life outside of walking on the stage to perform.

We're not big socialites. We just have dinner parties and go to baseball games and go to the lakes, and in a lot of ways I am still the same ol boy.

"You write about what you know. I write about food, and cars and boats and that's about all I know about. It sneaks in there all the time. I grew up in a garage, and I still collect old cars and fix em up, patch em up and get them going again. I love it.
"I'm glad I lived long enough to turn fifty and still be hanging in there, and I get a lot of compliments and respect from people through what I do, and that is great. I don't worry about getting older. I'm not embarrassed or bothered about it like a lot of people. I'm just blessed I'm healthy and happy and everything is well.

"As far as a career goes there're not a lot of avenues I haven't been down.

"I'd still like to make a real bluegrass album. I went to Alison Krauss to do that, and she turned it into that other thing (Like Red on a Rose) -- not that I'm complaining - it was a great record, but I still want to make a real bluegrass album.

"I like the challenges of creating things. I did an Under the Influence album years ago and I've always wanted to do another one of those, as there were so many great songs I didn't get to cut.

"I had felt we were getting a bit routine and stale, just going in to make a new album every couple years, and it seemed to me like we'd lost a lot of energy, so the gospel album (Precious Memories) and the Alison Krauss one, gave us a bit of breathing space. The band players don't get to play real country music too much anymore and they loved the songs and these sessions seemed really fun and fresh and we had a real good time making this record".

Changes in country sound
"The country sound is always evolving and changing and it's quite a bit different from when I moved to town - with all the record labels changing and the number of radio stations, and how the chart systems work.

"I don't keep up with it like I did, but it seems like musically it's always been very diven with the pop sound and the rock sound and everything mixed up in it. It's just my opinion, but I think it's getting watered down, and I wish there could be a little more room for traditional country. It gets back to trying to sell advertising on the radio, not the song. I'm not surprised about anything anymore - that's just the way it is and its gonna keep on changing - we don't have 8 Tracks anymore either.

"Probably if I made a country album exactly the way I'd like to make it, it would be so hard country and vintage sounding that radio wouldn't touch it.

"'If You Want to Make Me Happy' is the standout 'hard' country song on Good Time. There'd be plenty of fans who'd want to buy it, sure, but you always have that commercial cloud hanging over your head, and if you want to be on radio then you play by the guidelines. I can't complain; they've been playing me for years".

'Murder on Music Row' Alan Jackson's duet with George Strait, was a protest anthem about the cross pollination of pop sounds predominating country radio programming - it was notably snubbed by radio.

"There will always be accommodation for real country. New young guys and girls (performers) come to Nashville every year who carry the traditional torch with respect and a fine feel for the genre.

"Writing and recording a new song is still the most gratifying aspect of music for me - anyone can sing a song.
"I am comfortable. I don't feel like I have to change anything musically to fit in. If it works for me that's all I need to know about it. I don't need to prove or earn or win anything. It's a good place.

Australian Tour
"Early in my career my manager (Barry Coburn) was from New Zealand, and he always tried to encourage me to get downunder. I'd love to go there and I am aware there are a lot of fans of my music there - maybe next year we'll find the time to fit it in."