A Really Good CD

This CD is one of my favorites. Alan Jackson does a great job on all of the songs on this. As always, he really does well re-doing the covers because he never cheeses a song up but just adds even more to it with his strong and mellow vocals that doesn't undermine the original recording. The choice of songs is very well picked and all of them are done well though "My Own Kind of Hat" isn't quite as solid as the other tracks though it is still good. Like I say everytime I review an Alan Jackson CD, this truly is great country.

A superb performance by Alan Jackson

As close as sex, drugs, and rock & roll is to rock, country's theme of livin' lovin' and leavin' has to include "honky tonkin' drinkin" songs. Jackson didn't intend for this collection to be a string of old hits.

These honky tonk ballads are songs that meant something to him growing up, he liked them or he sang them in his career before he was making records. He doesn't try to make these "his own songs", he just wants to sing them. But with Jackson's solid country style and his deep voice, some of the lesser known tunes come across so close to his style it is impossible to relate them as someone elses.

A surprise closing number is "Margaritaville" sharing vocals with the special non-country guest Jimmy Buffet (vocal were done separately.)

The other recognizable song is "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" by Charley Pride. "Farewell Party" by a sad, Gene Watson song about a man who asks his love to at least pretend to love him when he departs this world. If you haven't heard Gene Watson sing this maudlin ballad, please give it a try.

The 1967 booze ballad, "Pop a Top", which is a faster tune complete with the sound effect of a "beer can popping". Aside from Hank Williams, George Jones another favorite of Jackson's. Two song of Jones are here and an autobiographical song of Hank Williams about one of his wives.

An upbeat song that Alan has sung a lot is "She Just Started Liking Cheatin' Songs." John Anderson's good honky-tonker, great club song reminded Jackson of those days. "It Must Be Love" another single from the CD is written by a personal favorite song writer of Alan Jackson's Bob McDill. Almost every CD of Jackson's has something written by Bob McDill.

As always, here is another fabulous CD by a true country honky tonk performer. Alan Jackson has always done wonderful work. Every CD he puts out is quality, top notch.

This is WONDERFUL!......MzRizz.

Alan goes back to his roots

Most of Alan Jackson's albums include a lot of original songs with the occasional cover. This album is different, entirely focusing on covers. This gave Alan the chance to illustrate some of his musical influences, including Merle Haggard (My own kind of hat, The way I am), John Anderson (She just started liking cheating songs), Hank Williams Junior (The blues man), Gene Watson (Farewell party), Don Williams (It must be love) Charley Pride (Kiss an angel good morning) and George Jones (Revenooer man, Once you've had the best).

Right in the palm of your hand was originally recorded by Crystal Gayle and later covered by Mel Mc Daniel. It is Mel who gets Alan's credit - no mention is made in his comments about Crystal. The most surprising inclusions here are Pop atop (Jim Ed Brown) and Margarittaville (Jimmy Buffett), this last being a duet with Jimmy.

Alan does not attempt to do anything different with the songs - they sound just how you would expect them to sound. He never expected this album to be a big seller, but wanted to show his fans where his roots lay. The results far exceeded expectations, partly because none of the songs have been over-recorded.

This is not the best place to begin an Alan Jackson collection, but it is a very enjoyable album. Actually, I have most of Alan's albums and they are all excellent.