Alan
Jackson has always understood that country music is about connection—a
contemporary connection to the icons of the genre, as well as the human
connection passed from parent to child, neighbor to neighbor, friend to
friend. It is this respect for both the music and the lives which encompass
it, that has made him one of today’s most beloved artists.
His fans
have responded in force. Having sold 36 million albums worldwide since
his 1989 Here In The Real World debut, Jackson will enter 2002 on the
crest of his 29th career #1 song, “Where Were You (When The World
Stopped Turning).” Notably, it is also his 21st as a songwriter;
an unprecedented feat that places him at the top of ASCAP’s rarified
‘Number One Club.’ “Where Were You (When The World Stopped
Turning)” is the first release from his eleventh Arista/Nashville
album, Drive (January 15).
Jackson
also celebrated a number of hallmarks in 2001. His recording of “Where
I Come From” spent three weeks at #1. The awards kept coming—the
fans spoke loudly and from the heart when they honored him with six TNN
& CMT Country Weekly Music Awards. Along the way he racked up his
50th Country Music Association award nomination, a stunning achievement
that places him second on the all-time CMA nominations list.
A superstar
who has never strayed from his roots, Jackson was honored by his home
state in 2001 when he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
Never one to forget the ones that brung him, he also performed a benefit
concert in his hometown of Newnan which raised over $200,000 for an emergency
children’s shelter.
All of
this speaks to the heart of Jackson’s appeal—a country superstar
who remains down-to-earth in the face of all the accolades the industry
can throw at him. Every CD he’s released has been a roots tour de
force, and that has not changed with his new CD, Drive, where the acclaimed
songwriter pens nine of the thirteen tracks himself. Jackson’s writing,
his singing, his very life, have been tributes to country music’s
greatest strength: human connection.
Nowhere
is this better expressed than on the opening track “Drive (For Daddy
Gene),” Jackson’s tribute to his late father, a mechanic who
worked in the Ford plant near Jackson’s hometown of Newnan, Georgia.
Accompanied by the rootsy, acoustic strains of harmonica, mandolin and
guitar, Jackson reminisces about his youthful attempts at learning to
drive a boat and a pickup truck under the watchful eye of his dad. The
lesson is passed from father to son. The years pass, the cycle turns,
but for Alan Jackson, the ancient connection remains and is passed down
to his own children:
“I’m
grown up now, three daughters of my own
I let them drive my old Jeep across the pasture at our home
Maybe one day they’ll reach back in their file
And pull out that old memory
and think of me and smile.”
Also
in evidence on Drive is the connection between friends, displayed on “Designated
Drinker,” Jackson’s duet with longtime pal George Strait. Having
collaborated in the past on the CMA Award-winning hit “Murder on
Music Row,” these two top traditionalists reunite in the studio for
a heartfelt paean to male friendship. The song eloquently points out that
in times of heartache, a true friend is there to lend a non-judgmental
shoulder to cry on:
“I
came here to get you to help me
I need a friend to see me through
I hated to call, I knew you wouldn’t mind at all
I know you know I’d do the same for you”
And then
there is a flawed husband’s funny and touching attempt to explain
to his wife that he’s just a “Work In Progress.” Jackson’s
witty spin on the “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”
dichotomy of marriage will no doubt bring a laugh of recognition from
spouses nationwide.
Elsewhere,
Jackson nails the universal sadness of a broken heart (“A Little
Bluer Than That”), the simple comfort true love brings in the face
of the nine-to-five grind (“Bring On the Night”), and a man’s
regrets over a woman’s tears (“The Sounds”). Delivering
straight from the heart, Jackson connects with his fans where they live.
And in
the case of “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),”
that place would be America. After the horrific events of September 11,
Jackson found himself doing what all sincere country songwriters have
done since the very beginning: he awoke in the dead of night and put his
heart to paper and pencil. Performing the song live for the first time
at the CMA Awards on November 7, he expressed his own deeply personal
sense of heartbreak and hope. An aching nation responded to “this
singer of simple songs” by flooding radio stations of multiple formats
with requests to hear the song before a studio version was even complete.
(Within 24 hours after the CMA Awards, hundreds of radio stations across
the country downloaded the televised broadcast and added it to their playlists,
and Alan’s own website received over 400,000 hits from fans.) The
song consequently went to #1 faster than any other country single in the
past four years. Alan received thousands of letters from fans across the
country, and within weeks of the performance the lyrics were even entered
into the U.S. Congressional Record. Included on Drive are two versions
of “Where Were You”—the studio cut and the live version
from his CMA performance of November 7, 2001.
In an
increasingly confusing world, Alan Jackson’s music continues to bring
us back to this very simple yet profound tradition: Country music has
always been by the people, of the people, and for the people. As a singer
and songwriter, he has never shied away from all that means: the flaws,
the pain, the regrets, the broken hearts.
But neither
has he forgotten that it is the human connection—the one that extends
from father to child, from husband to wife, from neighbor to neighbor,
from citizen to citizen—that, in the end, is the tie that binds us
to one another, and allows us to overcome even the hardest times. As the
man himself puts it:
“Faith,
hope and love are some good things He gave us,
and the greatest is love.”
In the
end, it is Vince Gill—who can be heard introducing Jackson on the
live version of “Where Were You”—who cuts straight to the
heart of Alan Jackson’s enduring appeal: “The songs that he
writes always tell it like it is—simple truths that come from his
heart.”
Fact File
Current Album:
Drive
Produced by: Keith Stegall
|
Previous
Arista/Nashville Albums:
|
RIAA
Certified
|
||
| When Somebody Loves You | Platinum | ||
| Here In The Real World | 2x Platinum | ||
| Don't Rock The Jukebox | 4x Platinum | ||
| A Lot About Livin' (And A Little 'Bout Love) | 6x Platinum | ||
| Honky Tonk Christmas | Platinum | ||
| Who I Am | 4x Platinum | ||
| The Greatest Hits Collection | 5x Platinum | ||
| Everything I Love | 3x Platinum | ||
| High Mileage | Platinum | ||
| Under The Influence | Platinum | ||
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#
1's
|
Top
5's
|
Top
10's
|
Total
Sales
|
|
28
|
34
|
35
|
over
35 million
|
|
Awards
|
Total
|
||
| ASCAP Awards |
5
|
||
| ACM Awards |
7
|
||
| American Music Awards |
2
|
||
| Billboard Awards |
2
|
||
| CMA Awards |
11
|
||
| Music City News Songwriters Awards |
6
|
||
| Nashville Music Award |
1
|
||
| NSAI Award |
1
|
||
| R&R Reader's Poll Awards |
4
|
||
| SRO Awards |
2
|
||
| TNN/CMT/Country Weekly Awards |
29
|
||
| Blockbuster Entertainment Award |
1
|
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