Alan Jackson goes back to what he knows best

March 11, 2008

Alan Jackson

Good Time (Arista Nashville)

ESSENTIAL "If You Want to Make Me Happy"

An old maxim has it that as delightful as it is to travel, it's always satisfying to come back home, and with his new album, that's exactly what Alan Jackson has done. After excursions into gospel and then to a softer, intimate pop sound with his two 2006 releases, Jackson has returned - to longtime producer Keith Stegall and the same general cast of Nashville studio cats, and also to his honed version of traditional country. "Good Time" is Jackson back on his home turf, relaxed, rejuvenated, and stretching out within its confines. Belying the album's title, the songs touch on good times and bad, love won and lost, life well-lived ("Small Town Southern Man") and death too young ("Sissy's Song"), and classic barroom lament ("If You Want to Make Me Happy"). This is another Alan Jackson record that will stand the test of time. [Stuart Munro]

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