True blue
Alan Jackson hews to country tradition
By Linda Laban
Tuesday, May 24,
2005
What kind of country music show comes
without fireworks, a song about cars, a song about drinkin', plenty
about heartaches and lots about kinfolk?
Not
this one. The final night of Alan Jackson's spring ``What I Do''
tour in Mansfield on Sunday wasn't missing any of country music's
essentials.
As
a nine-piece band provided traditional backing, a video crew
keptfive screens ablaze with crowd and band shots interspersed with
stock footage to illustrate each song's point, a rather unnecessary
move given the simple, direct lyrics. Nothing deep or veiled here.
Jackson
looked his usual suave, gentlemanly self. His blond locks peeked out
from under his cowboy hat, and a smart, black, subtly rhinestoned
jacket dressed up his blue-jeaned look.
The
Georgia native's set dipped into his decade and a half of
hit-making, mixing contemporary countryand classic honky tonk, with
snippets of Cajun and Dixieland boogie added for spice.
``Gone
Country,'' a satire that the audience lapped up as a declaration and
celebration, showed off Jackson's warm twang andeffortless delivery;
his voice carries a tune as naturally as a breeze bears pollen.
``Don't Rock the Jukebox'' and Hank Williams' ``Hey, Good Lookin' ''
added old-time flavor. The fragile sentimentality of Jackson's
rumination on 9/11, ``Where Were You (When the World Stopped
Turning),''was broken by the audience's huge cheer for the line,
``Did you cry for the old red, white and blue?''
Continuingthe
same heartfelt bent, the car song, ``Drive (For Daddy Gene),'' a
tribute to Jackson's late father,showed Jackson's sense of family,
belonging and traditionalism. No one is more true to his country
roots.
Sarah
Evans, recently named to People magazine's ``50 Most Beautiful''
list, performed with a six-piece band that included her brother Matt
on bass. She added a glamorous country-pop note to the night. The
other openers, the Wrights, are a husband and wife duo that just
released a debut CD on Jackson's RCA imprint and includes Jackson's
nephew, Adam Wright. Country really is about kinfolk.
Alan Jackson, with Sarah Evans and
the Wrights, at the Tweeter Center, Mansfield, Sunday
night.
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