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MUSIC
REVIEW
Jackson's honky-tonk hits home
By Steve Morse, Globe Staff | April 27,
2004
MANCHESTER,
N. H. -- Alan Jackson didn't need the videotaped introduction that reminded
the crowd of his numerous awards. Everyone who knows country music knows Jackson. He's the
torchbearer of traditional honky-tonk country -- the genuine blue-collar
article in a sea of ersatz cowboys.
Jackson
has won the Country Music Association's entertainer of the year award for the
past two years. And he showed why Saturday night with a down-home display of
aw-shucks sincerity at the sold-out Verizon Wireless Arena, where 9,700 fans reveled in
his Georgia
twang and songs about chasing neon rainbows, celebrating the little guy, and
loving his wife and kids.
To his enormous credit, Jackson also personalized the night by telling the
predominantly New Hampshire crowd (augmented by many Boston cowboys, judging
from the highway traffic) about how much he loved the state's lakes, then
showing video clips during "Where I Come From" of local
establishments from the Red Arrow Diner to Hooters, plus a National Guard
office, a Patriots jersey, and a shirt with a familiar anti-Yankees slogan.
By the end of all that, the crowd almost didn't let him go.
Jackson made it look easy, from "Gone Country" (which pokes fun
at the poseur cowboy crowd) to smoking covers of Eddie Cochran's
"Summertime Blues," Nat Stuckey's "Pop a Top," and David
Lindley's "Mercury Blues."
That was also true for originals such as "Chattahoochee" (about
the river running through his Newman, Ga., hometown), "Don't Rock the
Jukebox" (in which he asks to hear George Jones, not the Rolling
Stones), "Little Bitty" (a tribute to blue-collar workers who make
do with what they have), the new hit "Remember When" (with video of
him slow-dancing with his wife, Denise), and of course, his award-winning
9/11 song, "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)." That
earned an immediate standing ovation, as did Jackson's change-of-pace pleasure cruise,
"It's 5 O'Clock
Somewhere," which included a videotape of Jimmy Buffett
singing harmony.
The cowboy-hatted Jackson, who wore his
trademark bluejeans with a hole in one knee, paid
homage to country tradition by encouraging pedal steel guitar, twin fiddles,
and twangy electric guitar fills. His 10-piece
band, nicknamed the Strayhorns, has become the
modern equivalent of Merle Haggard's the Strangers.
And that should give hope to purists who may sometimes be discouraged by Nashville's
pop-crossover mania.
The opening act, Martina McBride, was much more in the pop realm. Although
it might have been nice to see Jackson
teamed with a more honky-tonk peer, McBride still won over the crowd with her
own sincerity, especially on the family-style "In My Daughter's
Eyes" and the triumphant "This One's for the Girls."
She also displayed some depth on the gospel-inspired "Reluctant
Daughter" and the tender "Wrong Again," during which candles
were onstage to enhance the intimacy. McBride could always sing, but now she
has a soulfulness that comes from maturity.
Alan Jackson
With Martina McBride
At: Verizon Wireless Arena, Saturday 
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