I bought the album the other day, and unlike a lot of you here, though I have always liked Alan, and am familiar with a lot of his singles, I haven't followed his career all that closely and and have only a couple of his CD's. This is definitely not a fits-the-formula Jackson album. Haven't listened to it that much yet, but so far I like it. One reviewer likened it to being a Don Williams-like record of mellow tunes.

I was kind've surprised that there are no pedals on the thing-but since I'm one of the more hard core Jerry Douglas fans on the Forum, I'm enjoying his lap steel playing on it with a little bit of dobro thrown in.

By the way-the CD was produced by Alison Krauss-not Ron Block. Apparently it originally was going to be all acoustic, with bluegrass instruments-but something changed along the way.

Alan has obviously proven that he is one of the modern masters of singing uptempo country with pedal steel and fiddles, many times over, so I applaud him for going out on a limb and trying something different.

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 29 September 2006 at 09:32 AM.]

quote:

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Alan has obviously proven that he is one of the modern masters of singing uptempo country with pedal steel and fiddles, many times over, so I applaud him for going out on a limb and trying something different.

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Fair enough. It's no doubt just a one-time thing. I'll probably sit this one out and keep spinning all of his previous CD's until he gets back to playing my kind of music.

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HagFan

PS: What was the title of his previous CD... It occurs to me that I might have missed one.

[This message was edited by Ron Page on 29 September 2006 at 10:59 AM.]

Ron-your signature is HagFan: Did you buy Hag's CD of the old standards?

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 29 September 2006 at 04:28 PM.]

Obviously it's OK not to like the album. But I don't think anybody was sitting around in Nashville going "Let's see how the public reacts to us steering the ship with this NEW direction in country music!"

Remember his Christmas album? I was so looking forward to it. A Country Christmas Album with Lloyd Green on Steel! But somewhere along the line they decided to make it a "Pop Album". The steel was burried deep in the mix, and we ended up with "Elevator Music". Yuk, imo!

AJ's consistent formula over the past decade has sold 70 million CD's. thats a benchmark reference. He has an audience.

There is nothing wrong with making a change or adding a new dimenesion, but historically you do it slowly, maybe add it to a CD project where your reference is intact.

What I hate about this scenario is simple, the RADIO stations are playing AJ's new songs regardless. Problem this time is , and AJ if you are reading don't take this as personal, I am turning the dial when the new songs come on.

they ain't workin' for me either.

When a fan runs out and buys a new release CD they are expecting to like it, if they don't, now the risk factor is way up on the next CD. They may not just run out and buy it. It can become a slippery and fast slope in the wrong direction.

Aj is a fine singer and a fine writer, but his CD's are great becasue they folks playing on the tracks with Blazing Tele and Steel solo's is what brings it home. Brent and Paul are part of AJ's continued success.

Can you all imagine going to the next AJ concert and it is now based on his new CD ?

Karen Carpenter did an album produced by Phil Ramone, it took her in a new direction which didn't work.

changing directions or moving from your formula of success has been done before.

very few can pull it off.
t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 30 September 2006 at 04:43 AM.]

If he stuck with the formula-an uptempo single with clever lyrics, pedal steel, fiddle, and maybe some, good twangy Tele licks, along with a few ballads, and a couple of tunes that work with the two step in a bar situation-this would be a completely different thread.

Hey-it's not like I'm a
"change-for-the-sake-of-change" kind of guy. I'll give you an example based on one of my all time favorites, Ry Cooder. I have been a Ry fan since day one, when he came out with his first album back in the early 70's, and I was in high school. Along with being a virtuoso musician, Cooder has been a great interpreter of songs, be it instrumental or with vocals. I love his versions of "Dark End Of The Street," "Little Sister," "Money Honey," "Speedo," "Go On Home Girl," and all those other great tunes that are so much fun to sing along with when I'm driving and playing his stuff on the car CD player.

When he came out with "Chavez Ravine" last year, critics hailed it as one of the finest efforts of his career. As a work of musical art, I have to agree. It is an ambitious project, full of artistic merit. But I hardly ever listen to it, because it doesn't follow the formula that brought him a fair amount of success for 20 plus years. In an interview after the album came out, he said something to the effect that he wasn't going to make any more albums like "Paradise & Lunch" or "Chicken Skin Music" full of catchy four minute pop/rock songs. Been there/done that. But I have to admit I was disappointed-the old Ry Cooder would have been my preference.

If anything, I have to believe that the Nashville money guys would have tried to talk Alan Jackson OUT of making the kind of album he just did. It goes way against the formula that has sold ballpark, 70 million records in the past. Why mess with success? Alan is big enough and has enough clout that he could get the thing made (he gives some of the reasons on his updated website why he made this album).

If you saw the Ray Charles movie, you may remember the scene where the record label executives were trying to talk him out of making his country album, that went on to be a big seller and yielded some classics, like his version of "You Don't Know Me." It went against the grain of the image of what Ray Charles was supposedly all about, in a musical sense. The executives thought it would flop.

Another example of going against the grain is Martina McBride's ultra successful album, "Timeless." To do a classic style album of traditional country is not in the realm of of the Montgomery Gentry school of thinking that is so pervasive in Nashville these days. I read that Sony would not put up the money to get the record made, Martina had to dig into her pockets, and in spite of corporate lack of cooperation, it was a success.

If anything happened-I have to believe that some of those Nashville "suits" were rolling their eyes, frowning, and shaking their heads, when listening to some of the tracks from "Like Red On A Rose." I can't imagine that they actually ENCOURAGED Alan to make this record.

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 30 September 2006 at 02:53 PM.]

I took my son to go see Bernard Purdie last night and got to talk with him for a while, he talked drums with my son. I noticed he played drums on the newest AJ album, I think it would be worth buying for just that, also agree about Jerry Douglas, saw him this summer opening for PAUL SIMON and IMO he blew him away.

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Regards, Craig

I don't think the Martina analogy works for this thread. quite the contrary, it is a REF point that should be at least viewed by those that follow. She stayed well within her own domain, and maintained all the elements.

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 01 October 2006 at 04:34 AM.]

He's not a virtuoso on any instrument that I know of. I don't think he's got a book of really great songs he has written. He's just another front man with a cowboy hat and a cute smile. He's definately not Ray Charles. When Ray took his departure into country he brought something to the table. Ray shook up the whole world, proving that anything he laid his hands and voice to was undeniably the work of a genius.

To me Alan is just another guy doing sometimes some good cover songs that are mostly supported by an allstar cast. Certainly not someone that I would lose any sleep over tolling about wheather he took his cover tunes in the wrong direction.

[This message was edited by Charles French on 01 October 2006 at 06:24 AM.]

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-johnson

With AJ's tunes it's not really about the singer..

it's about the singer, the songs and the MUSIC that goes with each one. It's a great formula for success.

Although I don't care at all for his new offering, I am still a huge fan of AJ.

Alan has done more for traditional major key 3 chord Country Music, Telecasters and Steel Guitars than any other single artist over the past 15 years or so.

thanks AJ..
t

ps..most of the cover songs that Alan is singing..uhh..

are HIS....

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 02 October 2006 at 03:54 AM.]

On the Hag CD: If you mean "Roots", yes, I have that one. I think I may may be missing a later release by Merle. I think the last one I bought was "Haggard Like Never Before".

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HagFan

Now of course AJ has recorded many cover songs as well,but he has written mnay of the tunes we have all come to know and also many songs that other artists have recorded.

And oh, I do think my Martina analogy in my post above does work. In the past, plenty of country purists have hammered Martina for being too pop-country, that is what has made her the big bucks. She grew up with a lot of those classics from "Timeless," even going so far as having Paul Franklin play non-pedal (SuperSlide)on some of the tunes to get that authentic Don Helms sound from the 50's. That's not something that your typical Rascal Flatts fan is going to buy into.

Of course I wasn't comparing Alan Jackson to Ray Charles as an artist-I was trying to use the Ray story to illustrate a point about "out-of-the-box" thinking, and how it can be the sort of thing that might give record label management types an upset stomach.

Actually, upon further listening of the new AJ album, it hits me that if Paul F. or Lloyd Green played some pedal steel, and Stuart Duncan was brought in for fiddle, the album wouldn't sound all that different than a typical AJ record, in regards to some of the "mellower" tunes he has recorded in the past.

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 03 October 2006 at 12:38 PM.]

He ventures outside pop country and I'm sure his eyes are wide open. He's been in this business long enough to know the risk.

It's probably not about the money or even his fan base.

Sometimes artists do this.

I have more repect for him for it but I may or may not like his new record. As an acoustic player (guitar/mandolin) I suspect I will. There are still plenty of steel records out there and the regular nashville players are still making pop country with steel.

Alan Jackson gets to be his own man.

He earned it.

But Brett, I'm sure you can teach him a lesson by not buying it!!

Terry

[This message was edited by Terry Edwards on 02 October 2006 at 07:28 PM.]

TJ told me he bought the new AJ CD and there was not one song on it that would make our setlist. He was totally disappointed. He bought the CD cold because it was AJ...he basically told me he blew ten bucks.

Oh, yeah. I forgot I had "Unforgettable".

Certainly something very different for Merle and something he was able to do with unique style.

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HagFan