Thirty Miles West

Governments might rise and fall and Jubilees come and go but there's one thing we can be certain of - every couple of years Alan Jackson will release a new album and everything will feel right in the world of country music for a while.

One of the songs on the album is titled "Nothin' Fancy" and this just about sums up this collection. It's Alan Jackson doing what he does best. And you really can't ask for more than that!

The 13 tracks offer us the usual mix of uptempo fun tracks, the midpace more throughtly numbers, and a couple of slow sad songs. The opening "Gonna Come Back as a Country Song" has AJ saying, "When the good Lord calls me home, I'm gonna come back as a country song", and if you've listened to him over the years you'll be able to imagine it being the case! There's more high jinks towards the end of the album with the single "Long Way To Go" and "Life Keeps Bringin' Me Down" - both fun songs but oddly placed side-by-side on the album as they do sound similar.

It's the sad numbers that really stand out on this collection. "Everything But The Wings" is a somewhat cliched song concept but is a truly fine song, and listen out for the superb fiddle solo about 2 minutes in - marvellous stuff! Lots of reviewers have been mentioning the last song, "When I Saw You Leaving (For Nicey)", a song about his wife's health scares a few years back. It's a very personal song and nicely delivered, but does seem to sound very similar to "Sissy's Song" from the "Good Time" album.

The standout track of the album occurs bang in the middle of the album. The seven minute "Dixie Highway" features a guest vocal from Zac Brown and has the two singers trading lines on a song about the area they both grew up in. Rather like "Long Long Way" from "Good Times" and the title track from "Freight Train", "Dixie Highway" features lots of space for the musicians to spread out and I can imagine this one will be superb in a live setting.

So, nothing new here particularly but that's fine with me. We've got Mr Jackson serving up the goods again. Probably not his best release but an album that will almost certainly feature in my, and a lot of other people's, top 10s at the end of 2012.

I recall the first time I heard Alan Jackson singing Here in The Real World, a brilliant debut. Over the 20 or so years since, he has consistently recorded very good to excellent country albums. He is country and nothing could change that. This is his latest and on a new record company but apart from that, this is typical Jackson. Great songs, great band and effortless country crooning in a style that instantly places him apart from the pack. This album has the usual mix of live songs, the poignant, the humourous, the honky tonkers and the stone country. No weak tracks. All of a very high standard as one would expect from Jackson. Highlights for me is the stone country "So You Don't Have To Love Me Anymore". the bittersweet "Look Her in The Eye and Lie" and the great duet with the superb Zac Brown Band "Dixie Highway". Nothin' fancy says it all....just great country music by a great country singer who always delivers the goods. If you like Alan Jackson, this is a worthy addition to the collection. He keeps the country in country music. If you like traditional country music or modern country music this is a great listen. Highly recommended.

Alan Jackson's voice never ages. He still sounds as fresh as he did 15-20 years ago.
Quite simply, a living legend.

FIRST, listen to 'She Don't Get High'. The most beautiful song i've heard since 'Where were you'. Crisp vocals, typical polished recording where vocals are allowed to shine.

Any AJ fan needs this in their collection.