What I Do [Import]

"What I do" is what he does so perfectly: A blend of lilting ballads of the love-lost variety, up-tempo numbers with a nice slice of humor ("The Talkin' Song Repair Blues" is hilarious), and with a blazing track to show off the immense virtuosity of the musicians, "Burnin' the Honkey Tonks Down" will knock your socks off. Stuart Duncan (fiddle) and Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano) are among those that back Jackson in this CD, with the exception of the final track, which was recorded live at the 2004 Flameworthy Awards in Nashville, and has a different line-up, which includes guitarist Tom Rutledge.

The singles from this CD are "Too Much of a Good Thing" and "Monday Morning Church" (the lovely Patty Loveless sings harmony on the latter), but there isn't a song on this CD that isn't hit-worthy...it is excellence through and through.
Jackson wrote five of the twelve songs (tracks # 1, # 2, # 3, # 5, and # 6), and "Rainy Day in June", a delicate and sad love song, is a favorite...though it's hard to pick favorites in this album.
The sound is crystal clear, the booklet insert contains recording info and all the lyrics, and total playing time is 44'48.

Ironically, the song I like least, 'Too Much of a Good Thing' was the track chosen by the record label as the lead-off single for the album in the US, so it's well worth digging a little deeper if this is the only track you've heard. Perhaps it could be said that there's nothing really new here, just simple, effective and sometimes profound songs immaculately delivered. But that says more about the consistent quality of Alan Jackson's albums over the years than anything else!

So the ballads and mid-tempo songs dominate here, whether upbeat (Too much of a good thing, There ya go), sad (Rainy day in June, USA today, You don't have to paint me a picture, Strong enough, Monday morning church) or reflective (If love was a river, If French fries were fat free).

Alan shows a comedic touch in The taking song repair blues, in which he gets even (in a nice way) with a car mechanic who over-charges for his services - you are likely to enjoy this if you also enjoyed One piece at a time (the Johnny Cash classic). The most up-tempo song here is Burning the honky tonk down, in which the musicians let rip although even on this song, Alan keeps his vocals restrained. The album closes with a live recording of To do what I do.

This album is not my favorite of Alan's (I prefer his early albums that had plenty of rocking country songs). Nevertheless, it is another great album from Alan.