Alan Jackson Says His Album ‘Isn’t Old-School, It’s Real School’
Alan Jackson releases his first album of all new music in six years today (5/14). The new project, Where Have You Gone, features 21 songs – 15 of them written by Alan himself.
Jackson says, “Real country songs are life and love and heartache, drinking and Mama and having a good time. You listen to these songs, and you realize these things are true. I just love this kind of music.”
In an interview with Hits Daily Double, he was a bit more pointed when discussing country music. “Country music is gone—and it’s not coming back. It’s like the 1980s again. I’m 62 years old; I’m not some 30-year-old stud. It’s not the same, but somebody has to bring it back, because it’s not just people in their 50s, it’s people in their 20s, too. All the kids and young people around my house? The older they’ve got, the more hardcore and traditional what they’ve leaned into has become.”
When asked about making an “old-school” album, he said, “It’s not old-school, it’s the real school.”
Jackson will mark today’s release of Where Have You Gone with a performance of “Way Down In My Whiskey” from the album this evening on NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (11:35pm ET/10:35pm CT).
ALAN JACKSON’S WHERE HAVE YOU GONE
1. “Where Have You Gone” (Alan Jackson)
2. “Wishful Drinkin’” (Alan Jackson)
3. “I Can Be That Something” (Alan Jackson)
4. “Where the Cottonwood Grows” (Alan Jackson)
5. “Way Down In My Whiskey” (Alan Jackson)
6. “Things That Matter” (Robert Keith Stegall, Michael White)
7. “Livin’ On Empty” (Alan Jackson)
8. “You’ll Always Be My Baby (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” (Alan Jackson)
9. “Where Her Heart Has Always Been (Written for Mama’s funeral with an old recording of her reading from The Bible)” (Alan Jackson)
10. “The Boot” (Adam Wright)
11. “Back” (Alan Jackson)
12. “Write It In Red” (Alan Jackson)
13. “So Late So Soon” (Scotty Emerick, Daniel Tashian, Sarah Buxton)
14. “This Heart Of Mine” (Adam Wright)
15. “A Man Who Never Cries” (Alan Jackson)
16. “Chain” (Alan Jackson)
17. “I Was Tequila” (Alan Jackson)
18. “I Do (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” (Alan Jackson)
19. “Beer:10” (Alan Jackson)
20. “The Older I Get”* (Hailey Whitters, Adam Wright, Sarah Turner)
Extra Track: “That’s The Way Love Goes” (A Tribute to Merle Haggard) (Lefty Frizzell, Whitey Shafer)
