History Music / AlanJackson

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Lampshaded on the back of his ''Who I Am'' album. The track numbers skip from 12 to 14, with a note saying "That's right, folks, I am just a bit superstitious."

** And then Jimmy answers.

A CountryMusic artist known for his traditional, no-frills songwriting, down-home charm and humility... and shelf full of awards.

Alan Eugene Jackson was born October 17, 1958 in Newnan, Georgia and started out unassumingly enough in 1989 on Creator/AristaRecords, which at the time had virtually no experience in the country music business. He was even working with Keith Stegall, a former solo singer with no production experience. Although his debut single "Blue Blooded Woman" flopped, he first cracked the Top 40 in 1990 with "Here in the Real World" and enjoyed nearly 20 years of hits. Coinciding with his departure from Arista, he provided duet vocals on Music/ZacBrownBand's "As She's Walking Away". With his fortunes fading at radio in TheNewTens, Jackson has moved to his own label, Alan's Country Records, with distribution by EMI.

!Albums

Alan Eugene Jackson was born October 17, 1958 in Newnan, Georgia. started out unassumingly enough in 1989 on Creator/AristaRecords, which at the time had virtually no experience in the country music business. He was even working with Keith Stegall, a former solo singer with no production experience. Although his debut single "Blue Blooded Woman" flopped, he first cracked the Top 40 in 1990 with "Here in the Real World" and enjoyed nearly 20 years of hits. Coinciding with his departure from Arista, he provided duet vocals on Music/ZacBrownBand's "As She's Walking Away". With his fortunes fading at radio in TheNewTens, Jackson has moved to his own label, Alan's Country Records, with distribution by EMI.

* TheCoverChangesTheGender: The original version of "Who's Cheatin' Who" was from a female perspective. Jackson, obviously, changed it to a male's.

!!Tropes present:

* RereleaseTheSong: Alan wanted to release "Home" off his first album, but decided against it because there was another song out by Joe Diffie that had the same title. The original recording was finally released as a single from a GreatestHitsAlbum in 1996. Later on, he re-recorded "A Woman's Love", originally from 1998's ''High Mileage'', and released the re-recording from 2007's ''Like Red on a Rose''.

* RecordProducer: He's worked with Keith Stegall on all but one album (the aforementioned ''Like Red on a Rose'', produced by bluegrass queen Music/{{Alison Krauss|And Union Station}}). Scott Hendricks co-produced the first two and one song on the third, and his nephew Adam Wright co-produced his 2013 bluegrass album.

** "I'll Go On Loving You" is awfully melancholy for a love song to his wife. Really, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong it sounds like a lot like "Suicide Is Painless"]].

* {{Bowdlerize}}: "I'll Try" opens with the line "Here we are, talkin' bout forever / Both know damn well it's not easy together". Even though it wasn't his first time swearing in song, the "damn" became a "too" on the radio edit.

Jackson also co-wrote singles for Music/FaithHill ("I Can't Do That Anymore"), Music/RandyTravis ("I'd Surrender All", "Better Class of Losers"), Clay Walker ("If I Could Make a Living") and Music/ChelyWright ("Til I Was Loved by You"). His nephew Adam Wright, and Adam's wife, Shannon, record on Alan's label as The Wrights, and they have occasionally collaborated with him.

* TruckDriversGearChange: A few occasions: "Remember When" begins in G, modulates down to C for a solo, and then goes up to A for the final verses. "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues" does the half-step-by-verse variant, going from D to E-flat to E. He also wrote Clay Walker's "If I Could Make a Living", which begins in F, then repeats the chorus in G and again in A at the end.

* LyricalShoehorn: Pretty much all of the last two verses of "Where I Come From", which are composed of awkward phrasings and rhymes that barely make sense (for instance, "lost a universal joint and had to use my finger").

** "I'll Go On Loving You" is awfully melancholy for a song about how he will still love his woman after he's had sex with her. Really, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong it sounds like a lot like "Suicide Is Painless"]].

* RecordProducer: He's worked with Keith Stegall on all but one album (the aforementioned ''Like Red on a Rose'', produced by bluegrass queen [[Music/AlisonKraussAndUnionStation Alison Krauss]]). His first two were co-produced by Scott Hendricks (as was one song on the third), and his 2013 bluegrass album had his nephew Adam Wright as co-producer.

* LyricalShoehorn: Pretty much all of the last two verses of "Where I Come From", which are composed of awkward phrasings and rhymes that barely make sense (for instance, "use my finger" is how he describes hitchhiking).

* TruckDriversGearChange: A few occasions: "Remember When" begins in G, modulates down to D for a solo, and then goes up to A for the final verses. "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues" does the half-step-by-verse variant, going from D to E-flat to E. He also wrote Clay Walker's "If I Could Make a Living", which begins in F, then repeats the chorus in G and again in A at the end.

* HeavyMeta: Besides the three-minute example listed below, this is also present in "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues," where a songwriter takes his car in for repairs and is given a bunch of fixup suggestions. The repairman then notices that his customer is a songwriter, and offers him a song which the songwriter then offers fix-up suggestions on in a similar fashion:
-->Well, I gave him my most sorrowful look\\
And I said, "This song's got a broken hook\\
I can order you a new one from Nashville, but it won't be cheap\\
And I know you've been using a cut-rate thesaurus\\
'Cause your adverbs are backed up into your chorus\\
And your verse is runnin' on verbs that are way too weak"

* TruckDriversGearChange: A few occasions: "Remember When" begins in G, modulates down to D for a solo, and then goes up to A for the final verses. "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues" does the half-step-by-verse variant, going from D to E-flat to E.

Alan Eugene Jackson was born October 17, 1958 in Newnan, Georgia. started out unassumingly enough in 1989 on Arista Records, which at the time had virtually no experience in the country music business. He was even working with Keith Stegall, a former solo singer with no production experience. Although his debut single "Blue Blooded Woman" flopped, he first cracked the Top 40 in 1990 with "Here in the Real World" and enjoyed nearly 20 years of hits. Coinciding with his departure from Arista, he provided duet vocals on Music/ZacBrownBand's "As She's Walking Away". With his fortunes fading at radio in TheNewTens, Jackson has moved to his own label, Alan's Country Records, with distribution by EMI.

** Similarly, the third chorus of "I Still Like Bologna" changes "the sound of a whippoorwill down a country road" to "…a Chevelle headin' down a gravel road".

* HeavyMeta: Besides the three-minute example listed below, this is also present in "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues," where a songwriter takes his car in for repairs and is given a bunch of fixup suggestions. The repairman then notices that his customer is a songwriter, and offers him a song which the songwriter then offers fixup suggestions on in a similar fashion:

And your verse is runnin' on verbs that are way too weak

Alan Eugene Jackson was born October 17, 1958 in Newnan, Georgia. started out unassumingly enough in 1989 on Arista Records, which at the time had virtually no experience in the country music business. He was even working with Keith Stegall, a former solo singer with no production experience. Although his debut single "Blue Blooded Woman" flopped, he first cracked the Top 40 in 1990 with "Here in the Real World" and enjoyed nearly 20 years of hits. Coinciding with his departure from Arista, he provided duet vocals on ZacBrownBand's "As She's Walking Away". With his fortunes fading at radio in TheNewTens, Jackson has moved to his own label, Alan's Country Records, with distribution by EMI.

Jackson also co-wrote singles for FaithHill ("I Can't Do That Anymore"), RandyTravis ("I'd Surrender All", "Better Class of Losers"), Clay Walker ("If I Could Make a Living") and ChelyWright ("Til I Was Loved by You"). His nephew Adam Wright, and Adam's wife, Shannon, record on Alan's label as The Wrights, and they have occasionally collaborated with him.

* DooWopProgression: "Remember When"

* HeavyMeta: Besides the three-minute example listed below, this is also present in "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues," where songwriting is compared to fixing a car.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: According to the liner notes of his first GreatestHitsAlbum, Jackson thought that "Chattahoochee" was too dependent on a localized reference (the Chattahoochee River on the Alabama/Georgia border) to become a hit. His worries were for naught, as it was the biggest country song of 1993.

* RereleaseTheSong: Alan wanted to release "Home" off his first album, but decided against it because there was another song out that had the same title. The original recording was finally released as a single from a GreatestHitsAlbum in 1996. Later on, he re-recorded "A Woman's Love", originally from 1998's ''High Mileage'', and released the re-recording from 2007's ''Like Red on a Rose''.

* SignatureStyle: He tends to use the same musicians from album to album, helping to define his ThreeChordsAndTheTruth style even more. Moreso on his early albums, he often let the musicians do a lot of solos.

* TakeThat: "Murder on Music Row," his duet with GeorgeStrait, is a big TakeThat to the crossover-happy country music climate of the early aughties.

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Lampshaded on the back of his ''Who I Am'' album. The track numbers skip from 12 to 14, with a note saying "That's right, folks, I am just a bit superstitious. -- AJ".
* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Jackson is clearly influenced by the no-frills storytelling songs from the likes of MerleHaggard.

* VocalEvolution: His voice has gotten a little deeper with time. As of "Long Way to Go" (his first release for EMI), he also seems to have lost a lot of range.

-->''I could pay off my tab, pour myself in a cab, \\
An' be back to work before two.\\
At a moment like this, I can't help but wonder,\\

** And then Jimmy answers