A Lot About Livin' (And a Little 'Bout Love) (CD - 1992)

Personnel: Alan Jackson (vocals); Brent Mason, Bruce Watkins, Keith Stegall, Robbie Flint (guitar); Weldon Myrick, Paul Franklin (steel guitars); Stuart Duncan, Hank Singer, Rob Hajacos (fiddle); Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano); Roy Huskey, Jr., Glenn Worf (bass); Eddie Bayers (drums); Bruce Rutherford (background vocals).

Recorded at Castle Recording Studio, Cayman Moon Recorders, Sound Emporium and Recording Arts, Nashville, Tennessee.

What is Alan Jackson's formula for sucess? Try tall, lanky good looks, a sly crook of the hat, long blonde hair and a mustache. Add a low-slung guitar that wails blistering licks. Include a large dose of traditional instrumentation, first-rate players, and an aversion towards turning country pop.

Being an accomplished writer helps, adding well-crafted, honky tonk classics to the lexicon of country music. A slight Georgia drawl, a shy smile, and an elastic baritone. That's about what it takes to sell millions of albums.

As it turns out with most of Jackson's albums, A LOT ABOUT LIVIN' is becoming a sort of greatest hits compilation. Everything he releases hits the top of the charts and deservedly so. His songwriting and instrumentation is impeccable.

Highlights include the award-winning, foot-stomping summer smash "Chattahoochee"; "Tonight I Climbed The Wall" with its timeless sound, transcendent vocal, and pining instrumentation; "I Don't Need The Booze (To Get A Buzz On)," a yodeling honky tonk reading of alcoholic delights; "Mercury Blues," a rollicking, hard-driving love song to his car; the blues-shuffling "She's Got The Rhythm"; and the yearning "Who Says You Can't Have It All," where Jackson shares effective duet duties with a moody fiddle and sobbing steel guitar.

Jackson sings a lot about livin', a little 'bout love, and no one in contemporary country music is doing it better than he does. minimize