Alan Jackson – Good Time

Arista 2008

Rating: 2/10

Alan Jackson was just one of the many country superstars who gained fame in the early ‘90s with the rise of platinum-selling artists like Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw. Unlike most of the “new” country vanguard, however, Jackson was schooled in the traditional style of country, focusing on pedal steel and fiddles. The man was so old school he even started endorsing Ford trucks.

Jackson’s latest album, Good Time, continues his trend of Hank Williams/George Strait-esque country with topics ranging from his good ‘ole Pops (“Small Town Southern Man”) to Jesus (the blunt “If Jesus Walked The World Today”) to how he prefers cold cut sandwiches to the high-falutin’ technology of the modern world (“I Still Like Bologna”).

The album is your standard, serviceable country fare, with a fair number of tears-in-your-beer ballads, twangy rockers about simple livin’, and the requisite duet with a hot female singer, in this case Martina McBride.

While it is essentially a record that contributes little or nothing to the current hyper-commercialized state of country music, Good Time will no doubt go on to sell a million or more in red-state, Wal-Mart America, giving the album an extra twist of irony when you hear Jackson bemoaning about “work, work, all week long / punchin’ the clock 9 to 5.” Millions can relate, I’m sure.

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