Jackson Gets Booted By Fans As Token Of Appreciation
When Alan Jackson performed at Starwood Amphitheatre in suburban Nashville the other evening, it was so unseasonably cool that a new, low temperature record for that date was set, but you’d never have known it from the reaction of the crowd.
Perhaps the packed throng didn’t get cold because they didn’t use their seats much, greeting Jackson with a standing ovation that started before he sang his first note - the opening one of “Chasin’ that Neon Rainbow” - and lasted throughout “Livin’ on Love” and into his third song, “Someday.” For his part, Jackson regaled them with a generous sampling of his lengthening string of blue-collar hits and threw in some extremely dry wit as he periodically harvested handfuls of single roses from stage-front admirers.
After doing the moving old-style gospel number “What Kind of Man,” he moved to the front edge of stage right and, instead of a rose, was handed a full-size pair of cowboy boots. “Aw, amen,” he responded.
But mostly he sang his songs of everyday life in the real world, a milieu in which he has proven himself a major musical craftsman. Into a show that lasted around 70 minutes, he packed 17 songs.
“I would like to say ‘Thank you,”’ he said after doing about 10 of the songs. “It has been five years since my first record came out, and I’d like to warn you that the next album, out in October, is a package of greatest hits, songs we’ve been singing here tonight. It’s also got this new song on it that I wrote about commitment. It’s called ‘I’ll Try.”’
His rendition of “I’ll Try” evoked prolonged cheers, as did other offerings including, “Gone Country,” “A Song for the Life,” “I’m in Love With You, Baby (And I Don’t Even Know Your Name),” “Chasin’ that Neon Rainbow,” “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” and the current “Tall Tall Trees.”
Closing with “Chattahoochee,” he returned - after the crowd howled their heads off - to encore with “Mercury Blues.” Then he doffed his hat, raised his right hand, thanked them and bade them adieu in characteristic low-key style.
“Y’all behave now, you hear?” he said. Holding aloft the cowboy boots he had been given, he walked into the darkness of the wings.
Gill backs up Loveless
When Patty Loveless’ guitar player suddenly had to absent himself from a show on the current Vince Gill/ Loveless tour, Loveless managed on short notice to find one heck of a substitute.
The hot-picking Gill himself came out and played guitar behind Loveless that night before returning to the stage to headline his own show-closing act.
Tejano artist goes country
Tejano music artist Emilio, who has released four previous albums (including a current one for Latin America), has just seen his first country album, “Life is Good,” issued by Capitol Nashville.
Born and reared in San Antonio, Texas, and educated in voice at Southwest Texas State University, Emilio has been mixing Tejano and country with rock and conjunto on records since 1991. “Life is Good,” produced by Nashville veteran country-rock specialist Barry Beckett, includes two songs in Spanish, “No Muere El Mundo Sin Ti” (“It’s Not the End of the World”) and “Hace Cuanto He Dicho Que Te Amo” (“Have I Told You Lately That I Love You).”
From above the nation’s northern border, meanwhile, the Canadian contemporary country band Prairie Oyster, which has had its work dispensed in the United States by RCA in the past, is seeing its new album, “Only One Moon,” brought out in America by Zoo Entertainment. In the past year the band won an armload of Canadian awards for their previously released, “Everybody Knows.”
Mavericks’ album ballyhooed
The Mavericks’ brand-new album, “Music For All Occasions,” is being hawked by MCA as the most effective representation yet of the group’s “balance of vintage music and contemporary attitude.”
“We draw from older music because we love it,” says the Mavericks’ lead singer Raul Malo. “The reason we love it is because it was grand, it was simple, it was fun.
“That seems to be missing from today’s music and today’s life. People don’t seem to be having a lot of fun anymore, you know? We’re all stressed out.
“So we look back without becoming staunch about it, without losing the fun. We take it at face value and enjoy it.”
More Christmas albums
Yule freaks have a variety of collections of traditional and new songs to choose from this year, and two that illustrate the diversity are John Berry’s “O Holy Night,” a wonderfully sung collection of familiar carols, and Toby Keith’s “Christmas to Christmas,” a package of new songs that offer a new look at traditional messages.
The Berry album’s title song was on a special two-song seasonal CD that was sent out to radio stations in 1994 as a promotion of Berry’s stunning voice. Capitol Nashville wasn’t “going for airplay (with it),” Berry says, “but it got airplay beyond belief. I guess there will always be a need for the good, old-fashioned Christmas songs.”
But just because the rugged Keith’s album features new songs doesn’t mean it necessarily intends to debunk any of the sentimentality of the old ones. Although the album has plenty of light moments, it sometimes drives the old-style sentiments home even harder. For example, the first cut of “Christmas to Christmas,” titled “Santa, I’m Right Here,” depicts a man walking down the street and finding a homeless child’s letter to Santa Claus.