Consistent Formula Alan Jackson’S Style Doesn’T Change Much And That’S Ok With His Fans

On Tuesday, while Al Gore and George W. Bush make last-ditch efforts to get voters to the polls, RCA staffers will be trying get country music fans to cast their votes - and their dollars - for Alan Jackson’s new album, “When Somebody Loves You.”

“We’re doing signage that says, `Vote for A.J. on Election Day,”’ says RCA Label Group senior vice president Butch Waugh, who predicts Jackson’s 10th album, due in stores Tuesday, will be a winner.

“This format needs a superstar to deliver great country music, and that’s what Alan has done.”

Few country artists in the last decade have been more successful or more consistent than Jackson. While others may have actively pursued pop-crossover exposure and some have veered into acting, Jackson has succeeded by knowing his audience and delivering music that satisfies both their expectations and his own.

The songs on the new album cover a variety of lyrical territory, from “The Thrill Is Back,” a celebration of how good it feels to rekindle the joy in a long-term romance, to the whimsical “Maybe I Should Stay Here,” to the heartbreak of unrequited emotion in “I Still Love You.”

The Georgia-born Jackson says his goal is to give his audience “10 or 11 good songs that aren’t the same subject matter and aren’t filler songs. I always try to play it out as if I had to do this as a live show. I ask myself, `Is it going to entertain people for 30-40 minutes?”’

Jackson penned four cuts on the new album: the title track; the first single, “www.memory”; “A Love Like That”; and “Three Minute Positive Not Too Country Uptempo Love Song.”

About the latter, he says: “All I’ve ever heard for 10 years from radio and record people and everybody is `We need songs that need to be under three minutes and they need to be positive. They need to be love songs, and they don’t like them if they are real hard country.’ So I just told myself one day I was going to write a three-minute, positive, not too country, uptempo love song.”

For the balance of the album, Jackson relied on some of his favorite writers, like Harley Allen, currently in the Top 10 of the country singles chart with the John Michael Montgomery hit “The Little Girl.” For Jackson, Allen wrote “I Still Love You” and co-wrote “Meat And Potatoes Man” with John Pennell.

Jackson admits his sound hasn’t really changed much since he signed with Arista/Nashville a little over a decade ago.

“It’s the kind of country music I’ve always made,” he says. “I really don’t stray from that. It’s what I came to Nashville to do and I’m still doing.

“I think if you were to play it with one of the early albums I had, it wouldn’t sound a lot different as far as the production and the type of music I make. I’m still dancin’ with the one that brought me.”