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Alan Jackson
Like Red on a Rose
(Arista Nashville)
First Appeared in
The Music Box, January 2007, Volume 14, #1
Written by John Metzger
Throughout his career, Alan Jackson deftly has walked the line that divides
the rowdiness of his honky-tonk roots from the polished sheen of his
contemporary country aspirations. Even so, he threw his fans a true curve ball
when he dove headfirst into the quietly reverential, gospel-oriented fare that
filled his early 2006 endeavor Precious Memories. Issued a mere seven
months later, Jackson’s latest project Like Red on a Rose serves as an
equally puzzling departure, though its intimate and deeply personal ruminations
also demand a closer inspection.
Intriguingly, Jackson tapped Alison Krauss to produce Like Red on a Rose,
but their collaboration appears, at least initially, to be a little one-sided.
Not only did she employ her longstanding support act Union Station to back
Jackson, but also many of the tracks on the outing — Good Imitation of the
Blues and The Firefly’s Song, among them — follow templates that are
akin to her own recorded works. In addition, instead of penning the material
himself, Jackson tackles a slew of cover tunes, nearly a third of which were
written by Krauss’ favorite songwriter Robert Lee Castleman. In other words,
it’s Krauss rather than Jackson who, at first glance, has left her imprint upon
the endeavor.
As Like Red on a Rose progresses, however, Jackson’s own personality
slowly begins to emerge. Although the set is entrenched musically in the ’70s
countrypolitan excursions of Charlie Rich, it lyrically finds its resonance
within the travail of Jackson’s own experiences with marriage. Delivered with
subtlety, the songs convey a sense of aching sorrow — so much so that even when
he’s singing about being in love, he remains haunted by a dark and desolate
loneliness that he can’t seem to shake. On several occasions — the southern
rock-tinged Nobody Said That It Would Be Easy and a soulful
interpretation of Herb Pedersen’s Wait a Minute, for example — he
attempts to come to terms with (and apologize for) the rambling spirit that not
only has driven him toward his life on the road, but also has threatened to
derail his relationship with his wife. Elsewhere, he simply yearns for
connection. Of course, the biggest surprise is how comfortably Jackson settles
into the R&B-laden ambience that fills both Jimmy Holiday’s Don’t Change on
Me as well as an updated rendition of his own A Woman’s Love — each
of which allows him, at least for a moment, to break free from his painful
introspective journey.
In fact, the biggest problem with Like Red on a Rose is that it
provides too few opportunities for Jackson to escape from the claustrophobic
confines of his sorrow. Undoubtedly, he would have been better served had he
tossed aside at least some of the sophistication that clings to the affair,
perhaps by expressing his anger and frustration with a little more bite on songs
such as Good Imitation of the Blues. Nevertheless, with Like Red on a
Rose, Jackson achieves his goal of further distancing himself from the
approach that he took to recording during the first 15 years of his career, and
the result is that the possibilities for his future explorations are seemingly
endless.  ½
Like Red on a Rose is available from
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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