Reviewed by Dave Brassington

For any artist who has a long and successful recording career in any type of music, the desire to do something "different" must be very strong. Sometimes a change of style works well and sometimes it proves disastrous. So what are we to make of country superstar Jackson's venture into bluegrass? To begin with, Alan has brought together a terrific band of supporting musicians including Adam Steffey on mandolin, Rob Ickes on dobro, Tim Crouch on fiddle and Sammy Shelor on five-string banjo. The opener "Long Hard Road" gets the album off to a cracking start, the song taking a philosophical view of life including references to the Christian faith. I only knew two songs on 'The Bluegrass Album', the old Dillards number "There Is A Time" and the closing rendition of Bill Monroe's bluegrass classic "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" in which Alan is at pains to personally thank all the great musicians! In between we have some very strong material in "Appalachian Mountain Girl", "Blue Ridge Mountain Song" and two semi-gospel efforts "Blue Side Of Heaven" and "Way Beyond The Blue". In my opinion, Alan's deep Southern tones are ideally suited to the bluegrass genre and this set turns out to be one of the best bluegrass projects of recent years. Very highly recommended.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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