Alan Jackson

In the early ’90s, when a fresh crop of country heroes ushered in a new era for Nashville, Alan Jackson was one of the few to carry the old-school honky-tonk torch amid a sea of so-called “hat acts.” That’s probably why he’s pretty much that period’s last man standing — and standing taller than ever, thank you very much. The ’91 blockbuster “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” — in which a heartbroken barfly demands George Jones instead of the Rolling Stones to soothe his troubled soul — was Jackson’s mission statement. Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t put a twangy turn on Eddie Cochran’s rockabilly classic “Summertime Blues” and take it to the top of the Country charts. But on Jackson’s biggest crossover hit, the working-stiff salute “It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere,” it’s island music he imagines in the distance, with some help from Mr. Margaritaville himself, Jimmy Buffett.

In Next Steps, move deep into Jackson’s honky-tonk heart.

When Alan Jackson jumped to the forefront of the Nashville scene in the ’90s, he was labeled everything from “new traditionalist” to “contemporary country,” but at the bottom of it all was the Georgia boy’s deep devotion to classic country sounds. Even with tons of #1 singles behind him, he still loved digging up his roots, bringing Jim Ed Brown’s hard-drinking ’67 honky-tonker “Pop a Top” back to the charts, and paying homage to the Man In Black in 2010 by serving up a smoldering “Ring of Fire.” And only Jackson could score a hit by criticizing the commercialization of country, in his sly, satirical duet with George Strait, “Murder on Music Row.”

In Deep Cuts, Jackson joins in with some powerful pals for dazzling duets.

In two decades at the topmost rung of the country-music ladder, Alan Jackson has made some high-powered friends, and they haven’t been shy about showing up to sing alongside him. Jackson and George Strait showed there’s still no better basis for a country tune than a lovesick fool taking his sorrows for a swim, on the duet “Designated Drinker.” Jackson joined Keith Whitley in bringing a new slant to the world of country Christmas tunes, crooning about a certain surprise package that once arrived in Bethlehem on “There’s a New Kid In Town.” And you know you’re a full-fledged country superstar when you get to revisit a George Jones classic right along with Ol’ Possum himself, like Jackson did with the tear-jerking Jones gem “A Good Year for the Roses.”

In the early ’90s, a new wave of artists gave Nashville a facelift, but not many of them rose to the top by channeling the spirit of classic country. In an era where style was too often placed before substance, Alan Jackson proved that songs about hard drinkin’, hard workin’, and hard lovin’ were the heart of country music. Let’s put it this way: when he sang “Where I Come From,” he wasn’t just talking about Newnan, Georgia. But no matter how much old-school honky-tonk he poured into his pitcher of hits, he always managed to be a man of the moment. That’s how he stacked up enough multiplatinum albums and #1 singles to make the careers of a dozen singers, keeping his cred all the while. It isn’t easy singling out the must-have moments of a catalog that’s practically nothing but highlights, but we’ve whittled it down to 75 reasons why the two sweetest words anyone in ’90s Nashville ever heard were Alan Jackson.