Alan Jackson is not in the change business. When he did experiment a bit on the Alison Krauss-produced Like Red On A Rose, his fans weren’t happy. Not surprisingly, it was his least successful album. No wonder Freight Train finds him in familiar territory, working with long-time producer Keith Stegall, singing songs of love and redemption.
His specialty is unadorned country music, but of a sort that Nashville doesn’t do too often these days, with plenty of pedal steel, twanging guitars and fiddle.
Jackson is an accomplished writer, having penned eight of the 12 songs on this album. The title track, however, is from maverick Canadian singer/songwriter Fred Eaglesmith and is one of the stand-out cuts. While loss and heartbreak are staples of good country music, Jackson, comes from a solid family background and so his songs tend to focus on lasting relationships: witness titles like ‘The Best Keeps Getting Better’ and ‘Love Is A Golden Ring’. Freight Train may not be his best album but it is a solid outing.