Alan Jackson‘s first studio album in six years, Where Have You Gone, arrived on May 14. It stays true to the stories of family, faith and fun that Jackson’s long upheld as key elements of “real school” country music.
To really show us how it’s done, Jackson paid tribute to one of his musical heroes, Merle Haggard, with a cover of “That’s The Way Love Goes.”
Johnny Rodriguez scored a No. 1 in 1973 with the Lefty Frizzell and Sanger D. Shafer co-write. A decade later, The Hag took it back to the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
At this point in his life and Hall of Fame career, Jackson’s name and voice don’t seem out of place next to those of Rodriguez, Frizzell and Haggard, which might just be the most telling takeaway from the whole album.
