Jackson Lets a Darker Side Shine

It’s not as if he’s become Hank Williams, or even Dwight Yoakam, but on his fifth album, Alan Jackson--heretofore known for warmly nostalgic, blandly cheery fare--takes his first real shot at darkness. And it does wonders for him.

“Between the Devil and Me,” written by Harley Allen and Carson Chamberlain, confronts the theme of temptation with vivid images and an ominous musical framing. In this unfamiliar territory, Jackson delivers an understated but completely believable vocal that reveals previously untapped levels of expression.

The song’s tone of dread resonates in the album’s other downbeat moments, including Jackson and Jim McBride’s vintage-sounding weeper “A House With No Curtains” and the Allen-Chamberlain team’s title song.

Maybe the challenge of dealing with more troubling issues has loosened up Jackson’s overall approach: He’s able to give the album’s slight material an easygoing, unforced treatment that allows some real character to emerge. Jackson also branches out a bit in another direction, cooking up a bawdy romp called “Must’ve Had a Ball” and putting a Dixieland band behind it. But that, apparently, is another story.

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