What to make of Alabama? They were the most successful country act of the 1980s, selling gazillions of records and landing 41 singles atop the country charts — including, at one point, 27 #1s in a row. You may not like Alabama, but you can’t ignore them.
And believe me, as I listened and re-listened to Lovin’ Livin’ Rockin’ Rollin’ I wanted quite badly to ignore them on several occasions. But their significance to the story of modern country music is undeniable, both in terms of their popularity and their influence. Alabama spearheaded country’s move into classic-rock inspired balladry and cleared the way for self-contained country bands in what even today is a genre focused primarily on the solo act. Results on this latter front have been mixed. Without Alabama, we probably don’t get the Mavericks, but we might also have been spared Lonestar.
The music collected on this three-disc, 25th anniversary collection documents an important transition for country music; no mainstream country act since Alabama has failed to incorporate to some degree the band’s approach: basically, Skynyrd without the Jack, Pure Prairie League meets Little River Band, or most consistently, the so-called positive love songs of ham-fisted front man Randy Owen, fantasies in which men and women don’t even have the few problems faced by couples in Disney cartoons.
Well, this is Alabama’s world, and it’s the radio world in which we now live, emotionally and sonically. To cite but one example: anyone who thought that Shania Twain’s combination of fiddling and drill-press beats was unprecedented, for example, needs to hear again “Song Of The South”, an indelible 1989 chart-topper and probably the band’s best record if only because it recalls the importance of the New Deal programs within the Tennessee Valley and beyond.
On the other hand, Alabama also pioneered the contemporary tactic of declaring one’s southern or rural status rather than illustrating it. From its first number one, “Tennessee River” from 1980 (though included here in a 1983 concert version), through “Mountain Music”, “Christmas In Dixie”, “Dixieland Delight”, “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas” (also not the hit studio version), “High Cotton”, “Southern Star”, “Born Country”, and on to 2000′s sorta-kinda rap-influenced “When It All Goes South”, Alabama has seemingly argued that roots are shallow indeed, as if being southern or American wasn’t really so different than pledging a fraternity or rooting for your favorite team.
Yet another away in which almost everybody on the radio today sounds like they’re from Alabama.
