Alan Jackson is set to release The Bluegrass Album on Tuesday (September 24th), a project he has wanted to make for years. This past spring, he jumped into the studio with several of the best players and singers in bluegrass, and just days later he emerged with a complete album. Alan wrote eight of the 14 songs on the collection, which was produced by Keith Stegall and Alan’s nephew, Adam Wright.

“I just am a fan of the music, and I didn’t want to do something that disappointed the bluegrass world. I didn’t want them to think I was just another country act wanting to make a bluegrass album,” says Alan. “I’ve always liked the music and wanted to do something in that vein and something I could be proud of.”

Some of the originals Alan wrote for the project include “Blacktop,” “Blue Ridge Mountain Song” and “Mary,” while some of the covers are John Anderson’s “Wild and Blue” and Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”

Audio / AJ (Bluegrass album) 1

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AUDIO: Alan Jackson talks about recording The Bluegrass Album, which is due in stores September 24th.

Alan Jackson (Bluegrass album) 1 OC: …proud of. :36
“Well, I just am a fan of the music, and I didn’t want to do something that disappointed the bluegrass world. I didn’t want them to think I was just another country act wanting to make a bluegrass album. I really wanted to try to write some songs that were a decent approach from a bluegrass perspective, and the same way with the production – everything. I wanted it to be just as true as I knew how to make it. It may not be as authentic as it ought to be, but I did the best I could with it. I’ve always liked the music and wanted to do something in that vein and something I could be proud of.”

AUDIO: Alan Jackson says The Bluegrass Album is something he’s wanted to do for more than a decade…but the timing never seemed to work out.

AJ (Bluegrass album) 2 OC: …this long. :45
“Oh, I probably started thinking about The Bluegrass Album in the mid-’90s sometime. You know, finally when Alison – I got Alison Krauss interested in working with me on an album, and that’s what I really thought we were going to do, and then when we got together and we started kicking stuff around, and ended up kinda going in a little different direction with it and it wasn’t bluegrass at all…which is fine. It was a very cool album that I’m proud of. But anyway, it kinda took me off the bluegrass path there for a while, but after that I just kinda put it on the back burner. And I think things happen when they’re supposed to. And this – when I finally got to it this winter, it just seemed like the right time in my career, in my life, in my head – everything. So, I’m glad we put it off this long.”

AUDIO: Alan Jackson recalls hearing and being aware of bluegrass music early on in his life.

AJ (Bluegrass album) 3 OC: …music I heard. 1:09
“There wasn’t much live music around where I was from – country or bluegrass or anything. The earliest music – now looking back – that I realize was bluegrass was on…when I was a child watching The Andy Griffith Show and ‘The Darlings’ they called them on the show but it was The Dillards, which was a little more of a folky kind of bluegrass group. But they played some cool stuff on that show, and made an impression on me, I’m sure. And then at the same time The Beverly Hillbillies – Flatt & Scruggs did the theme song, and they actually were on the show a couple times, and I remember that clearly, you know, how that music sounded and affected me. And my daddy watched Hee Haw every Saturday, and they had a lot of banjo and bluegrass kind of stuff on there that I watched. And I’ve always loved the banjo – the sound of the banjo – for some reason. And when I was a teenager in the ’70s, there was a local group in town. I guess they played some bluegrass festivals in the Southeast. They actually made an album back then. It was…I had the album – I think somebody probably gave it to me. It was a big vinyl album, and I remember that thing – I loved it. I played it back then – it was a cool album. That was probably the earliest real local music I heard.”