Here's the link to the whole article:
http://www.billboard.com/features/top-25-country-artists-1985-2011-1004095821.story#/features/top-25-country-artists-1985-2011-1004095821.story?page=1Here's the section on Alan:
He is #4:
Alan Jackson: The Billboard Cover Story
By Deborah Evans Price | March 07, 2010 12:00 EST
Alan Jackson
Alan Jackson is well-known as a man of few words-unless he's putting them in a song. A self-effacing superstar who doesn't like to do interviews because he's uncomfortable promoting himself, Jackson has proved during the last 20 years to be one of music's most reliable hitmakers, consistently delivering expertly crafted, no-frills, traditional country seemingly immune to the vagaries of taste or trends. He does that yet again on "Freight Train," a 12-song collection due March 30 from Arista Nashville.
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Now, exclusively first on Billboard.com, listen to a series of three previews of Freight Train," songs two days ahead of their availability on iTunes. First up, right here, is "Hard Hat And A Hammer," Jackson's easygoing ode to the workingman. The song will hit iTunes on March 9. Come back to Billboard.com next week at 12:01 am on March 14 to get your first listen of "Every Now And Then." And right after midnight on March 21, we'll be streaming "Where I Belong."
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Sitting in his spacious Nashville home on a Friday afternoon, Jackson is watching a heavy snow fall outside, a rare event in middle Tennessee. His three daughters have passed the age where they'd be interested in building snowmen, so he's content to hunker down inside and discuss his new record, and his place as a veteran artist in an ever-changing industry.
Jackson has long been a core artist at country radio and a favorite among his peers, who have showered him with 16 Country Music Assn. Awards, including three entertainer of the year honors. These days, his presence extends beyond radio, TV and stage and into the restaurant realm, as he is the first artist to have his own line of merchandise at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.
Cracker Barrel is a natural fit for Jackson, whose easygoing, what-me-worry delivery and quotidian lyrical concerns have always drawn in working-class men and women. Like country icons Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Merle Haggard before him, Jackson has succeeded by making music that seems much simpler than it is and connects with fans who are often left cold by edgier, more faddish artists. Whether serving up a fun uptempo hit like "Chattahoochee" or a poignant reflection on 9/11 in "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," great songs have always been the foundation of Jackson's career-and one of the reasons he's the eighth-best-selling artist since 1991, the start of the Nielsen SoundScan era. He has sold 37.5 million albums so far.
"I'm 20 years into it now," Jackson says, "and a majority of the artists that came along with me, and even people that came along after me, are gone. George Strait is about the only one older than me that's still around. I don't know why some of them stay and some of them go. But I like to think it just goes back to the music."
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