It’s been six years since Alan Jackson released an album of new material, but fortunately that is about to change. The Grand Ole Opry member just announced the release of his 25th studio album, Where Have You Gone, out on May 15.

Working alongside his longtime producer, Keith Stegall, Jackson penned 15 of the 21 tracks himself

“It’s a little harder country than even I’ve done in the past,” Jackson said in a statement of the record, which is reminiscent of the early country music that Jackson loves. “And it’s funny, I was driving and listening to the final mixes Keith sent me, and I started to tear up. I was surprised to get so overly emotional, but I just love this kind of music.”

 

“When I write, I visualize back home and growing up,” he continued. “Real country songs are life and love and heartache, drinking and Mama and having a good time…but it’s the sounds of the instruments, too. The steel and acoustic guitar, the fiddle – those things have a sound and a tone…and getting that right, the way those things make you feel, that’s country, too.”

Where Have You Gone is being released on Universal Music Group.

“Alan’s taken his experiences over the last six years and implemented his poet’s perspective to weave together a masterful love letter to country music,”  UMG Nashville President Cindy Mabe said. “This is Alan’s story but it’s also the story of country music. This music love letter was written about the most universal experiences in life, almost exclusively with Alan’s own pen, and it’s once again a reminder of what a one-of-a-kind creator he truly is.”

See a track list for Where Have You Gone below, and pre-order the album here.*

Where Have You Gone Track List:

1. “Where Have You Gone” (Alan Jackson)
2. “Wishful Drinkin’” (Alan Jackson)
3. “I Can Be That Something” (Alan Jackson)
4. “Where the Cottonwood Grows” (Alan Jackson)
5. “Way Down In My Whiskey” (Alan Jackson)
6. “Things That Matter” (Robert Keith Stegall, Michael White)
7. “Livin’ On Empty” (Alan Jackson)
8. “You’ll Always Be My Baby (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” (Alan Jackson)
9. “Where Her Heart Has Always Been (Written for Mama’s funeral with an old recording of her reading from The Bible)” (Alan Jackson)
10. “The Boot” (Adam Wright)
11. “Back” (Alan Jackson)
12. “Write It In Red” (Alan Jackson)
13. “So Late So Soon” (Scotty Emerick, Daniel Tashian, Sarah Buxton)
14. “This Heart Of Mine” (Adam Wright)
15. “A Man Who Never Cries” (Alan Jackson)
16. “Chain” (Alan Jackson)
17. “I Was Tequila” (Alan Jackson)
18. “I Do (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” (Alan Jackson)
19. “Beer:10” (Alan Jackson)
20. “The Older I Get”* (Hailey Whitters, Adam Wright, Sarah Turner)
Extra Track: “That’s The Way Love Goes” (A Tribute to Merle Haggard) (Lefty Frizzell, Whitey Shafer)

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