Terrapin Tables

indeed he is a little bit country! much of his early stuff (when he was in nashville) is country, and i don't mind that at all - many of my favorite songs of his are from early albums. my biggest beef with country singers is the twang in their voices (which a young jimmy had some of and alan jackson does almost none of). you might have guessed that this was the first time that jimmy was up for anything at the CMAs. that would in fact be false. he was up for song of the year in 1977 with a little tune named margaritaville. i'm one of a decreasing number of people who knows that margaritaville was not written on an island in the caribbean as a fast/party song but rather was written as a mellow song (which is the way i prefer it) on a napkin in a texas bar. when asked why he did 5 o'clock with alan jackson, jimmy said that despite not performing songs in that style for years, for some reason he is still revered in country music circles (when they played the song to open the cmas, jimmy got a louder ovation than jackson) and thought it would be fun to play another.

i welcome this new information with open arms. i, too, enjoy the more mellow music and yes jimmy surely does calm things down a bit. i, too, dislike the twang of country, but to move past it and listen to the simple words of country songs is to reach a realization that when it comes down to it life is just good. i will now propagate the information you have divulged on this very forum to all i know that they too may come to understand country jimmy.