What Jackson does is classic country

This is payback time for Jackson, who has won two consecutive entertainer of the year awards from the Country Music Association and just received seven CMA nominations for this fall's awards -- including one for musical event of the year for collaborating with Buffett on Hank Williams's "Hey Good Lookin'," which is on Buffett's latest disc.

Jackson's new album is only going to build more momentum, if that's possible. Although there is no galvanizing track such as his 9/11 lament, "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," there is a steady stream of top-flight, authentic-sounding country songs. And he wrote half of them himself (a high percentage for Nashville stars) like someone who has closely studied the masters from Merle Haggard and Webb Pierce to George Strait and Johnny Paycheck.

Jackson's latest assault on the charts is the new single, "Too Much of a Good Thing," which leads off the CD. Flavored with fiddle, pedal steel, and twangy, chicken-pickin' lead guitar licks, it is the happiest song of the lot. The track, about how lucky he is to have a woman who is all smiles in the morning and all kisses at night, includes the hammy but effective chorus: "Too much of a good thing -- is a good thing. And we've got a good thing goin' on." OK, it's not Shakespeare, but Jackson doesn't have to show off anymore. This is the same fellow who in the past wrote such clever country updates as "Three Minute Positive Not Too Country Uptempo Love Song" and "www.memory."

The more weepy numbers are the best of the new tracks. They include "Rainy Day in June" (his reaction to getting a "Dear John" letter left on his pillow), "You Don't Have to Paint Me a Picture" (as down and out as anything he's done), and the midtempo "If French Fries Were Fat Free," which was a fan favorite when he played it on his last tour that stopped at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H.