Alan Jackson: Why Four Acoustics?

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 13 Oct 2006 9:52 am

Alan Jackson was on the Today Show this morning with fiddle, bass, drums, steel, his usual tele player, plus three acoustics strumming behind his own. Why do so many bands have so many acoustic sidemen? People must have better hearing than I do, because I can't pick out any of those acoustics in the mix. Don't those four acoustics just add up to white noise? I must be wrong because so many of the pros do it this way.

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"I drink to make other people more interesting." -- Jack Nicholson

Billy Wilson · Post by **Billy Wilson** » 13 Oct 2006 9:57 am

They are probably hamony singers

Richard Sevigny · Post by **Richard Sevigny** » 13 Oct 2006 10:09 am

So, like, hamony singers were there?

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 13 Oct 2006 10:50 am

Nyuk, nyuk. Wise guy, eh? Can't you spell "hominy"? (Sorry, that was corny.)

But seriously, if this acoustic version of Phil Spector's wall of white noise is there for the vocals, why not take away their guitars and put them aside in a mini choir? Alan Jackson and the Alanettes.

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"I drink to make other people more interesting." -- Jack Nicholson

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 13 Oct 2006 11:07 am

His latest CD, "Like Red on a Rose" is mostly an acoustic album. I'm sure he was promoting that one and, thus, used a more acoustic band.

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HagFan

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 13 Oct 2006 2:14 pm

I could see why he'd tour with more acoustic to promote an acoustic album, but those guys were just pouring out the same strums.

I've seen this many times with other bands--a squadron of inaudible acoustics just chording along. I don't remember seeing four acoustics at once before this, but I've seen three many times. What could be the reason?

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"I drink to make other people more interesting." -- Jack Nicholson

Richard Sevigny · Post by **Richard Sevigny** » 13 Oct 2006 2:30 pm

I'm suspecting someone in marketing thought it would look cool.[This message was edited by Richard Sevigny on 13 October 2006 at 03:30 PM.]

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 13 Oct 2006 2:35 pm

I'm just guessing, but I prefer a prominent acoustic guitar for rhythm guitar for country, and with his latest album, Alan must be going for that sound. It's more difficult to get strong sound (without feedback and EQ problems) from acoustics than from electric guitars. One way to deal with that is to use two or more acoustics strumming the rhythm. Like I say - just a guess.

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 13 Oct 2006 3:01 pm

Maybe the union won't let one acoustic player use a chorus effect to make him sound like two or three, so they have to hire two more players. LOL

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 13 Oct 2006 3:26 pm

Dave,

That makes sense. Thanks.

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"I drink to make other people more interesting." -- Jack Nicholson

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 13 Oct 2006 5:19 pm

Maybe they were his friends? It seems like a nice thing to do, something to talk about when you're 80 & sitting around the porch.

Jesse Pearson · Post by **Jesse Pearson** » 13 Oct 2006 9:40 pm

Could it be the acoustic guitar necks had capo's at different fret positions, producing different voicings of the same chord? It would give a much bigger chordal sound, richer textures.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 14 Oct 2006 2:58 am

Acoustics never just end up white noise. Listen to anything that Jeff Lynn produces.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 14 Oct 2006 4:34 am

thats 24 strings that MUST be in tune with each other...

erik · Post by **erik** » 14 Oct 2006 5:46 am

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 14 Oct 2006 6:26 am

...we have 3 acoustic guitar players in Randy Travis'band...

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http://home.comcast.net/~steves_garage

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 14 Oct 2006 8:05 am

I saw an interview with AJ, he said he wanted to do a bluegrass album so he got Allison Krause to produce it. Red On a Rose wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but that's the sound she came up with. On Letterman he used some bluegrass instruments plus drums and tele and electric lap steel.

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Howard

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 14 Oct 2006 8:30 am

I would hope that padding the account with 4 rhythm players isn't a indication of things to come, in other words, Alan unplugged = bye-bye PSG .....

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 14 Oct 2006 11:53 am

Howard Tate, you can read more than you will probably want to ever know about the CD in this thread:
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum10/HTML/202132-2.html

I kind've think Alan agreed with the concept of the album, it wasn't like Alison "steamrolled" him into doing it-and though he was into the bluegrass thing-the stuff I have read is that is why he initially approached her to work with him, but he came around to her ideas pretty quickly.

There was a discussion on the Jerry Douglas board about the making of the CD. Jerry wrote that he was one of the only folks in the studio that knew Alan, and getting comfortable with the concept took a little time, but Jerry most definitely stressed that Alan is his own man, and this is the album that HE wanted to make, but Alison took the lead roll in pulling it all together.

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Mark
[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 14 October 2006 at 02:17 PM.]

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 14 Oct 2006 2:38 pm

Maybe the 4 guitars [and not Alan's] are miked very low [as stated above, to keep down feedback situations].

But 4 guitars [not even low-miked] is gonna put
out a "loud" sound. Think orchestras. The reason that orchestras have multiple players of
certain instruments is for projection. We all know orchestras are not miked .

So the way that music was projected in the old days [so everyone in the last row could also hear what the folks up front were hearing] was to play in a sound quality symphony hall and to increase the number of instruments. And , guess what, it worked. And worked well.

Maybe AJ is onto something here, conciously or not.

JMHO[This message was edited by CHIP FOSSA on 14 October 2006 at 03:48 PM.]

Michael Breid · Post by **Michael Breid** » 14 Oct 2006 5:25 pm

I thought sure Robbie Flint would be on Alan's latest album. Some of the songs "cry" for pedal steel and not "lap steel". Of course Jerry Douglas and Allison are joined at the hip, so it was just normal for Jerry to be on anything that Allison does. Cheap shot. Sorry. I'm a big fan of Robbie Flint and think he should have been on the album. He plays some great stuff behind Alan. Is Robbie even touring with Alan anymore?

Dan Galysh · Post by **Dan Galysh** » 15 Oct 2006 1:17 am

Robbie's still with Alan. He sounded great on his pretty lacquer Derby when I saw him last month.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 15 Oct 2006 8:29 pm

Robbie's been Alan's steel player since Alan started out in music and Mark McClurg returns to the Strayhorns on fiddle after leavin' the band for awhile. Brett, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel, GFI Ultra D-10-aka "Redgold Beauty"

Brett Anderson · Post by **Brett Anderson** » 15 Oct 2006 10:09 pm

Michael, These songs cry alright.

Gene H. Brown · Post by **Gene H. Brown** » 16 Oct 2006 6:52 pm

Well....if they didn't have a piano player, my guess is they were using them to fill the holes that a piano would normally fill, I've seen this done before, maybe the studio couldn't get a piano on such short notice, or for that matter a piano player, JMHO.
Gene