After a career that has spanned well over twenty years, his first visit to Australia in that time received a sold-out welcoming from every date on his tour schedule. Has Australia really 'Gone Country'? Dave Roberts investigates.

For those of you who know me by now, you’ll know I’m a metal head. So it might surprise you to know that I attended a country music concert on Monday night. Now, before you snigger, go and look up the man in question and look at his list of achievements. Then you might see why I was so keen to go.

In fact, I still remember the first song I ever heard by Alan Jackson. I can tell you where I was (well, approximately), what I was doing, and where I was going. I can even tell you the car I was riding in at the time. It was the album Who I Am and the song was "Summertime Blues". The year was 1998, and yes, that means I was eight years old when I first heard of this man and his music.

Since that time, I have obtained numerous albums of his, including High Mileage, A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ‘bout Love), and my personal favourite, Drive – more on that a little later. So, it was no surprise that when it was announced that the man himself, Alan Jackson, would be coming to Sydney, I headed online only to find that his concert was sold out, but after some serious weaving, eBay scouring, and finally a last ditch effort (on the day none-the-less) of checking the Ticketek website, I finally managed to grab a ticket to a concert I’ve wanted to see for years.

I rocked up, and sadly missed the support acts due to University, but I did get there in time for some facts. His intro video was a compilation of ‘odds of’ facts. For example, the odds of a person recording a number one hit? One in eleven-million, five hundred and twenty one thousand, seven hundred and thirty nine. And he has twenty five of them. To the roar of the buckle-belted, Texas hat wearing crowd, he walked onto the stage, and opened with "Gone Country" – another one off the aforementioned Who I Am.

The crowd was so loud it was difficult to hear Alan over the screaming fans, but this came into full effect when he played certain songs. Whilst he didn’t give any leeway for us to sing on our own, he did sing with us, which made for a spectacular experience – something I’ll touch on a little bit later. Before the night was out we had heard hit, after hit, after hit, after hit – even his cheeky "It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere" – a song that I’m sure hits a particularly strong chord in our society of drinking and knocking off from work early.

Now, before I tell you the highlight of the evening, I have to tell you, dear readers, about a few irks I had with the evening. For starters, Alan seemed, to be honest, a little more interested in the showboating: signing autographs, strumming his acoustic on occasions, smiling for the cameras, and even missing out entire verses for no apparent reason. Most of the people who were there also were, sorry to feed the stereotype, rednecks. And sadly, there were also the drunkards who were managing to spoil some of the night for everyone else.

And speaking of that, the biggest issue I had with the entire night was this: people standing in the seating section. For those of you who remember my Stereosonic review, you’ll know that this is personal thing I cannot stand when it comes to concerts. If you have seated tickets: sit your ass down – ESPECIALLY if you are on the floor. Because when a drunk woman stands up and I cannot see the stage for which I have paid money to see, I get annoyed. I stand, and in turn annoy the people behind me, and get abused.

However, enough said about that – because even all of the above could not spoil what was, for me, a very emotional moment. And that was when he played "Drive". Some say that everyone has a song or a piece of art that resonates within a person deeper than anything else – and that, for me, is this song. Even his song "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" was equally stirring and beautifully executed, with the crowd matching his voice singing about the tragic events of 9/11.

The aforementioned crowd was so loud, and sounded so good, I think he could have put down the microphone. Such an experience even stirred some of the hardest, redneck, toothless, tattoo-filled rough heads in the audience. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room by the end of the song, mine included. And yes, it was that good.

The sound was fantastic, mostly I believe due to the excellent musicianship displayed by his band of merry-men. Who, by the way, did the best version of a country rock song I have ever heard. They were tight, extremely well rehearsed, and knew exactly whet they were doing. I don’t think I even saw any of them sweat the entire night.

And Alan himself - his voice is just as good as the record, and yes, the concert sounded just like the sound guys had put a CD on. This is indeed the calibre of music we are missing in today’s day and age – the musicians who do what they do, and do it well. They aren’t there because they are pretty, they are just there because they love playing music, and it was evident in this concert.

I don’t know why it has taken Alan this long to come to Australia. His concert overall was one of the best I have ever been to as far as the music is concerned. The crowd brought the house down, and the song selection was sublime. I am so glad I was able to scratch one of the artists I have been longing to see off my ‘to see’ list. He has been put now on the elite list of ‘must see again’, and I urge you, dear readers, to do the same.

After forty awards (at last count) by AMA, ACM, CMA and even two Grammys, Alan is certainly a veteran at this – and it shone through in his performance. So next time he is in your town, go crazy for a night and go see the best country artist do his best for you. I guarantee it will be an event that will be embedded in your brain for years to come. A word of warning though. Once you go once, you will go again, and again, and again.

So go on, go country. I did, and I’ll never look back.