Alan Jackson finds himself onstage at the Mother Church of Country Music with some of the genre’s legendary names in his newest music video, for his song “Where Have You Gone.” The black-and-white clip honors, as Jackson describes it, “real country music”: songs with steel guitar, banjo, fiddle and other traditionally country instruments.
Peter Zavadil directed Jackson’s new video. At first, Jackson is onstage at the Ryman Auditorium alone, surrounded by those instruments and others. However, by the end of the first chorus, Jackson is joined onstage by the memories of several prominent artists: Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, George Jones, Tammy Wynette and more.
“This is Alan’s idea … capturing all of this incredible history that’s happened here,” Zavadil shares in a press release. ““The goal was to make the Ryman as much of a character in this as Alan is the artist onstage. This is a magical place.”
“Where Have You Gone” is the title track of Jackson’s newest studio album, released in May. He wrote the song solo.
“The song kind of starts out like it’s a lost love,” Jackson says of the song. “I love what I call ‘real country music,’ and I just see it fading away more than I ever have. I just wanted to say that.”
Throughout Where Have You Gone, Jackson leans heavily into his timeless country roots, calling on traditional country instruments to help tell his stories through song. The singer describes the project as “harder country” than he’s done in the past, and a project he has “always dreamed” of making.
“Real country songs are life and love and heartache. They’re drinking, singing about Mama and having a good time, sad things, fun things,” Jackson analyzes, adding of the album, “It reflects the sounds of the instruments I grew up on, steel and acoustic guitar, the fiddle and the way they all came together. It gave you a sound, but also a real feeling or emotions no other music really had.”
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