Alan Jackson's latest CD, Good Time, is hardly a party album. It has a number of ballads on it, plus a crying-in-your-beer number and a song that pays tribute to a family friend who died. But it does have some fun, uptempo material, and Alan thought there was enough of it that it made sense to name the album for one song that reminds people that not everything he does is serious.

"'Where Were You' was such a heavy song," he told The Tennessean. "It was such a big song, and people maybe forgot about the rest of my career, where I had 'Chattahoochee' and 'Don't Rock The Jukebox' and 'Little Bitty' and all these fun, uptempo things. Then, of course, 'Drive' and 'Remember When' took me in a more serious direction. 'Five O'Clock Somewhere' is the only one that I've had [since 'Where Were You'] that reminded me of some of the earlier stuff."

Alan's apparently doing things right. Good Time debuted at No. 1 last week on Billboard's Country Albums chart and at the top of its pop list, too.

And, like the album title implies, Alan is a very happy guy these days, though he admits that touring is still a little difficult.

"I'll be honest with you," he said, "after all these years, I don't like going out and sitting on that bus. I have to leave the house at five o'clock Friday afternoon and fly to Idaho or something, and my kids are out there cooking out on the grill, and they'll have a nice evening there. It's hard to leave Nashville and go do that, because [home] is where I want to be."

Alan's next live date isn't that far from Tennessee: He'll be playing a football stadium in Alabama as part of the Gridiron Bash promoting the Crimson Tide NCAA team's spring game in April. Taking him even farther than Idaho is a four-day run in Canada next month with Brooks & Dunn. They'll play Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg four straight nights.