When Alan Jackson and Alison Krauss joined forces last year to make a bluegrass record, the result was Like Red On A Rose, Jackson's latest release, which contains not one bluegrass song. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Album charts and No. 4 on the Billboard 200. Its success isn't surprising, given the track record of its creators: Krauss is a 20-time Grammy winner; Jackson has sold 45 million albums and charted 31 No. 1 singles—and that was before this CD was released.

      The disc is a departure for Jackson in several ways. It was his first without longtime producer Keith Stegall. And, with the exception of his original "A Woman's Love," Krauss brought in other artists' material and lined up the session musicians.

      For Jackson, the change was basically effortless. "Keith always produced everything I've done and he's great," he says, "but this wasn't that different other than I'm more involved with the songs with Keith because I bring stuff I have written and he brings songs he found. He always gets the players he wants and that he knows I like, too, and he directs all the arrangements and puts it together and I throw ideas out there, but I never wanted to be a producer, so it wasn't that different with Alison other than different personalities. Her concept was the same. She just needed my voice on there."

      While Jackson remains characteristically humble about the part he played in seeing Krauss' vision through, she remarks, "It was a dream, really. In so many words he'd say, 'Go,' and then he OK'd things. The main thing he was interested in was the theme of the record and the material. I don't like to play anything for anybody until we have it, because it's too vulnerable a position to be in. If you don't get the reaction you're hoping for, it can make you second-guess what you're doing. Alan let us get to a point where it was playable before he made a judgment on it. He was very supportive about what I wanted to do with the record."

      "It's interesting that I went to Alison to do a bluegrass record and she came back with, 'I have another idea to run by you,' and it sounded like what I was thinking about for my next album with Keith," says Jackson. "I wanted to do something more mature, a reflective sound, a more laid back and adult kind of easy-listening country album. It's interesting that it's similar to what she envisioned, so it felt timely."

      While Jackson's distinctive voice and stylings are immediately recognizable on any recording, Like Red On A Rose is a step away from the sound that fans have come to associate with him. Readying its release, Jackson was counting on his fans base to welcome a new album. "Some of it is from a little different angle, so probably a lot of them will love it and a lot may say, 'I wish he'd made an album like he usually does,'" he predicted. "I've said from day one that it would be different for me, and I have to put out the best songs. Sometimes a good song takes care of all the other things."

      As to whether or not Like Red On A Rose qualifies as a country album, he wryly observes, "Anything classifies as country these days, doesn't it? Hardcore country, no, but if I cut a real country album like I want to, radio wouldn't play it. I think it's not as country as records I've made in the past, but the sentiment of the songs and melodies … blame it on Alison! I'm very proud of it. I think it's a beautiful album, and the label feels it's something they could make work in the format. I hope radio plays it and I hope people like it. I make music I'm proud of, but it doesn't scare me to do something like this."

      Radio, in fact, has embraced the project, and would probably embrace Jackson singing the telephone directory. As a whole, however, the album is less contemporary country and more, dare one say, Don Williams?

      "Don Williams was a big example for this record," says Krauss. "That's exactly who I brought up when we talked about this. Don Williams has complete control, he's completely at ease, and the way his records are mixed makes them timeless because nothing is clouded by reverb. That's exactly what we wanted to do with this record."

      While the pairing of two such extraordinary talents makes it easy to consider this a joint project, Krauss is quick to clarify, "There was a theme and a desire to make something that was his, and that record sounds like him, not like me. You can have the same work ethic, but I was picking material for a low-country-singing man who likes to sing what he likes to sing. I don't think of it as my record. It's his. I don't want to think of this album as mine. That music is an extension of Alan, and that's how I felt when I came across the material. What's more attractive than a man who knows who he is? I don't know him well enough, but he seemed to really deliver that message beautifully. He couldn't have delivered those tunes like that unless those elements were there. … There is nothing contrived about him; it's who he is. He sang so beautifully."

      "[As producers], Keith and Alison both want to be more natural and not tune your vocal so you don't sound human anymore," says Jackson. "Sometimes you can beat it to death and it takes all the life out of the song. I'd rather be a little wrong and sound good. Most fans, and radio, can't hear the mistakes. I know I don't hear like Alison can! She probably had to learn to be patient with me. I don't land on it as quickly as she does and she learned to let things go a little and go for feel. Neither one of us has a big ego, and working together was real good. She's picky and can go on and on, and I'd get tired of singing, but I'm cooperative!"

      As an artist and producer, Krauss, when asked about her instinct for knowing when something is right in the studio, modestly remarks, "I'm learning. I can say what I like about my favorite records, and I know what the goal is, although I'm not going to say you achieve it every time. A good record—when you turn it off, it leaves you with a feeling. It takes you someplace when you listen to it. It's an emotional experience and you feel it again every time you put that record on. The goal is to soften hearts … or to get wild. You're creating a mood and—to me, at least—I want to have an emotional experience when I listen to music. I want to have a feeling I haven't had before when I put that music on."

      Jackson, who charts hit after hit, also downplays his gift. "I don't know," he says candidly. "I don't know if I've always been that great at it. It's kind of tricky to be artistic and commercial at the same time. That's the hard part: making the art you want and following the rules to get on commercial radio. It's still hard. I moved to Nashville because I liked the country artists I listened to and sang like in clubs. They were my age then or younger, and there were no new guys coming along and doing that. I was 20, and then Randy Travis hit and he was the first new young guy to sing real country. He opened the door and I knew there were people who wanted to hear it, because I wanted to hear it. My fans are 5 to 95 years old, and there are still young people who like that real country sound."

      Still, there's that "real country album" he's longing to cut. "Country is a diluted sound these days, with influences from everywhere else, and only natural," he says, "but if anyone made a real rootsy album, they would have a hard time getting it played. I had them [the label] ask me to take the steel off two or three songs over the years, ballads, and I'd say, 'I'm not taking the dang steel off!' I've been hardheaded all along. Tim DuBois signed me [to Arista Nashville] and we did what I wanted to do, song-wise and single-wise, for years. I never send my songs in for approval. I just do what I want to, the way I want it to sound, and luckily it has worked. Fans care, but they're not as critical or offended if a song is too country or not country enough. They either like it or they don't.

      "I'll definitely make that record. I had fun with Under The Influence [1999], doing tributes to people who influenced me, and they released it and it did real well and got airplay. It's hard for me to complain about radio because they play pretty much everything I put out there. I've been fortunate; I don't know why. I always felt like if you find the right songs, a lot of times they'll fight their way through all the problems you have getting to the people. So far, I wrote a few that worked."