Long Hard Road

This is the opening track of The Bluegrass Album, the nineteenth studio album and first Bluegrass LP recorded by Alan Jackson. The cut paints the picture of a man who has been away from home for a long time and hears the voice of his mother calling him back home. "That was a song about thinking about all the years since I left Georgia," Jackson told NPR. "I think that when your parents are helping you along, you always remember things that they say and do as you're growing up. Even when you're as old as I am you can still think of things." Jackson added that despite being concerned, his parents supported his move to Nashville to pursue his dream. "When I decided to leave and go to Nashville that was just the craziest thing anybody had ever heard of in (his hometown) Newnan, Georgia," Jackson said. "[For] someone to just pack up and go way off like that, it was like traveling to Japan or something for us. And I think they were very concerned about it, but they also have always been supportive. Daddy always told me, 'Go up ahead and try it, and if it doesn't work, you can always come home.'"