Home by Alan Jackson was originally recorded on Alan Jackson’s first album, Here In the Real World, which was released in 1990. Alan later added this song to his greatest hits album and has sang the song every time I’ve seen him in concert. The first time I heard him sing the song live he said “I wrote this song within the first few weeks of living in Nashville. I was so homesick, so the only thing I could write a song about was home.”
Home is one of the most wholesome songs in all of country music. Rather than singing about drinking, cheating, and other things, Alan is singing about his upbringing in Georgia, his parents, and the house he grew up in.
The first part of the song goes like this:
In a small town down in Georgia
Over forty years ago
Her maiden name was Musey
Till she met that Jackson boy
They married young like folks did then
Not a penny to their name
They believed the one you vowed to love
Should always stay the same
And on the land his daddy gave him
A foundation underway
For a love to last forever
Or until there dying days
They built a love that's strong enough
To stand the test of time
And a place for us to turn to
When our lives were in a bind
Jackson gives listeners and fans a tremendous amount of insight into the early years of his life in those verses. The main takeaway for me is that his parents felt very strongly about each other and felt very strongly about their marriage vows.
Jackson then busts into the chorus:
And they made their house from a toolshed
Grandaddy rolled out on two logs
And they built walls all around it
And they made that house a home
And they taught us 'bout good living
And taught us right from wrong
Lord, there'll never be another place
In this world that I'll call home
What an incredible story. Hard to believe that the great Alan Jackson was raised in what was once a tool shed! In March of this year, Alan and his wife sold their estate in Franklin, Tennessee for 19 million dollars. That’s a pretty large step up from a tool shed.
In the next couple verses Jackson sings about his mother and father:
My mama raised five children
Four girls and there was me
She found her strength in faith of God
And a love of family
She never had a social life
Home was all she knew
Except the time she took a job
To pay a bill or two
And my daddy skinned his knuckles
On the cars that he repaired
He never earned much money
But he gave us all he had
He never made the front page
But he did the best he could
Folks drove the cars from miles around
And let 'em look underneath the hood
Jackson’s parents remind me a lot of my parents. They aren’t flashy people, just hard workers for their family. If there were more parents like mine and Alan’s, the world would be a lot better place.
The song finishes off with Alan busting out the chorus again, and as always, it sounds incredible. If you haven’t heard this song I strongly encourage you to do so!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Jack Wilkinson