Hello and welcome to the Alan Jackson Country And Steel Guitar Quiz.

There are only two questions.

A) Which genre of Real Music is Alan Jackson a practitioner of?

B) Which instrument best symbolizes the practition of Real Country Music?

Before rushing to any rash conclusions, know some facts. At his sellout show at the Molson Amphitheatre last night, the 9.3 million album-selling/180,000 home video-flogging/multiple award-hoarding force behind Don't Rock The Jukebox and Chattahoochee dropped the following clues. By the calculation of at least one short-sighted observer, Jackson spoke/sang the words "country music," and/or "steel guitar" at least six times every 1.3 songs.

In addition to using the words directly, he alluded to them and the lifestyle they represent, an additional eight times every 0.8 songs.

While country stars of an earlier generation - Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings - were originals, indiviudals, outlaws, Jackson's Real Country is derivative, forced.

Waylon Jennings didn't have to remind no one he was country.

But last night the Amphitheatre seemed happy enough with the Jackson version. The cheered, whooped and whistled through Jackson and the Strayhorns' (his 6-man live band) bag of album reproductions spanning from his 1990 debut album Here In The Real World, to his current Who I Am.

In country shuffle, country skip and country stomp, Jackson remained poker-faced through tales of Chasin' That Neon Rainbow, Midnight In Montgomery, Chattahoochee and beyond.

In case earlier songs about wanting to be a country star, getting to be a country star then what it's like being a country star proved too cryptic, material from Who I Am brought Jackson and what he stands for into unmistakable focus.

Gone Country, a cleverly written number full of irony (generally the opposite of country music) attacks that scourge of American society: Fake country singers. In successive verses, a lounge act, a folk and a pop singer are shown up as empty phonies exploiting Nashville, where the chorus paints them in new country boots and suits.

The Stetson-heavy audience sang soberly along with the refrain, He's Gone Country, the video screen even flashed a dot-matrix declamation: "We've gone country."

Jackson saved his statements on other American problems like how to "help feed the hungry" for postscripts in his liner notes.

But at least there was no doubt in anyone's mind exactly what Alan Jackson stands for -(see above quiz).

SUN RATING: 3 OUT OF 5