In His One-of-a-Kind Voice, John Anderson Celebrates Past and Present on ‘Years’

John Anderson still has one of the most recognizable voices in country music, and listening to Years is like hearing an old friend tell you stories and sing you songs about the lessons he’s learned in life. The singer who brought us “Swingin’,” “Straight Tequila Night,” “Seminole Wind,” and “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal” delivers another set of winning songs on Years.

Many of the 10 original songs on Anderson’s new album, produced by Dan Auerbach and David Ferguson, are reflective, taking a look back at the ups and downs of his life and celebrating the present. He created the album in the midst of a health crisis, and he says that every day he went into the studio he thought it might be his last.

The album opens with the autobiographical “I’m Still Hangin’ On.” The quiet and somber opening verses blossom into a wall of sound on the choruses as the singer recalls times when he thought he might not make it and marvels that he’s “still hangin’ on”: “Why I’m still here is a mystery to me.” The pop-inflected “Celebrate” recalls, musically and lyrically, Glen Campbell’s songs. The singer has had his share of good times and bad times, but he prays that “somehow, some way” he’ll have the chance to see another day and celebrate it. The title track opens sparely with piano and vocals but soon opens into a soaring rocker, propelled by a searing lead guitar on the bridge. The singer counsels not to look back in sorrow and to let the years “roll by like tears” for “you gotta let ’em go.”

The upbeat “Tuesday I’ll Be Gone” recalls another song about Tuesday — Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Tuesday’s Gone.” They’re both affirmations of the carefree, living-like-a-breeze life and celebrations of the beauties and pleasures of the open road. “All We’re Really Looking For” gambols along in classic Anderson fashion, weaving in a few phrases of Haggard’s sound and Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Morning.”

Years is classic John Anderson, and he continues to deliver warm and satisfying music in his characteristically mellow vocals.