Stonewall Jackson could make "Ave Maria" sound like a country song, so
Lobo's "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" was much less of a stretch.
Jackson's remake of the then-recent pop hit produced his final Top Ten country hit and probably earned him a few younger fans. The album that followed seems calculated in its mixture of new, pop-oriented songs and country standards -- as though
Jackson's old fans needed to be reassured that he wasn't about to grow long hair and move to L.A. Consequently,
Jackson sings his big hit and the
Hoyt Axton (by way of
Three Dog Night) song "Joy to the World," but spends nearly as much time on classics like
Jimmie Rodgers' "Waiting for a Train" and Curly Williams' "Half as Much." "Push the Panic Button" is an interesting song from Nashville songwriter Larry Kingston, and "Waitin' for Dawn Till Dawn" is an unusual one
Jackson wrote about a girl named Dawn (or Don, as it's mistakenly listed on the album cover, inviting a different interpretation).
Me and You and a Dog Named Boo is an entertaining effort that shows
Jackson trying out a few new things before falling back on some good old country music. ~ Greg Adams