Concept albums are rare in mainstream country music, and it’s rarer still to find Nashville product that favors darkness over light. That makes Gary Allan’s sixth full-length, Tough All Over, a Music Row anomaly on two counts. The disc confronts the suicide of Allan’s wife of three years and serves as a reminder that the California-born singer with a punk-rock-loving history to his credit is the thinking-man’s hat act. He’s graced with a tough but tender tenor — a voice that turns Vertical Horizon’s frat-rocking "Best I Ever Had" into a heartbreaking ballad. "I Just Got Back from Hell" is as jarring as a punch to the stomach. But the disc’s highlight is the pulse-racing "Nickajack Cave," a tune that tells the story of a failed suicide attempt by Johnny Cash. It’s a little heavy-handed, particularly when Allan, as a voice from the heavens, barks out, "Get up, Johnny Cash, I ain’t through with you yet." But Tough All Over is a heavy album.
