State College may be one of the last places Alan Jackson plays before people begin referring to him as 2003 Grammy award-winning recording artist Alan Jackson.

Jackson is up for four awards at this year's Grammy Awards, to be held on Sunday. But before the Georgia native finds out whether he'll take home the greatest prize in music, he'll entertain a cowboy boot-clad crowd at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Tickets for the show are still available.

Jackson, the veteran country recording artist whose long and successful career has spanned over a decade, received overwhelming critical acclaim at last year's Country Music Association Awards. Jackson took home awards for Song of the Year, Single of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year.

Despite the accolades, Doug Heverly, clerk at Mike's Music, 226 W. College Ave., said Jackson's albums do not sell well at the chain's downtown location. The reason, Heverly said, is that Jackson's music does not appeal to the typical college student.

Most country albums sold by Mike's Music are through the store's North Atherton location, said Joe Apfelbaum, music buyer for Mike's Music. Most of the customers there are permanent residents of the area who actually buy country music, he added.

"It's definitely a different crowd out there," Apfelbaum added.

But despite a lack of popularity on campus, past audience responses at the BJC have continued to bring Jackson's tour back to State College, said Mary Alice Felder, spokeswoman for Force Management.

"There is a pretty good audience for Alan Jackson in Pennsylvania," Felder said. She added that people are usually willing to drive long distance to see artists they really like.

Jackson's unfettered dominance on the awards' stage was spearheaded by the success of the Sept. 11, 2001, tribute song "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" from his award-winning album, Drive.

The song's simple lyrics tell of ordinary Americans trying to make sense of the terrorist attacks in their own ways. The track won Jackson his Song and Single of the Year honors in 2002.

Also off the album was the hit title track, "Drive (For Daddy Gene)," a song Jackson wrote for his father who recently passed away. The song is a retrospect of his childhood when his father taught him to drive on dirt roads in an old pickup truck.

Following in the footsteps of other Jackson hits about adolescence, such as "Chattahoochee," the track takes on a more mature tone as Jackson sings of reliving those memories vicariously through his own children.

On tour with Jackson is a relatively new artist, Joe Nichols. His new single "The Impossible" has been on the Billboard chart for the past six months.