Who wants to talk about Jamey Johnson's new double album, The Guitar Song?

A few White Album notes:

-- Like "Dog In The Yard" fine, but I think I'd like it more if Toby Keith was singing it. And it totally sounds like the kind of song Toby would sing, from the dog metaphor (Toby's used plenty of those) to the 4 A.M. pitstop at her place to get some loving in.
-- Basically meh on "Thankful For The Rain"; could take it or leave it. But fortunately, it's another short one.
-- I get what erasingclouds was saying about all the details in "Front Porch Swing Afternoon," but Jamey doesn't make me care about them, at least partly because they sound like the same details country songwriters writing about lazy afternoons always use. Nothing suprises me. Though maybe if Merle Haggard -- heck, possibly even Tim McGraw -- was singing, I wouldn't care that the details sound mostly old-hat. As is, though, like I said above, I still basically think Jamey gets the mood across, and I like it fine.
-- "Good Times Ain't What They Used To Be" is a (reformed I guess) drunkard's song, but I still basically think of it as a train song, because of its train rhythm. It's definitely good, but I can't say I like it more than, say, the train-rhythm song on Chely Wright's 2010 album. Also, cognitive dissonance comes into play, because Jamey seems to be claiming that everybody else was moving slow and needed to go fast, when of course, he never goes fast -- except maybe in this song, which according to my scorecard is the only remotely speedy thing on the album. I don't know, maybe the explanation is that his fast lane's in the past tense? Definitely a tricky switcheroo into "For The Good Times," too, which he does fine; almost justifies him trying his hand at that tired old warhorse.
-- Finally, "My Way To You" really is a heck of a power ballad to end on. That one's grown on me; probably among my favorites now.

meant "everybody else was moving slow and he needed to go fast"...

Vinyl now alphabetically filed on my LP shelf somewhere between Jennings and Jones, yeah, but more precisely between Sammy Johns' self-titled 1973 album (with "Chevy Van") and Robert Johnson's King Of The Delta Blues Singers. Seems appropriate, somehow.

-- Finally, "My Way To You" really is a heck of a power ballad to end on. That one's grown on me; probably among my favorites now.

pumped my fist to the "from alabama porch / to dirty barroom floor" line at least 5 times today. definitely one of my favorites so far.

also like the way you can hear his amp humming the whole time until he turns it off at the very end. not sure if that's what yall are talking about with the incidental studio sounds.

Amazon Listing
The Guitar Song by Jamey Johnson (Audio CD - Sept. 14, 2010)
Buy new: $11.99
19 new from $11.98
4 used from $11.00
Download MP3 Album: $12.99

Um? What?

incidental studio sounds on this record and the last one that, lots of times, seems strike me as fairly arty: Sound effects, say, and the atmospheric spans that remind me goth metal. Curious to what extent he and his band attempt to replicate those live.

seeing him a couple weeks back, what i noticed weren't arty sound effects so much as his inclination to fill every space of his stage time with music. there was almost no rest between songs. as soon as one ended, often with the final chord still ringing, jamey would be noodling on his acoustic guitar, and then suddenly he'd start singing, and then you'd realize the between-song noodling was actually the beginning of the next song. as on the albums, there was an almost obsessive need to fill dead space.

Profile by Jon Caramanica, in this morning's NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/arts/music/26jamey.html?_r=1

Didn't know 'til now that Johnson's produced a (heavy-handedly guest-star-studded, sounds like) Blind Boys Of Alabama album.

I mean, "appearances by George Jones, Hank Williams Jr., Vince Gill, Bobby Bare, the Oak Ridge Boys and more" -- talk about your obvious Grammy bait.

Yeah, that sounded like something I'd really rather not hear. But that's the way their last album, Duets, was, too - Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt, John Hammond, Lou Reed, Ben Harper, Randy Travis, Solomon Burke, Asleep at the Wheel, Toots Hibbert...bleah.

I love this album but, like all double albums, it clearly could have been whittled down to a single. I know that's an obvious complaint about doubles, but it's pretty apt here. I also think a lot of his tunes go on longer than they should, which adds to the bloat (I use that word reluctantly)

I'm really curious which tracks, specifically, other people don't like much. (I've named a few above -- none I outright dislike, but some I could've easily done without. Though, interestingly but maybe not suprisingly, I've seen writers on the 9513 country blog, and Caramanica in that NYT piece I linked to, name some of the ones I'm meh on as some of their favorites. Different strokes, obviously.)

I like a lot of what he's doing, and agree that he can be a very skillful songwriter. Curious to hear though if anyone else agrees with me about the original songs on this album making him seem like a pretty unpleasant person, whiny and resentful yet self-aggrandizing and cocky at the same time, and whether or not this works to the album's benefit -- maybe it does! And the signifiers of innovation (noises, beards) outweigh the actual innovation itself (jamming, atypically dark moods?), but again that might not be a bad thing for the record either.

Anyway, the comparison to Kanye West is there to be made and I've just made it.

unpleasant person, whiny and resentful yet self-aggrandizing and cocky

Definitely get this idea, to a certain extent, though maybe even more from interviews I've read than from his songs. Not really sure I entirely understand the distinction you're making between signifiers and actual innovation, though; those incidental noises have less precedent in country than the jamming, I'd say. Anyway, I actually re-opened this thread just to say that I've now heard his version of Meat Loaf's "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" on the Imus Radio Ranch II compilation, and I don't think I could've dreamed up a better self-parody myself. Haven't decided yet whether I actually like it or not.

Not sure how much I can add, but if I were cutting songs to make this a single album, I'd start with "Cover Your Eyes", which just seems endless and initially turned me off to the whole enterprise, and "Heaven Bound", which seems like blank space. Lotsa faves, though, starting with "Playing the Part", "That's How I Don't Love You" (Adult Contemporary chord progression), "By the Seat of Your Pants", "California Riots", most of the stuff on the White Side actually, and all the covers -- reminds me of listening to Rick Jackson's Country Hall of Fame on Sunday mornings. I LOVE "My Way To You" as a closer, how the instruments that have been so spaced out in the mix throughout the album coalesce into this massive power ballad at the end. The recording is great. I like hearing all the different instruments and occasionally missing stuff, like the beginning of "That's Why I Write Songs", which I swear I didn't hear the first 3 or 4 times through. I'll be surprised if this isn't up for an Album of the Year Grammy, and it'll probably marshal the O Brother and Speakerboxxx voting blocks to win. (It's probably not MY favorite album of the year, but it's up there and I'd root for it.)

And yeah, I agree the outlaw tag is a misnomer. (If, um, anybody actually said that upthread.) If anything, he's trying to write new entries for every subgenre of the country canon. "Front Porch Swing Afternoon" is in the middle of the pack for me, but it couldn't be any better written, and most country singers in the past 70 years could've had a hit with it. And there's plenty of other stuff like that on here. Maybe the most "outlaw" thing about the album is how often he undercuts the songs' hit potential by giving them just two verses and no bridge, or by ending with a jam. But still. It remains to be seen how much of this can hit on modern country radio, especially when the obvious "My Way To You" has apparently already stiffed, but it seems like more than half would fit in on some "classic hits" format. Which may just mean the whole thing's a nostalgic throwback, thereby making it even MORE assured to win a Grammy.

I suppose I should add that I'm currently carrying the CD around in my backpack as a security blanket, much the way I did with Ke$ha for the first half of the year, which bodes well for its continuing significance in my life.

Something I did for Rhapsody about the album's apparent (and unconscious) influences:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/10/jameyjohnson.html

nice piece, xhuxk. one more album i'd love to see in there is vern gosdin's chiseled in stone, which, in addition to the original "set 'em up joe," has the great "do you believe me now," which jamey regularly covers in his shows. though that still doesn't beat the waylon album that, as you note, jamey covered twice on that lonesome song; if you add "are you sure hank done it this way," another jamey concert staple, he's gone three songs deep on that one. when jamey loves an album, he really really loves an album.

More discussion of The Guitar Song (partly by me) on Dave Moore's Tumblr:

http://cureforbedbugs.tumblr.com/post/1591312554/jamey-johnsons-25-love-songs

Just got this last night. Still working through it but I love it.
I think the Waylon-ness got to me more on the last album than it does this time around. So far "That's Why I Write Songs" stood out, maybe just becuase it's so stripped back.
I get a nice Mike Cooley vibe off his voice in that one.

But I'm enjoying it so far.

i got this a couple of days ago. on the first listen, he doesn't seem to hit with the same immediacy as last time out. but that one was like wow! wtf? this one's more of a victory lap than anything else probably. odd thing is i like the 2nd disc better than the 1st so far. is this a common opinion (and no, i haven't read the thread ... yet)? also: wasn't at least some of the stuff last time out a little more uptempo? or was it that it maybe just came across that way cause he was in a "mean" mood at the time? or maybe that's just another delusion on my part? i dunno.

i'm falling hard right now for "thankful for the rain," a song i didn't notice much when i was playing the album over and over again in the fall. it's basically a reverse girl group lyric, a dude brooding over the lover who comes and goes at will, who has the light of love in her eyes tonight but will apparently not still love him tomorrow. and what's more, she expects him to be thankful for what he's getting. it feels almost unfinished, like he didn't quite get a chance to top off the lyrics before he recorded it, and that weirdly works with the song. not only can't he get his lover to settle down and stay with him, he can't even get his own song to settle down and stay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/are-kanye-west-and-jamey-johnson-actually-the-same-person/2011/11/07/gIQA6dDevM_blog.html

Both West and Johnson gave glowering performances, brows furrowed with focus. Both tempered that intensity (and their reputations for being grouchy) with lyrics that made me laugh. Both are stronger craftsmen than performers, but the strength of their material made their performances shine. Both are considered renegades, yet appear to seek the affirmation of their fans and the respect of their heroes with an almost noble desperation.

His next album,Livin' For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran (produced by Buddy Cannon) due to be released October 16th :

Songwriter Cochran died in 2010

tracklist

"Make the World Go Away" - Jamey Johnson and Alison Krauss
"I Fall to Pieces" - Jamey Johnson and Merle Haggard
"A Way to Survive" - Jamey Johnson, Vince Gill and Leon Russell
"Don't Touch Me" - Jamey Johnson and Emmylou Harris
"You Wouldn't Know Love" - Jamey Johnson and Ray Price
"I Don't Do Windows" - Jamey Johnson and Asleep at the Wheel
"She'll Be Back" - Jamey Johnson and Elvis Costello
"Would These Arms Be in Your Way" - Jamey Johnson
"The Eagle" - Jamey Johnson and George Strait
"A-11" - Jamey Johnson and Ronnie Dunn
"I'd Fight the World" - Jamey Johnson and Bobby Bare
"Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me" - Jamey Johnson and Willie Nelson
"This Ain't My First Rodeo" - Jamey Johnson and Lee Ann Womack
"Love Makes a Fool of Us All" - Jamey Johnson and Kris Kristofferson
"Everything But You" - Jamey Johnson, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson and Leon Russell
"Livin' for a Song" - Jamey Johnson, Hank Cochran, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson

vinyl release in September

Poor guy must have writer's block.

Yeah, I'm gonna pass on this one. I don't really go back to either of his last two records.

I'll listen to it if a physical copy falls into my lap, or if somebody offers to pay me to write about it. But otherwise, no great loss if I don't -- tribute album = holding pattern by definition. Call me when he decides to make a real album.

Plus, to be honest, all those guest stars make it just sound depressing.

Oh you cynics, don't you believe the press release explanation:

When it came time to take the next step in his recording career, he listened to his heart and decided to embark on a labor of love. In a daring career move that is consistent with Johnson's penchant for bucking conventional industry wisdom to create a unique path, he decided to devote his time and creative efforts to honoring his late friend and celebrate traditional country music.

"Shortly after he first met Jamey, Hank was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer," says his widow, Suzi Cochran. "So for the two years he lived after that, Jamey would get off the road and pull his bus right up to the hospital, run up and see Hank and raise Hank's spirits. The last time Jamey saw Hank was the night before Hank died." Johnson joined Buddy Cannon and Billy Ray Cyrus at Cochran's bedside as they handed the guitar back and forth while singing Cochran's songs. Cochran died about six hours later.

It was Cochran's passing that inspired the idea for the tribute album. "We all met at the house one day and sang some songs," Johnson says. "Bobby Bare was introducing me to a bunch of songs that when I thought I heard it all, I hadn't heard anything yet. All the best stuff was the stuff I didn't know about yet.

No young or unexpected collaborators

Threw this on last night for a long drive... I cracked up over Dog In a Yard this time around. It never occurred to me before, but he's talking about being a dog and driving that metaphor home on every line and then all of a sudden he comes in with 'When I make love to you' and I was like, "Wait WHAT? Oh."

I know it'a a LOT of songs. But after listening to it last night and this morning all the way through it really flows together well.

Still have not seen him play live >:(

oh and I heard his 'Two Out of Three Ain't Bad'

I'm a sucker for that song, and for that arrangement --- I love it. I think he did a great job with it. Good cryin' into your beer song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGEIcdYOuHo

his guitarist looks like a total tweaker