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

I mean, besides me and xhuck...

Exported from Rolling Country (though personally I'd rather talk about it there, where it can intertwine with the rest of its world):

saw jamey johnson for the first time last night. saw some discussion of him way upthread as diffident onstage. not sure i'd use that word. my friend jim said "taciturn." that sounds right. just doesn't feel like talking. and not just to the audience. he barely looked at, or talked to, any of his bandmates either. they're a damn good band, by the way.

the show had an improvisatory feel to it, like they were winging it sans setlist. every song, with maybe one exception, started with jamey seemingly noodling alone on his acoustic guitar, as if trying to remember the chords to a long-lost song. there'd be no eye contact with anyone in the band, and you'd think maybe he was literally noodling, but then he'd start singing, and the band would slowly join in. wayd battle, his upside-down lefty lead guitarist, re-tuned for nearly every song, and he did so, without fail, AFTER jamey had already started the song. he also switched several times between acoustic and electric, again doing so only after jamey had begun singing, making it pretty clear that he, at least, had no idea what jamey was about to play. and yet when they all did kick in, they were tight, and perfectly understated, and beautiful. despite two electric gtrs on stage, the pedal steel did most of the lead work, and jamey did a nifty solo or two himself on his acoustic.

they played lots of new songs, and one of the only things jamey did say to the audience was that it was their first time for a lot of the songs. he heavily emphasized slow ballads. i was under the impression the double album was half and half, ballads and rockers, but if that's the case he pretty much left the rocking half alone. there was more than a little grumbling in the crowd about the slowest ones, but i didn't care, i thought that's where he was at his best, with that great baritone, and with that subtly sophisticated acoustic guitar work (man doesn't show off, but man can play). every time he did play a rocker, he'd slow it down again, almost in an exaggerated way, with the next song. people around me grumbled, i smiled. he didn't play any of the (relatively) upbeat ones from the lonesome song either, no "women," not even a "between jennings and jones," no matter how loudly people yelled for 'em. i could've done without the "turn the page" cover, which i actually think strained his voice. i was glad that he didn't use that song to actually turn the page. he just kept being himself.

sorry to ramble. it was one hell of a show.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, 10 September 2010 23:22 (6 days ago) Permalink

p.s. i don't mean to suggest everyone else in the crowd hated it or anything like that. there was some grumbling. but he kicked people's asses. in the good way.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, 10 September 2010 23:24 (6 days ago) Permalink

good to hear. debating driving two hours on a work night to see him in richmond.

― Moreno, Friday, 10 September 2010 23:29 (6 days ago) Permalink

1000 words I wrote about the new Jamey Johnson album:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-09-15/music/jamey-johnson-sprawls-out/

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 14 September 2010 22:20 (2 days ago) Permalink

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/09/glower_power_down-and-dirty_co.html

Really really wish i had made that highline show.

― Gulab jamun (Gulab Jamun) into the syrup please. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 16 September 2010 01:02 (19 hours ago) Permalink

Ah, so the ones about L.A. being the Bad Place are the most L.A.-softee-rock of the bunch? And right, Jamey's beard is outta hand. I had the pleasure of meeting Jamey and doing a profile of him for his last record and reviewed The Dollar when it came out in '06. Women I know say he's a hunk and they LIKE his beard. Gosdin's "Set 'Em Up Joe" seems about uncoverable to me, because Gosdin was about twict the singer Johnson is, but hey, what the hell. ("Set 'Em" is the song they play at ever single Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree, btw--the long-running radio show now taped, once live, at the ETMJ/ET Record Shop out near Opryland in these parts. Followed by Tex Ritter's enocomium to Tubb ("the tall man with the distinctive voice and smile...") and then some of "Walking the Floor." All of which gives the feeling of timeline that I guess Johnson is going for here. I like him fine, but he's limited, me not being a huge fan of Waylonisms (I like him, don't love him, Jessi did). I note, thinking about country's notions of glamour and hipness Frank and Chuck seem to be musing on, that Jamey looks more like one of the Avett Brothers than he does Brooks & Dunn. Does this bode a paradigm shift within country? And I note that I just find a lot of Johnson's music turgid. My favorite moment of his probably remains "Mowing Down the Roses." But his covers of Whitley et al are mostly good. I sensed a lotta Alabama angst in Johnson there in the Mercury offices high above Nashville and that's fine, I feel that way myself these days much of the time. This and Elizabeth Cook's record are the Quality Anti-Nashville Nashville albums so far this year and I think Cook writes better songs but Johnson sings better, or at least I am not annoyed so much by Johnson's vocals as I am Elizabeth's very nice Dollyisms.

― ebbjunior, Thursday, 16 September 2010 15:52 (4 hours ago)

Man, I hate those 'rolling' threads. They're endless, and it's a drag scrolling through. The country ones, in particular, are the worst, because you have to put up with people talking about the Supersuckers and Todd Snider and shit.

But that's for another thread.

I quite like this new Jamey Johnson so far.

yeah this is good. not many songs jumping out at me the way the singles from last one did. but that's just after the first listen.

My favorites so far, fwiw, are probably (in some order or other) "Playing The Part," "Can't Cash My Checks" "Heartache," "California Riots," and "Macon," with "Good Morning Sunrise" and "Lonley At The Top" on the cusp. (That's three or four from the black album, two or three from the white one.)

d/l'd this earlier today based on a friend's recommendation. nothing really jumping out at me. point me towards some standout tracks?

i like the back to back of "can't cash my checks" and "that's how i don't love you"

It's fantastic.

anybody else besides me a little on the fence about his singing? not that he's bad--he's good, obviously--but I don't know how well he stacks up to his predecessors. maybe it's just what I said on the bad ol' RC2010 thread: me and my slight resistance to Waylonisms...and the slow ones on the new one don't always catch fire for me. points for "Mental Revenge" though, always loved that song.

kinda need to get this pronto

This thread is short but it's tl;dr for me. I like The Smiths, Townes Van Zandt, Wu-Tang Clan, Jim O'Rourke, Neil Young, Prince, Flying Burrito Brothers, Sandy Bull, Songs: Ohia and Van Dyke Parks. I read an article about this record that intrigued me. Should I check it out?

Hey Edd, I actually kind of hate Waylon's style of singing myself (despite thinking he made some great records), and I probably prefer Jamey's singing to his. But yeah, Jamey definitely has his leaden and dirgeful moments; I'm tending toward thinking there's a lower percentage of those on his new album than on his last one, but I'm unsure enough about that comparison that I took a phrase out of my Voice piece where I claimed it. And right, the slower he gets, the harder he can be to sit through. But then, it's not like he does any fast] ones. So sometimes I'm not sure myself which songs go slowest. As for "Mental Revenge," I love the song, but when I noticed he covered it, it somehow struck me as too obvious -- seemed like a song that gets covered a lot, though I'm not sure why I thought that: Has anybody notable done it since the Burrito Bros? Could've sworn Billy Bob Thornton's Boxmasters did it, but nope. The song that definitely is too obvious and so-what is "For The Good Times"; really can't see the point of doing that one at all.

Badmotorfinger, you might want to check it out, though maybe you'll think it's too Nashville? Hard to say. One thing people don't seem to want to admit is that a lot of Jamey's stuff really isn't that far from, say, Montgomery Gentry or his sometime songwriter partner Randy Houser -- he's a renegade, sure, but his music's not exactly off the map as far as commercial country is concerned. There's more schtick involved than people are giving him credit for. I don't mind Nashville country, so that's basically fine with me, but for people who hate it, caveat emptor. (And if you hear him and you like it, you might like commerical country more than you think you do, too.) (Anyway, I don't have an opinion of Songs: Ohia myself, but my daughter is in college in New York City, and she went all the way to Purchase to see them a few days ago and didn't get back to her apartment til four in the morning; not sure if that helps or not.)

Actually, I'd add Eric Church (who's toured with him at times iirc) and Shooter Jennings (first couple albums, anyway, not this year's wacko conspiracy-metal one) to the list of "recent Nashville guys whose music Jamey Johnson's really isn't all that far from", too.

In fact, sometimes I'm convinced the most anti-Nashville thing about the guy is his packaging -- which is partly what I meant about schtick. And not just the crazy scraggly out-of-control facial hair, either. New album's cover looks even more art-metal to me than the last one -- like, I get that that's Jamey on the right-hand side, but can anybody decipher what the murky abstract Rorschach on the left is? There's also, fwiw, a three-disc vinyl version (sides ABCDEF instead of Black and White discs) -- absolutely beautiful, lots of photos from record packing plants inside. But come on -- how many copies is that thing going to sell in Nashville?

Er, record pressing plants, I guess I mean. (CD gatefold seems to appropriately show the manufacture of the CD instead, I guess? Cool idea; did anybody think of it before? Haven't compared them back to back to figure out how many of the photos overlap.)

And oh yeah, speaking of art-metal, it's probably worth mentioning that Metallica, who he apparently partly grew up on, were covering Seger's "Turn The Page" years before Jamey was. (He's been doing it live.) So how long before he hooks up with James Hetfield?

well some nashville record stores are still selling cassettes so selling some vinyl maybe wouldn't be out of the question?

One thing people don't seem to want to admit is that a lot of Jamey's stuff really isn't that far from, say, Montgomery Gentry or his sometime songwriter partner Randy Houser -- he's a renegade, sure, but his music's not exactly off the map as far as commercial country is concerned. There's more schtick involved than people are giving him credit for. I don't mind Nashville country, so that's basically fine with me, but for people who hate it, caveat emptor.

The thing that I've been struggling with as far as The Guitar Song goes, and the main reason that I haven't done an actual review of it yet, is the extent to which his anti-Nashville-but-not-really schtick demands to be engaged. I think it's pretty damn obvious what's going on with Johnson and his overall persona (and Chuck has articulated all of that very, very clearly), but so few of the reviews that I've read from country-focused sources have mentioned it. Which makes me wonder whether or not the countrier-than-thou set have let their authenticity fetish blind them to how much of Johnson's image is a shrewdly calculated, perfectly pitched put-on, or if they're just taking it as a given and, therefore, don't feel the need to address it. My experiences in interacting with some of those writers tell me it's the former case rather than the latter, but it's hard to say for certain.

It's a terrific, ambitious album, sure. One of the best of the year, even.

But it's already being made out to represent some kind of sea change as far as contemporary country goes, even if I think its context and marketing mean that it's cut from the very same cloth as, say, Taylor Swift's Fearless, which is precisely the kind of Nashville pop record that it's being championed as a reaction to. And I'm not nearly as much of a fan of Swift's as many of the folks around here, but I think it reveals a lot of country-centric writers' biases that they aren't taking Johnson to task for having many of the same vocal limitations (particularly when a melodic line drops in pitch, Johnson is often noticeably flat) that they've vilified Swift for. As Chuck said, this record isn't all that far removed from what Montgomery Gentry or Gary Allan have been doing for a good long while now, or Miranda Lambert's Revolution. But part of me is already kind of dreading the hyperbole in the voter comments of this year's Nashville Scene poll. It's been a minute or two since an album's reception has gotten under my skin, but this one's close.

^^^good post

i was thinking about this in regards to that wapo article linked above. there's definitely something about jamey that gets all the classic country/anti neo-country folks on board. when i played "high cost of living" for some of my friend's who fit this description they were asking if he was really in jail and had a crazy drug habit. my response was who gives a shit, but this authenticity thing is huge in for those dudes. didn't have the heart to tell them he co-wrote "honky tonk badonka donk".

"Mental Revenge" has been covered a lot. Waylon himself did it. Rondstadt, and I believe one of those early alt-country bands...the Long Ryders?...did it. It is kinda obvious, as are some of the other covers.

And right, the slower things here work OK and there are fewer of them, and I do like the way the band backends it into their groove on occasion. I also totally agree about the over-reaction to this record, in the Scene poll and elsewhere. Barry Mazor gave it a laudatory review in Wall Street Journal. Mazor's shit detector is usually good, but I just don't hear it as country record of the year or anything. I have no problem with a guy letting Mercury market him as a wild man from Bamalama, either, but also right, I think the packaging and the image here is the thing. I almost think Eric Church, who's kind of a sly, community-college country star whose pop leanings seem to me opposed to the sludgier Waylor-rock Jamey does, is better and may actually have more to say about Rebellion. Church is also perceived as somewhat outside the mainstream--"intelligent" country.

The other thing I hear is how great his voice is. Well, how we hear voices is somewhat subjective, I'm aware of that, and one man's or woman's Great Voice that Thrills is another's Bad Noise. But I do think I've listened to a fair amount of real good and great, classic country singing, it being mainly a singer's medium and all, and when you stack Johnson up to Gosdin (a great fucking singer) or Jones or Hag--all singers he's stolen techniques from--he comes up short, in the phrasing department, in the expressive control of volume, in pitch. Plus, and I like him and do think the record is notable, I can't get around the way he sounds just like another somewhat self-pitying Southern male with the usual male dominance issues and all. A lack of a certain emotional complexity perhaps. I hear that kind of good-old-boy voice all the time, often telling jokes about "sand niggers" and all (and I'm sure JJ wouldn't do that) or making Observations About Women, and I hear it in Johnson sometimes. As for "Honkytonk Badonck," that's some Great Art right there.

should say, the anticipated overraction in the Scene poll...

I almost think Eric Church, who's kind of a sly, community-college country star whose pop leanings seem to me opposed to the sludgier Waylor-rock Jamey does, is better and may actually have more to say about Rebellion.

The word "almost" is key here. I like Church's albums and think he's a capable songwriter, but I always fall short of believing what he's saying. It may very well be that whole 'community college' fanbase you speak of.

I didn't even realize that was Church's fanbase! (Assuming it is.) Anyway, I think both of Church's albums have some great songs on them, but more less-than-great ones -- second album is spottier. He's got a few, though, that are as good (and convincing, if that matters) as anything on Jamey's new album. (None near "High Cost Of Living," though -- by the way, does anybody disagree that nothing on Johnson's new one touches that song? I'd be curious to hear arguments otherwise.)

Nothing on his new one touches "High Cost of Living" for visceral impact, sure, or probably for vivid detail either. I probably agree with you there. That said, to me overall the percentage of great songs to filler is higher on this new one than the last one (and I loved the last one), which is remarkable for a double album. There are a lot of songs here I am really fascinated by...and not just for the way they try and sound 'traditional' or 'outlaw' or whatever, more for the songwriting itself. Actually come to think of it, I think "Front Porch Swing Afternoon" might match "High Cost of Living" for detail - still not for impact, because it's a different kind of song.

percentage of great songs to filler is higher on this new one

Yeah, that's part of what I was trying to get at in my Voice piece, though I'm not sure I came right out and said it. Playing them back to back, the new one definitely seemed more consistent, even if it didn't peak quite as high. (Need to go back and listen to "Front Porch Swing Afternoon," which hasn't really killed me -- in fact, details or no, I think the writing there has stuck me as fairly rote so far, though I liked the hazy lazy feel and the buzzing flies. "Heaven Bound" was my least favorite cut on the album last time I checked, by the way, but at 2:39 it's also the shortest song, so maybe it just never gets a chance to get interesting.)

still absorbing the album -- there's just so goddamned much of it -- but album one, side one, song one (not that i actually have it on vinyl), "lonely at the top," knocked me over immediately. i realize it's not a jamey original. but i gather it's a new song to almost all ears. it's hard to put it up side by side with "high cost of living." one's a literary short story, the other is paint-by-numbers honky-tonk. well done, catchy-as-hell, funny but not unserious, paint-by-numbers honky-tonk, that is. does it touch "high cost of living"? i don't know. do i like it more? i very well might. i tend to reach for the bubblegum every time i can.

I wouldn't necessarily call that song paint-by-numbers actually -- I really like how the rock star, whining about his life like rock stars always do, gets put in his place by a guy in the bar who actually seems to have something to complain about. It's funny, and there's self-knowledge to it. (I've never actually heard the Keith Whitley version, by the way -- think I read that it was one of the last songs he wrote, before he drank himself to death. In fact, to be honest, I'm not even positive Whitley ever actually recorded it. If you google his name and the song title, everything that comes up seems to concern Jamey's cover.)

Also recalls "It's Lonely At the Bottom, Baby" by Rancid Vat, and Canadian rock band Goddo's similar motto. So: extra points!

i guess i meant paint-by-numbers musically more than lyrically, though there's something about the lyric too -- the almost studied cleverness, the way everything leads in a straight line to the joke at the end of the chorus. but anyway, as i was trying to say, it's a great joke, and it really says something, and i love the song to death. it sounds like one of those honky-tonk songs that's been around forever.

which it sort of has and sort of hasn't. jamey says here that he too is pretty sure whitley never released it. he learned the song from a whitley "work tape."

I need to get more Keith Whitley stuff. I don't know his bluegrass era very well. As for Jamey, I kinda have a jones right now "Good Times Ain't What They Used to Be." That turn-around-the-beat shit is great and I like the way the pedal steel finally kicks in when he sings of his shade tree. Good shit and he sings it well--is that double-tracking?

I picked up a Keith Whitley memorial best-of CD for a dollar at a garage sale last month (own nothing else by him), but every time I've started to listen I get bored quick. Maybe I'll need to be in the right mood.

Anyway, turns out the vinyl version of Guitar Song has Sides A and B on black vinyl, Sides E and F on white vinyl, and sides C and D on half-white/half-black vinyl (each side split, not one of each, though the latter would be truer to the CD concept.) Just played Sides A and B and remembered that "Cover Your Eyes" drags at least as much for me as "Heaven Bound" -- kind of a chore to get through that one, a real snoozer. On the other hand, I definitely should have listed "That's How I Don't Love You" among my favorite tracks up above: Moreno was right on about "Can't Cash My Checks" being paired with that one; might be darkest section of the whole record. Think "That's How I..." should be called "Pour The Poison In" or "Four Habits" instead, though. (I thought he was saying "Four habits and a carnal sin"; lyric sheet says "four habits into carnal sin," which I'm not sure makes sense. Also, who is he singing "Can't Cash My Checks" to? A boss, an ex, somebody else? Mean, pissed off, end-of-the-rope song, either way.) And oh yeah, I think "taking DEE-pression pills in the Hollywood Hills," in "Playing The Part," might be the funniest and catchiest hook on the album.

The liner notes on my copy read "Four habits and a carnal sin," but my promo came in later than I would've liked, so maybe someone caught that weird "into" error somewhere along the line.

I was genuinely surprised that "Lonely at the Top" was a Keith Whitley co-write, since I have always found his catalogue to be dull but for a handful of his better known singles. Probably heresy in some circles to suggest it, but I don't think he'd be remembered as fondly today on the merits of his material alone and not for his biography.

I agree that "Can't Cash My Checks" is an early standout song, but I would also say that Drive-By Truckers' best material covers that same kind of rural poor disenfranchisement in ways that are a lot less literal (and that their worst material covers that territory in an even more literal way). Hell, even Dierks Bentley beat Johnson to the punch on making a reference to using weed as a source of supplemental income in a hostile economy. But it still packs a good wallop, especially paired with "(hat's How I Don't Love You."

Surprised by the lack of Whitley love here. Dude was as close to a genius as a country songwriter gets. Search "No Stranger To The Rain" (probably one of my all time favorite songs), "Miami My Amy" and "Don't Close Your Eyes" for proof. I also really like "It Ain't Nothin,'" but that one's goofier and probably more of a guilty pleasure.

The liner notes on my copy read "Four habits and a carnal sin,"

You're right. Turns out that's what the lyric sheet inside the vinyl version says after all, too. Above I was going by the sheet that was sent along with the initital press kit, which must just be wrong.

even Dierks Bentley beat Johnson to the punch on making a reference to using weed as a source of supplemental income

See: First sentence of my Voice review.

I actually think "Can't Cash My Checks" (maybe partly because I'm having a hard time completely figuring it out) works a lot more convincingly than "Poor Man's Blues," which I like fine and respect but hits me as kind of obvious and really does sound to me like Jamey's "playing the part" -- in other words, for some reason, it strikes me as the kind of statement he figures he should be making. Can't really justify why I feel that way, though, and that's one of my wife's favorite songs on the record. She thinks he sounds flat, like he's reciting to a teleprompter, though, in "Baby Don't Cry" -- the fairly-taled one he sings to his daughter.

Also, realized that another thing I like about "Playing The Part" (and maybe part of why it sounds '70s California to me -- like, I dunno, "Gold" by John Stewart or thereabouts, though not nearly that good) is the sort of disco-ish rhythmic pulse it starts out with. (For all the talk about Johnson being so traditionalist and authentic, there's really a use of 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. He does list his band as his producer, after all. Don't really know what old-school country to associate that with. Also, how many outlaws used to do five- and seven-minute long songs? Did Waylon? I really don't know the answer. Though obviously with Southern rockers like the Allmans, that would have been more common.)

Side C of the vinyl: Realizing I'm mostly bored by "Even The Skies Are Blue," end-times pessimism or no.

I've got to write a piece on this guy in the next three weeks or so, and so far I'm being denied an interview, but I don't think I really need one. I think the art-metal parallels are interesting (Chuck, have you heard Scott Kelly from Neurosis's The Wake? It's a mostly acoustic album that reminds me of this one), and the meta-ness of Johnson's "authenticity" is worth discussing with or without his input. What I'd really like would be to reproduce (and attribute) some of the discussion in this thread. Anybody who'd like to comment officially, or just gimme their real names instead of their ILM pseuds, please drop me a line at pdfreeman at gmail dot com. Thanks.

Surprised by the lack of Whitley love here. Dude was as close to a genius as a country songwriter gets. Search "No Stranger To The Rain" (probably one of my all time favorite songs), "Miami My Amy" and "Don't Close Your Eyes" for proof. I also really like "It Ain't Nothin,'" but that one's goofier and probably more of a guilty pleasure.

Agreed on "No Stranger to the Rain," and "Don't Close Your Eyes," which were among the singles of his that I like. The former, I happen to like a whole lot and would absolutely classify as genius country songwriting. I've just never been taken by much of Whitley's material that I didn't already know from the radio.

I do like the various sound effects on The Guitar Song that Chuck mentions: I admittedly don't follow "goth metal" at all, but these days Johnson does look an awful lot like the hobo version of Michael Myers from Rob Zombie's Halloween 2, so that's a throughline I can follow...

xp Ha, I don't think I know that Scott Kelly album, Phil (may or may not have heard it at the time), but I actually compared Johnson (and his hair) to Neurosis in this piece two years ago:

http://idolator.com/5111892/no-48-jamey-johnson-that-lonesome-song

Anyway, you know who I am -- feel free to quote anything I've written here, if you want. (Just please correct my typos!)

I just saw this got 4 1/2 stars in Rolling Stone. Seems almost unheard of for someone who began his career post-1974.

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