Track Listing

1. Released
2. High Cost Of Living
3. Sending An Angel To Hell
4. Place Out On The Ocean
5. Mowin' Down The Roses
6. The Door Is Always Open
7. Mary Go Round
8. In Color
9. When The Last Cowboy's Gone
10. That Lonesome Song
11. Dreaming My Dreams With You
12. Women
13. Stars In Alabama
14. Between Jennings And Jones

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #285 in Music
• Brand: Johnson
• Released on: 2008-08-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
He could be basking in his songwriting accolades, but Jamey Johnson remains a restlessly creative maverick.

Jamey is the co-writer of the CMA and ACM 2007 Song of the Year "Give It Away," recorded by George Strait. Trace Adkins, George Jones and Joe Nichols have also recorded his songs. But instead of sitting at home counting his royalty checks, Jamey Johnson recorded more than 40 songs during the past year.

Not content with providing hits for others, the singer-songwriter has a powerful drive to sing, record and perform.

"Writing is not enough for me," says this intense artist. "I did not come here to just be a writer. I live to play....I'm not here to take a stab at it. I am going to DO it."

Following a deep period of isolation and introspection, Jamey Johnson entered the recording studio in April 2007. Within months, Jamey emerged with That Lonesome Song, a collection of extraordinary compositions that is equally noteworthy for its lyrical craftsmanship and its strikingly original sound.

The first single from the album is "In Color" and is available in the Amazon MP3 store.

Amazon.com
The final cut on That Lonesome Song—kind of a concept album meets musical manifesto—is titled "Between Jennings and Jones," which is where Jamey Johnson finds himself shelved in the CD racks, and also how he describes his sound. Actually, there's way more Jennings than Jones, with two cuts covered from Waylon's classic Dreaming My Dreams (the title track and "The Door Is Always Open"), another paying tribute to him by name ("The Last Cowboy") and several others borrowing liberally from his sound. Yet in terms of both concept and sound, the bare-bones intimacy of this bittersweet divorce album remind more of Willie Nelson's Phases and Stages (at least side one, the man's side), with the opening "High Cost of Living" ("ain’t nothing like the cost of living high") setting the "Bloody Mary Morning" tone, extended by the sad country waltz of "Angel" and continuing through the down-and-out epiphany of the title track. Only the comparatively lightweight novelty of "Women" indicates that this is the same guy who wrote "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" for Trace Adkins. --Don McLeese

About the Artist
Jamey is a study in contrasts. He was raised in a devout household, yet he spent part of his youth drinking and playing country songs at night on the Montgomery tombstone of Hank Williams. He has a backwoods upbringing, but is a formally trained musician who knew music theory as early as junior high school. He is deadly serious about his music, yet has an outrageous sense of humor. With his piercing pale-blue eyes and biker beard, he looks like a hell raiser, but he has the heart of a poet.

He seems like a rebel, but Jamey spent eight years as a member of the highly disciplined U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. After which Jamey Johnson was in Nashville trying to launch a country career. He arrived on Jan. 1, 2000, spending every dime he had to make the move. He took a job as a salesman for a sign company, and then worked for an industrial pumping company. In 2001-2004 he ran his own successful construction firm, restoring buildings devastated by fires, hurricanes or tornados.

Performing in Nashville nightspots led to work singing songwriters' "demo" tapes on Music Row. Producer Buddy Cannon was impressed with Jamey's soulful singing, as well as the direct honesty of his songwriting.

Those efforts paid off with a label deal and Jamey's hit single "The Dollar" in 2005. He hit the road - and the honky-tonks - with relish. As a consequence, Jamey acquired the reputation of being a country-music "bad boy." Rumors and speculation flew, exaggerating his escapades. He admits he was a little wild, but emphasizes that he always delivered the goods, professionally. During this time, he and his wife separated, then divorced. In addition, his former record company's enthusiasm cooled and he lost his recording contract.

"I turned into a recluse for about a year. I wouldn't talk to anybody. I wouldn't go out to clubs. I didn't want to be at any party. I quit drinking for more than a year. In that respect, losing my deal was a good thing. Because I finally had time to come home and get my life back in order. More than anything, I stayed home and just sat there dwelling on things. It takes an awful lot of thinking to get through something like a divorce."

"The thing that really carried me through all of that was the writing success. Trace Adkins and George Strait kept money in my bank account and kept my name out there.

When he began to work on That Lonesome Song, Jamey says he felt a renewed sense of purpose and freedom. "Nobody was watching. We didn't use a lot of the automation gadgetry. We spent so much time on the mix, just making sure you could hear every foot patting the floor, every creak of the chair. If someone turned around to adjust an amp, I wanted to hear their back pop. If their knuckles cracked, I wanted to hear it all."

Customer Reviews

THE RESURRECTION OF COUNTRY!
Jamey Johnson proves that country can still have a soul with "That Lonesome Song". The instruments and vocals are crisp and clear giving the recording a welcome live feel. The songs are influenced by greats like Waylon, but with songwriting and originality that make them fresh and exciting. "In Color" is an expertly crafted song, one of the best in a long, long time. No cookie-cutter, manufactured songs in this bunch. I also noticed that Jamey must not be watching today's country stars because he forgot to style his hair and dress like he just jumped out of a boy band. Oh well, guess he'll just have to rely on his music!

JAMEY JOHNSON SAVES US FROM "POP COUNTRY"!!!!
This is the real deal. If you like Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, and Johnny Paycheck then this CD is for you. If you like the Nashville "puppets" like Taylor Swift and all of the other robots swallowing up todays radio then you might want to avoid this one because this is REAL COUNTRY music. There is so much pedal steel guitar on this album that I had to open up a cold beer on the first song! This CD was recorded straight through so it makes you feel like you are in the recording studio with the band. It's unfortunate that Jamey Johnson only gets about a months worth of airplay and then dissappears, but "In Color" is hanging around and the video is being played a lot on CMT, but then they play a Sugarland video and I change the channel. Well I just finished the CD and my twelve pack so excuse me while I hit repeat and open a new case of beer. This CD is too good to put away now!

The country album of the year.
Jamey Johnson is a study in contrasts. This applies to his entire life, but I won't bother talking about that--just one listen to this album, you'll understand (with phrases like "the high cost of living ain't nothing like the cost of living high," Johnson is more than up-front about who he is and where he comes from). I'm talking strictly about his music. A little song he cro-wrote ("Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," maybe you've heard of it) became a huge smash hit. Same with a tune that won Song of the Year ("Give It Away"). Yet Johnson himself has flown under the radar, despite making two solid albums (three, if you count the version of THAT LONESOME SONG that was distributed solely through his website a year ago). Also, not a single one of his songs is halfway as commercially appealing as "Badonkadonk;" his songs are fiddle-and-steel outlaw tunes, strongly in the vein of Waylon Jennings.

Speaking of Waylon...Johnson channels Waylon here, in a way that is not at all exploitative, and is entirely heartfelt immitation. After all, the two songs Johnson didn't write are Waylon covers; and try listening to the title track and not think of Waylon's baritone gracing it. Johnson also owes a lot to the other greats--Kristofferson, Jones, Haggard, Cash, Coe, Paycheck, etc.--yet he's firmly his own artist. And I stress that last word--"artist." Like the afore-mentioned legends, Johnson has taken country music and transformed it into something that is--in my own humble opinion, being a budding songwriter myself, influenced by the same artists Johnson worships--almost timeless. He questions his own morality (as well as mortality, but the former is oh-so-much-more interesting, especially set to a steel guitar), he questions his beliefs, he questions everything...and fails to find many answers, as most of us do. It's tough, at times, listening to music that is so...human.

There are no cliches here. A couple tracks come close--especially "Stars in Alabama"--but Johnson knows how to reign in a tune and keep it down-to-earth. Even the beach song here, "A Place on the Ocean," is far from cliche--Johnson, sitting on the beach, sitting in a "mansion with a view,", bemoans "all that I can think about is you," going on to declare: "I hope I'm sane by the time I'm done." He sings of the pitfalls in life; he sings of the good deeds done poorly. He sings of life--as he's lived it, as others have lived it. Ladies and gentlemen, let me state it bluntly: this is REAL country music. This is no pop/radio child's play; this is the real deal, and that means there'll be some tears and a whole hell of a lot of heartache before you're through. Pick up Jamey Johnson's THAT LONESOME SONG to experience what country music was intended to be.