Mercury Nashville

It’s not like a new outlaw movement has sprung up to counter the slickness of contemporary country. A movement requires critical mass and Jamey Johnson’s just one guy – but he’s doing his part. A formidable talent with a bearded, backwoods biker image and a troubadour-meets-band-guy approach to country, his second album, That Lonesome Song, was a breakthrough. On its superb double-disc follow-up, The Guitar Song, the song quality runs even higher – it’s hard to believe that anybody can make a 25-song major label album these days without filler, but he did. Things must’ve been pretty laid-back in the studio as the tracks feel like the work of a real, live band steeped in ‘70s country, anchored by a punchy contemporary rhythm section and heavily laced with pedal steel. And the band vamps, ebbs and flows until every moment’s run its course.