Jamey Johnson came out of hiding and turned heartbreak and failure into his breakthrough success with the sardonic storytelling of this outlaw country exorcism. His major label debut 'The Dollar' had been released on BNA Records; but after only one unsuccessful single he was dropped from the label after it was acquired in a merger. He and his wife were divorced around this time and Johnson went into seclusion for a year. He kept writing songs including the number one country hits "Give It Away" for George Strait and "Ladies Love Country Boys" for Trace Adkins. After recording 'That Lonesome Song' on his own with no record contract, he released it digitally and was subsequently offered a deal with Mercury Nashville Records.
Johnson recalls the rollercoaster ride: "Joe Galante is not a man that's known for just saying what he thinks you want to hear. He doesn’t just talk to see his lips move. He called me up two weeks after I got dropped and he said Sony merged with BMG Music, the two biggest record labels in the world, pretty much collided together. But that’s what it was. A lot of people say I had trouble with this and trouble with that over there. You know what, I might have been a little trouble over there, but I don't think it was something worth being dropped over, I don't think he felt that way either. If you look around, He had to get rid of a few warm bodies. They were bringing in so many hit artists from Sony that they had to focus energy on; they had to shift up their game plan for how they do their business. I think at that particular time it didn't involve trying to grow new artists. He wouldn't have signed me just to drop me after one (single). He was kind of left no choice. After they signed me, that's when the merger happened. We went out and gave it our best shot. RCA did too. There's no hostile feeling there. Every time I see Joe, he walks up and asks me how I'm doing. We've got a lot of mutual respect. You know, everything works out the way their supposed to anyway. The label I'm on now (Mercury), they give me the creative freedom to go in and make any record I want to make. They don't tell me no. If I want to put a song on my record, it's "Yes." I'm not gonna put a song on my record just to make someone mad, I put them on there because I feel like they represent where I've been in my life. At this time. This album, 'That Lonesome Song' It's not a collection of songs. It's an album. It's just like a photo album, pictures of a time in your life from this point to that life. An album is a snapshot of my life of the past couple of years, in particular the last year and a half. That's something for me to be proud of. When I get old one day, I get to look back at that album and remember all those songs, all those feelings. I think each album should be like that. Certainly what they turn into to me. Looking back on my old albums is like looking at a photo book, remembering faces, who your friends were. That trip you took to the beach, Vegas, or whatever and you look at those pictures and just sit back and smile...We'd actually turned down two record deal offers that we'd gotten on the way. I just didn't want to go in and make a 'committee' album with people who don't know how to make records. They can't walk in the studio, grab a guitar, sit down and sing and get a song. They don't know what that takes. They can't walk on stage and connect with people, Get inside somebody's heart and make them care. If they can't do that, they can't be making decisions about songs on my album. What songs we're gonna be out playing at shows. I just felt like this next time if I was gonna go out there, Do it on my own. I'm not gonna hang any of that burden on anyone else's shoulders. I'm not gonna have anybody else to blame but me. If you like it, I did that. If you didn't, I still did that. If people don't like it, I'll go home and quit bothering people (laughs). But for right now it seems to be working out pretty good. When I sat down to talk with (Universal Nashville President) Luke Lewis that day, the first thing he said to me was "I don't know what you're doing in that studio, and I don't care, just don't mess with that sound." I said "Hell, I came here to tell you that!" (Laughs again). Immediately I was just disarmed about the whole major record label thing. These guys had made me a lot of money by cutting my songs, that sort of thing, George Strait, Trace Adkins, guys like that. I've got a lot of respect for them. I wouldn't want their job, (emphatically) I'm telling you. I would not want their job, I'd much rather have mine. Just like I don't want anybody coming in telling me how to make my record, how to write a song, which songs I should put on my record. I don't want to interfere with their job. I get done with my record, I hand it in to the boss, he gets out there selling it, and he gets his team wrapped around it, when they get to going, that's pure passion."
'That Lonesome Song' features Brian Allen on bass guitar; Wayd Battle on electric guitar; Wyatt Beard on background vocals; Jim "Moose" Brown on Hammond B-3 organ, piano, synthesizer, strings, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and drums; Jason Cope on acoustic and electric guitar; Teddy Gentry on background vocals and bass guitar; Kevin "Swine" Grantt on bass guitar; Jamey Johnson on lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and tubular bells; "Cowboy" Eddie Long on steel guitar, Dobro, and as the voice of the Warden on "Released"; Dave Macafee on drums; Fred Mandel on synthesizer; James Mitchel on electric guitar; Chris Powell on drums; Robbie Turner on steel guitar; Scott Welch on electric guitar; and Curtis Wright on background vocals. The Mercury Nashville release of 'That Lonesome Song' made its debut at number six on the US country albums chart and peaked at number twenty-eight on the Billboard top 200. It sold over six hundred thousand copies and garnished three Grammy nominations: Best Country Album for “That Lonesome Song,” and Best Country Song and Best Male Country Vocal Performance for “In Color.”
http://www.jameyjohnson.com/
"Angel" Johnson, Jeff Bates 4:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwgcT4zSdTk
"Place Out on the Ocean" Johnson 4:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_juzIsRO99o
"Mowin' Down the Roses" Johnson, Jeremy Popoff 4:21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q6AeOTSiDM
"The Door Is Always Open" Dickey Lee, Bob McDill 3:35
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF5LLnRCADY
"Mary Go Round" Johnson, Wyatt Beard 4:52
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qoFV5Bnotk
"That Lonesome Song" Johnson, Kendell Marvel, Wayd Battle 4:01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCUhnWko6D0
"Stars in Alabama" Johnson, Gentry 3:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-nHnIhSUTU
'That Lonesome Song'
full album:
No comments:
Post a Comment