Award-winning singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson has served as country music’s north star for nearly two decades, inspiring a generation of artists with his unforgettable albums that have built a bridge connecting traditional country with the music of today.
The 10-time GRAMMY nominee has been called “one of the greatest country singers of our time,” by The Washington Post. As rock legend Don Henley says, Johnson is “the nearest thing” we have to late country icon George Jones. His music has garnered international acclaim and is embraced by fans of classic and contemporary country, as well as Americana and mainstream rock.
The Grand Ole Opry member is also widely regarded as one of the greatest country songwriters of his generation. He is one of only two people in the history of country music (along with Kris Kristofferson) to win two Song of the Year awards in the same year–for “Give It Away” and “In Color”–from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association.
A consummate storyteller, his songs have been recorded by George Strait, Trace Adkins, Willie Nelson, James Otto, Joe Nichols and others. He is “a first-rate preservationist of classic country songwriting…,” says The New York Times.
The Alabama native’s recent prime-time television performances have been widely recognized as the best of the shows, from singing “Georgia on My Mind” in the 2023 CBS special Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday Celebration and “Angels Among Us” for the 2024 CMT Giants: Alabama to performing “Beer for My Horses” in August with Lainey Wilson for the top-rated NBC special Toby Keith: American Icon and debuting his powerful song, “21 Guns,” during PBS’ National Memorial Day Concert earlier this year.
His new Warner Music Nashville album, Midnight Gasoline, is his first new solo studio album in 14 years, making it among the most-anticipated releases of the last decade. It’s his sixth album as well as first project with Warner Music Nashville in conjunction with his label, Big Gassed Records.
It is also the first of his Cash Cabin Series, a collection of albums recorded at the famed studio, which was once owned by Johnny and June Carter Cash and is now owned by their son, musician/producer John Carter Cash. Johnson spent three weeks recording about 30 songs at the Hendersonville, TN, studio, sleeping in his bus parked outside so that he could remain totally immersed in the creative energy.
“There is a spirit in the place,” he says. “It feels like home to me. It feels important, like a place I need to be. It’s so warm and welcoming and brings out everything good.”
Midnight Gasoline contains songs written in the last few years, such as “What a View,” and “21 Guns,” as well as songs from the 2000s – 2010s, including “What You Answer To” and “Bad Guy.” “In that regard, I really am picking up where I left off, grabbing those few songs that were probably ready to put out back then. It’s good to get those out there,” says the Alabama native.
Midnight Gasoline, known as Cash One, is a musical continuation of his last two solo studio albums, That Lonesome Song, which was certified platinum for 2 million in sales, and the gold-certified 2010 album, The Guitar Song, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart. Rolling Stone and Spin named The Guitar Song to their all-genre Top 5 Best Albums of the Year. (He also released a 2012 duets project, the Grammy-nominated Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran.)
His award-winning song “In Color” received a 5X-Platinum Award for reaching 5 million in sales/streams, “High Cost of Living” received a Platinum Award for 1 million in sales/streams, and the songs “That Lonesome Song” and “Between Jennings and Jones” received Gold Awards for sales/streams of 500,000.
Rolling Stone says he “… turns out to be [country’s] most reliable traditionalist, a Music Row pro who can write a song for every emotional season,” and describes the album as “a two-disc dissertation on the art of country music songwriting.”
His timeless songs poignantly and honestly capture the harsh realities of life, addiction, heartbreak and disappointment while offering messages of hope, humor and love. His music spans a range of emotions, from self-destruction to self-redemption. His deep and rich baritone, simultaneously haunting and soothing, is never rushed or overstated. But the songs on Midnight Gasoline have a deeper resonance because they are interpreted by a man who is older and wiser, and he pours that experience into every note.
For instance, “Sober,” which he wrote with James Slater, describes the difficulty of remaining sober, especially in a city and industry that glorify drinking. The song’s lyrics, according to American Songwriter, are “heartbreaking in their simplicity.”
“It’s for people who know the struggle,” says Johnson, who also co-wrote 2009’s “High Cost of Living” with Slater. Music Row’s Robert K. Oermann says, “Johnson remains one of our most towering country vocalists, and this spare, stripped-down track lets him emote magnificently on the ballad… The whole performance rings with honesty and truth.” As Saving Country Music says, “Whether you’re clean or not, ‘Sober’ is the Jamey Johnson song you’ve waited 15 years for.”
Midnight Gasoline is a tribute to collaboration and a testament to the importance of Johnson’s friends. In an industry known for self-promotion, Johnson is dedicated to building and supporting a musical community that benefits and celebrates all. He is quick to share credit with those around him. The album’s first half was produced by The Kent Hardly Playboys–Wayd Battle, Jim “Moose” Brown, Tom Bukovac, T.W. Cargile, Kevin “Swine” Grant, Cowboy Eddie Long, Dave McAfee, James Mitchell and Chris Powell.
Dave Cobb, who also worked on That Lonesome Song and The Guitar Song, produced the album’s second half, including “Saturday Night in New Orleans,” “One More Time,” “Sober,” “Tired of It All,” “No Time Like the Past” and “What You Answer To.” “What a classy guy and a tasteful musician, and an endless wealth of ideas for a producer,” Johnson says.
The album, like Johnson’s life, is made better by singer-songwriters Lee Brice, Dallas Davidson, Rob Hatch, Randy Houser and Jerrod Niemann. They have remained friends since their early days of performing on Nashville’s famed Lower Broadway, driven by their shared dreams of a career in music. “These guys have been brothers to me since we met. That has been my support team for over 20 years. These are the kinds of friends who don’t fade with time,” he says. “It just gets stronger.”
He co-wrote “What a View” with Davidson, Houser and Hatch in the Bahamas during a writing session that sparked a new burst of creativity for Johnson. “For years, I would write songs, but I wouldn’t write songs that were a little too personal. I would just stop and not get into it any further. I wasn’t ready to try and understand whatever feelings that those songs brought out.
“’What a View’ was the first of these songs that came straight from me and straight from a very personal place. I felt like I had finally made it past one chapter in a book. It also felt like it was a small success that I could build on, and when I had that small success, I ran with it instead of tucking it away.
“Everything inside of me was telling me to send this to George Strait, but Randy, Dallas and Rob wouldn’t let me. They said, ‘This is not for George Strait. You have to record this song.’”
He co-wrote “No Time Like the Past” with Chris Stapleton, who also helped Johnson finish “Saturday Night in New Orleans,” a song he started with Tony Joe White, who died before they could complete it. “Tony Joe and I were talking about how unique New Orleans is,” he says. “Nashville is a music town, but it doesn’t have the same sort of feeling that New Orleans has, where you forget what day it is. Every night is Saturday night in New Orleans.
“Chris and I were trying to paint a picture of what these things were that make it feel that way. I hoped the song would somehow produce the sound that helps you envision what the town is. You can almost smell the crawfish, beignets, coffee and everything else.”
Although he hadn’t released a new solo album in more than a decade, Johnson has remained busy touring and writing, as well as recording for others’ projects. He is featured on the 2024 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers tribute album, Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty and 2023’s A Tribute to The Judds. He has recorded with artists including the Zac Brown Band, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, Ray Benson, Kris Kristofferson, Shooter Jennings, Joe Bonamassa, Blackberry Smoke, Larry Fleet and Mo Pitney.
He has been a part of several tours of “The Last Waltz,” featuring a star-studded group of musicians, including Eric Clapton, Don Was, Elvis Costello, Cyril Neville and Warren Haynes, paying tribute to The Band’s farewell concert in 1976. He was also honored to be invited to turn two of Johnny Cash’s unfinished poems into songs for the album called Forever Words.
It was his time spent with another friend, Toby Keith, that served as the inspiration for Johnson’s return to the studio. The two began writing a few songs over the phone while Keith was at his home in Oklahoma battling cancer. Johnson assumed that the larger-than-life Keith would beat the disease and they would finish and release their work. But it was not to be.
“When he passed away, I realized that’s it,” he says. “That’s the end of his discography, and it was a wake-up call. He left a great catalog, a full catalog. He didn’t leave one song unwritten and he told it all.
“I can’t say the same about me,” he says. “I haven’t written it all. I have written a lot, but I am nowhere near done. It made me more focused about writing, but it also made me realize to get this music out there, there’s going to be a lot of studio time to make up for the years where I didn’t put anything out.”
Johnson has already been performing his new songs in his shows, and he has been reinvigorated by not only the audience’s overwhelming reception, but an unexpected realization that he’s had along the way.
“It has been a joy to stand there and play these new songs to my fans every night on this ‘What a View’ tour,” he says. “It reminded me of something I should have been doing the whole time: delivering the message. These songs all come from somewhere, and for me, they all come from a higher power.
“My job as a songwriter and a singer is to take that message that God gave me through these songs and deliver that message to His people and to do that at the best of my abilities and with a positive attitude and joy in my heart. That is something I got from this album that I don’t think I’ve gotten before, which is the ability to do that, and I appreciate it.”
