Jamey Johnson Finally Has a New Album On The Way

It’s been since 2010’s The Guitar Song since we’ve had a new album of original material from traditional country star and songwriter Jamey Johnson, and it’s been since 2012’s Living for a Song, which was a tribute to Hank Cochran since we’ve had an album from Jamey Johnson at all.

Not that it’s unusual for artist to take a pause in their career, but Jamey Johnson’s came at a time when he was one of the most critically-acclaimed songwriters and performers in all of country music. Johnson minted a Platinum and Gold record in the aughts, and won two CMA Awards before his pause in new music.

Since then Johnson has released a song here and there, but according to a recent interview with Johnson’s long-time legendary steel guitar player “Cowboy” Eddie Long, Jamey Johnson finally has a new studio record including original songs on the way.

Speaking with the Small Batch Network in February (see below), Cowboy Eddie let loose on some pretty juicy details on what Jamey Johnson might have forthcoming.

ā€œWe went up a level in music, itā€™s a little bit deeper, the songs are a little bit stronger. And of course we have some Jamey stuff on there too, the originals, but we did a tribute to Charlie Daniels even, a song called ‘Trudy.’ And you wait until you hear the horns on this. I think he may have outdone himself, we all did there. I think youā€™re really gonna like it.

Though Jamey has been virtually absent with recorded output recently, he was touring non stop before the pandemic, and kept expanding his band to include percussion, multiple drummers, backup singers, and eventually horns. It’s likely we hear this more fleshed-out sound on whatever Johnson has up his sleeve.

Itā€™s not as commercial,” Eddie Long continues. “Thereā€™s a couple commercial tunes on there, a couple of covers. Thatā€™s about the time we lost Billy Joe [Shaver] too so we did one of his songs.

Billy Joe Shaver died in late October of 2020, which means the album could be getting close to being mixed/mastered/finished, and a release date set. Though there’s no further information at the moment, after over a decade of waiting, the revelations from “Cowboy” Eddie Long are promising.

In 2014, Jamey Johnson said that being saddled with a bad publishing deal soured his passion for releasing new music. Then in 2017, he revealed that he’d suffered a concussion, and that had hindered his creative output. In November of 2014, Johnson launched his own record label called Big Gassed Records, and afterwards there was a flurry of activity, including releasing a Christmas record, a couple of previously-recorded singles, and a record from Chris Hennessee. Johnson also released a cover song of “American The Beautiful” in October of 2020.

But now it sounds like we may finally get the long-awaited new Jamey Johnson record sooner than later. Stay tuned.

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