Welp, so much for that…
Two weeks ago, “Cowboy” Eddie Long, longtime pedal steel player for Jamey Johnson, gave us all the news that we’d been waiting for forever:
A new album from Jamey Johnson was on the way.
Sitting down with the good folks of Small Batch Radio, he shared a number of stories from his days playing with Hank Jr., recording some of those great Jamey Johnson tunes and more, but then he said that Jamey had a new album on the way and that it was already recorded.
“We went up a level in music, it’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 you’re really gonna like it. It’s not as commercial, there’s a couple commercial tunes on there, a couple of covers. That’s about the time we lost Billy Joe too so we did one of his songs.
Some of the slower stuff is so sparse that you almost want to tippy toe while the songs are playing and then some of it is so strong that you better have your armor on.”
It’s been 11 long years since we’ve heard some new music from the man, so it seems fitting that there would be a new album in the works, especially as he has seen so much success in his career. However, we got a little different news from the big man, as he stated the total opposite.
He recently sat down for an interview with Rolling Stone about the death of his former guitar player, and co-founding member of The Steel Woods, Jason “Rowdy” Cope.
In the interview, he refuted the idea of a new album coming out anytime soon:
“My steel player, he did an interview recently and he told them all this wonderful stuff that we’d gone in and recorded. And they turned around and printed that there’s a new album… which is news to me.”
In fact, it appears Johnson has no intention of releasing a new album anytime soon at all:
“I don’t need to put out an album, and I know some people do put out albums every year. But I only want to put out an album if it’s going to be good, if it’s going to be something that I want to go out and play every night.
And if I’ve got those songs, then I have no reason not to put it out. But in absence of that, I don’t see why I would. You know, I wouldn’t waste everybody’s time and attention to come hear the newest bucket of crap.”
So there ya have it.
Unfortunately, it looks like we won’t be getting that album that we’ve been hoping for for a while. However, I would kill for him to cut a version of Charlie Daniels’ “Trudy.” That song is just meant for outlaws, and Johnson perfectly fits that mold.
So I guess in the meantime, we hope and pray that Jamey has a change of heart soon.
