How good is it to be getting positive Jamey Johnson news after all these years?
The Enterprise, Alabama native is something of a modern day folk hero, an artist near universally respected but without an enormous catalogue, a beacon of hope through the dog days of mainstream country despite not being a huge commercial success, and a mentor for the undervalued, upcoming artist.
Johnson released his debut album, The Dollar, in 2006, following that up in 2008 with his most recognizable project. That Lonesome Song featured his biggest hit, “In Color”, along with two of his other big songs, “High Cost Of Living” and the title track, along with the perpetually underrated “Mowin’ Down The Roses”.
Two years later in 2010 we got The Guitar Song, a two disc album that topped the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and then… near radio silence.
Sure, there was a Hank Cochran tribute album in 2012, a handful of covers and features, and two seemingly random singles in 2015, but beyond that there was no new original music from Jamey until we got “21 Guns” earlier this year, nearly 10 years since his last single and nearly 15 years since his last original album.
There were a number of factors at play that caused this hiatus, including a public dispute with his publisher which first came to light in 2013. In a Rolling Stone interview, he said:
“Financially speaking, they treat me worse than they ever did the Dixie Chicks. I feel pretty used by the music industry, in that my contracts are written in such a way that I don’t get paid…
It’s time for us to regroup and it’s time for us to look at these contracts. The problem is, I don’t trust any of the people that I’ve worked with so far. I believe they’ve all hidden the truth from me or lied to me or deceived me in one way or another. Because the end result is that no matter what they said or did or what they said they did, I didn’t get paid… As a musician I never studied music law. I can’t even read the contracts I’ve signed. But I’m fairly sure they don’t say what I thought they said.”
This conflict lead him to create his own label called Big Gassed Records, through which he released those two stand-alone singles.
Another reason he took a break from writing new music was a desire to stay the road. He spoke with the (now defunct) KentuckyCountryMusic.com about this in 2017 (quotes sourced from Saving Country Music):
“We have been touring so aggressively for the past ten or twelve years that it’s just not in harmony with what is required for me to be successful in the writing room. It’s hard to come off of the road where you got two or three days in between runs. It’s hard to come home and drop your luggage and head right into the writing room. I live alone. I don’t have a housekeeper … so when I get home, I got a lot of work to do just to pick the house up …
The only way I’ll be able to completely write out of sheer inspiration, I’d have to come off the road for a period of time for a good while. I’m not ready to do that yet. The truth is, I really love it. I love traveling. I love playing all of these shows for all of these folks. I love that they love it and I could do that for a long time. I don’t see me ever quitting it.”
But in that same interview, he spoke about what was probably the main reason for his decade long pause.
About 7 years before the interview (so around 2010), Johnson slipped on ice walking out of the studio and smacked his head on the ground. The resulting concussion affected his ability to write songs and lingered for a long, long time:
“It’s been about 7 years ago, I got a concussion. I slipped on some ice coming out of the studio one night and I hit my head pretty hard. What I found out from a neuroscientist out in Scottsdale, Arizona, here recently is that ever since then, my brain has been locked in a hyper vigilant state, which it focuses on survival. Anything that isn’t directly relevant to survival, it just doesn’t focus on at all anymore.
So out went the songwriting, or the focus on songwriting, or even the openness to it even. I can still write. The craft is still there. The inspiration isn’t always there and even when it is, it isn’t very easy for me to focus on it the way that I once did. But it’s coming back little by little. So that’s one of the reasons for going so long.”
As someone with a long history of head injuries, I can tell you first hand that the recovery is weird and in no way linear.
This freak accident also lines up with his release timeline. If he hit his head in 2010 by slipping on ice, we can assume it was late in the year, probably November or December. His 2010 album was released in September so he would have been just starting the process of making a new record or maybe only focusing on touring. While he might have had a few songs tucked away for a rainy day, not being able to write after you just released a 25 song album is sure going to put a halt on even the idea of making something new.
Fortunately, it seems that creative part of the brain that had been more or less shut off for years is finally back in action. He just announced today that he signed a new deal with Warner Music Nashville and has a new single, “Someday When I’m Old” coming this week to follow up his latest release “Sober”.
Of course, it’s not for certain, but I’d venture to guess that you don’t sign a record deal without any intention of ever releasing another record. And with the number of singles Jamey has released in the past couple of month, all signs point to more good things coming down the pipeline.
Cheers to the return of Jamey Johnson, one of the last of his kind.
