Outlaw Country

I can't remember the last time a Country singer released an album that was a double disc set. Vince Gill did a 43 song opus in 2006, spread out over 4 discs.

Jamey Johnson does it with Guitar Song. Johnson is the most recent Country singer to get the Outlaw stamp. I'm thinking the last was Toby Keith. But Keith's shtick has run dry. Johnson looks the Outlaw part and sings with a drawl straight out of a David Allen Coe vinyl LP.

He doesn't break any new ground on Guitar Song. Lyrically he covers the usual subjects that modern day Country albums do, in fact he was more daring on his breakthrough album That Lonesome Sound. But Johnson keeps you tuned in for most of the 25 songs because he's a good writer. And while I wish he'd Rock out a little more, the band sounds crisp.

Like Coe, Waylon, Paycheck and Toby Keith, Johnson may one day run this into the ground. For now he's a breath of newness that Nashville needs, even if he's mining some old source material.