Jamey Johnson

As a child Jamey Johnson was influenced by many country artists such as Alabama and Alan Jackson. Johnson attended the same university as Randy Owen from the band Alabama, but Johnson dropped out of college after two years and joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve where he served for eight years. While in the Marine Corps, Johnson wrote original music and would perform his songs for his fellow Marines. After exiting the Marine Corps he started to perform his music at bars across Montgomery and had the opportunity to open for renowned country acts like David Allan Coe. In the year 2000 he moved to Nashville, US in order to launch his career in country music. By 2002 Johnson self-released his debut album “They Call Me Country”. While in Nashville Johnson started to make connections with well-known artists in the industry, which would lead to the record producer Buddy Cannon helping him get signed to the record label, BNA Records.

In 2006 Johnson released his second studio album and first major label album “The Dollar”. The album reached the No. 20 spot on the US Billboard Top Country Albums chart and its single “The Dollar” reached the No. 14 spot on the US Country charts. Although the album was a fairly successful album and conveyed Johnson’s talents as a songwriter, the other single from the album “Rebelicious” failed to place on the charts, which resulted in Johnson being dropped from BNA. After his departure from the label Johnson focused on his songwriting abilities and wrote many songs for different artists to perform. During that time he wrote the No. 1 hit “Give It Away”, which was performed by George Strait. In 2007 he also co-wrote the hit songs “Ladies Love Country Boys”, which was performed by Trace Adkins and “Another Side of You”, which was performed by Joe Nichols.

In 2008 Johnson released new material under his name by releasing the album “That Lonesome Song”, which was put out by Mercury Nashville Records. His hit singles “In Color” and “High Cost of Living” both made it on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. “In Color” was the more popular of the two singles and earned Johnson an Academy of Country Music award as well as a Grammy Award nomination. The album reached the No. 6 position on the US Top Country Albums chart and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. The album has also been lauded by critics. Rhapsody listed the album as the fifth best country album of the 2000s and CMT listed the album under “A Dozen Favorite Country Albums of the Decade”.

Johnson released his fourth studio album “The Guitar Song” in 2010. The album was met with great commercial success as well as critical praise. The sound of the album contained a classic old school country sound that featured songs that were presented in an outlaw country style as well as songs that were presented in a ballad format. The album reached the No. 4 position on the US Billboard 200 chart and reached the No. 1 position on the US Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Many publications such as Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe all highly praised the album as well as placed it in high rankings on their top albums of the year list.

Jamey Johnson has proven himself as one of the most prominent singer/songwriters in modern country music. He has collaborated with many notable artists like Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, and Merle Haggard, as well as embarked on many high profile tours where he has shared the bill with people such as Kid Rock and Willie Nelson.

Born in the rural Appalachian town of Robbinsville, North Carolina, US, Milsap suffered from a congenital disorder that meant he has been blind since birth. However, this did little to hold Milsap back, who had a successful career in academia before deciding to leave his studies in order to pursue a career in music. He released his first single in 1964, “Total Disaster,” and went on to release his eponymous debut album on Warner Bros. in 1971.

Milsap has since gone on to forge a remarkable career, gathering endless hits, including the gut-wrenching ballad “Smoky Mountain Rain” (1981), “Any Day Now” (1982) and “There’s No Getting’ Over Me” (1981). Between the 1970s and 1980s, he was rarely out of the top ten of the US country charts, gaining his last number one hit in 1989, with “A Woman in Love.”

In the 90s, Milsap’s popularity began to wane, yet he continued to record and release albums frequently, still finding large audiences attending his live performances. Milsap has also diversified his style in later years, incorporating gospel, R&B and blues into his recordings, such as in his all-gospel affair, “Then Sings My Soul” in 2009.

Milsap has received an incredible array of awards throughout his career, including six Grammy Awards, eight Country Music Association Awards and was also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014. He has sold 35 million albums worldwide and is amongst the best selling country artists of all time.

Mystery Jets and Haim aside, you’ll find very few stories of musicians proud of performing with their dads. It’s just not the done thing in the minds of most but in the world of country music, where homespun folksiness is practically law and absolute respect for one’s parents is paramount, it’s a little more understandable. Mark Chesnutt is one such musician who didn’t just get his musical education from his parents, but he cut his teeth performing with his dad. He was a singer of some renown among with clubs and bars of south-east Texas when he wasn’t working his day job as a used car salesman, and once he saw that his son was a rare talent as well, he worked his 15 year old son into his act singing a couple of numbers a night while he took a break.

Mark started to develop a following of his own and by the time he was 17, his father took him into Music City itself, Nashville Tennessee, to do some professional recording while he was still working on getting his high school diploma. Once he left school he moved to Nashville full time, and over the next ten years he released singles of his own on independent labels around the city while supporting himself as the leader of a local nightclub’s house band. As the 1980’s drew to a close, he’d paid enough dues for the word about him to spread to major labels, and the word of mouth that he’d been whipping up for the better part of a decade secured him a record contract with MCA Records.

As it turns out, there’s a good chance there was some higher power was satisfied with the work that Chesnutt had already put in. His first majorly released album “Too Cold At Home”, went platinum and produced five straight top ten singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, including the number one single “Brother Jukebox”. In fact, the whole of the 1990’s were coloured that way for Chesnutt. His first three albums went platinum, his fourth went gold and after a slight misstep in the middle of the decade, got back on form with the release of his eighth album “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, which saw him have a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with its title track. By the end of the 1990’s, he’d had eight singles top the country charts in ten years.

Ever since then, Chesnutt has become known as one of the best interpreters in the business, rarely writing his own songs but the skill he has with a cover is utterly unrivalled. He can even take songs by the legendary likes of Hank Williams Jr. and Kris Kristofferson and carve out a sound entirely of his own with them. He may not enjoy the commercial success that he had in his heyday but he no longer needs it, he has his fan-base and his busy touring schedule, and that’s all he needs. He’s still releasing records as he sails into his fifth decade on this planet and any fan of country music should be thankful for that. Highly recommended.