Jamey Johnson - Living For A Song (ALBUM REVIEW)
Jamey Johnson has become an interesting song writer. He often has his authenticity questioned. On one hand he gave us Guitar Songs an album that was chocked full of nice country songs and on the other hand he helped write Honky Tonk Badonkadonk which was far from being anything worthy of any type of praise. So after a couple years removed from his album Guitar Songs Johnson is back with Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran a new album that pays tribute to the late Cochran.
First off, it is important to remember this is a tribute album not a new album of Johnson songs. Taking that into heavy consideration it’s really not that bad of an album. There are some tracks that work out nicely and some that leave you scratching your head.
It is extremely guest heavy and at times it works and at other times it feels the guests are just tacked on for the sake of being on the tribute album. Most of the tracks fit in the latter category and that is the albums biggest drawback tends to be the amount of guest. When it works it’s a nice addition to the music, but overall the album could have benefited from less guests and more of Johnson’s own solo interpretations.
The album plays a little slow and could be considered monotonous but at this point in Johnson’s musical career most fans know he’s prone to play songs in this style. This can either hurt or help the album. It really depends on what type of songs and country style you prefer to listen to.
All in all Living For A Song fulfills its main purpose to honor Cochran’s music and help spread the word on his music. It’s not the best representation of Jamey Johnson but should hold fans over until a true follow-up to Guitar Songs is released. It’s something I see myself listening to some but not to the extent I would have thought I would want to. It is definitely worth checking out if you are a Johnson or Cochran fan.
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