Blog: Idolator

Reviews of Jamey Johnson always call him a country traditionalist, and he is; the guy clearly worships (and draws low sodden anchored-to-the-bottom-of-the- ocean vocal influence from) Waylon Jennings, who probably never made an album this great. But calling Johnson a traditionalist ignores certain trappings—in a way, his grey-blurred and desolate album cover, his scraggly pioneer's goatee, and his use of open space and clanking belfry sound effects align Johnson more with gothic art-metal acts like Neurosis than with anybody else on country radio. An earlier version of That [...]