Jamey Johnson Plans New Album, Produces Other Artists

Jamey Johnson and the Blind Boys of Alabama

Jamey Johnson has been working on a new album for Mercury Nashville, as well as manning production for other acts. His upcoming project will be his follow-up to the gold-certified, critically acclaimed two-disc set The Guitar Song. “I’ve written some and recorded a bunch,” he says, “not necessarily new songs that I wrote, but just finding songs that I’ve never done before. That has been a lot of fun for me. Songs that I never thought to break out onstage, it seems kind of easy in the studio when you have a little help from musicians and can put a little more focus into it and a little more style on it.”

Johnson also produced the new album for the Blind Boys of Alabama, Take the High Road. He offered guest vocals for the project and recruited Hank Williams Jr., Vince Gill, Lee Ann Womack, Willie Nelson and the Oak Ridge Boys to do the same. The album includes classics such as “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” “I Saw the Light,” and “Jesus, Hold My Hand.” They celebrated the release with a recent listening party at Ben’s Studio in Nashville.

Johnson is also producing a project for up-and–coming singer-songwriter Erin Enderlin. She will be one of the numerous artists joining Johnson on Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown Tour 2011 this summer. The outing kicks off May 27 in Philadelphia, stops June 3 at Nashville’s The Woods Amphitheater at Fontanel, and ends July 4th at Nelson’s famed picnic in Fort Worth.