THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Award-winning singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson’s Midnight Gasoline is his sixth album and first new solo studio set in 14 years. It is also the first of his Cash Cabin Series, a collection of albums recorded at the famed studio in Hendersonville that was owned by Johnny Cash and June Carter and is now owned by their son, John Carter Cash. Johnson spent three weeks recording about 30 songs there, sleeping in his bus outside so that he could remain immersed in the creative space.
“There is a presence there,” he says. “There is a spirit in the place. Maybe it was born there from Johnny and June, and maybe it was born there from the countless other artists who have come to that studio to record. But there is a spirit there and I love it. It feels like home to me… I’ve always wanted to make an album there. I went in with an album in mind, where we go in and cut and cut and cut. That is when I knew we were off to the races. This is more than an album; this is a series.”
Midnight Gasoline, aka Cash One, is a continuation of his last two solo studio LPs — the platinum-selling That Lonesome Song and 2010’s gold-certified The Guitar Song, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart. (He also released a 2012 duets project, the Grammy-nominated Living For A Song: A Tribute To Hank Cochran, and a Christmas EP.) “I think the only common thread would be me,” he says. “There isn’t an overtone or some underlying theme in the songs. They are just glimpses of my life. Some of them are just funny stories, and not all of them were written recently. In that regard, I really am kind of picking up where I left off, grabbing those few songs that were probably ready to put out back then. It’s good to get those out there. Some of the songs are new. What A View is one of the first of the new ones that was written for this album. It’s straight from a very personal place.”
Midnight Gasoline is a tribute to collaboration and a testament to the importance of Johnson’s friends. The album’s first half was produced by The Kent Hardly Playboys — Wayd Battle, Jim “Moose” Brown, Tom Bukovac, T.W. Cargile, Kevin “Swine” Grant, Cowboy Eddie Long, Dave McAfee, James Mitchell and Chris Powell. Dave Cobb, who also worked on That Lonesome Sound and The Guitar Song, produced the album’s second half, including Saturday Night in New Orleans, One More Time, Sober, Tired of It All, No Time Like the Past and What You Answer To. “He was brilliant, as usual,” Johnson says. “I love Dave and have nothing but deep respect for him. What a classy guy and a tasteful musician, and an endless wealth of ideas.”
Johnson’s co-writers on this album include Brown, Dallas Davidson, Ira Dean, Dale Dodson, Rob Hatch, Randy Houser, Ajay Popoff, Jeremy Popoff, James Slater, Ernest Keith Smith, Chris Stapleton and Tony Jo White. Other songs were written by Dean Dillon, Scotty Emerick, Kyle Fishman, Jeff Hyde, Chris Lindsey, Aimee Mayo and Troy Verges.
The album also contains 21 Guns, What A View, Trudy and Sober, all of which were released during the last few months. “My job as a songwriter and singer is to take these songs that were given to me by God and deliver them to His people and do it at the best of my ability with a positive attitude and joy in my heart. Something I got from this album that I don’t think I’ve gotten before is the ability to do that, and I appreciate it.”
The Grand Ole Opry member is also widely regarded as one of the greatest country songwriters of his generation. He is one of only two people in the history of country music (along with Kris Kristofferson) to win two Song Of The Year awards in the same year from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. A consummate storyteller, his songs have been recorded by George Strait, Trace Adkins, Willie Nelson, James Otto, Joe Nichols and others.”
