Jamey JohnsonThe Guitar Song

A double album split into a dark "Black Album" and a redemptive "White Album," the whole thing crawling from the bottom of a bottle toward the light. "Set 'Em Up Joe" is a honky-tonk barroom weeper with crying steel and a shuffle that sways like last call. The other half breathes easier, fiddle and acoustic warmth letting the gloom lift. Johnson sings in that low, gravelly drawl that makes every line sound hard-won. Traditional country with unflinching guts. One you sink into and don't surface from for an hour.