Jamey Johnson

Jamey Johnson has built his career from both sides of the microphone, writing for the likes of George Strait, Trace Adkins and Joe Nichols and recording his own albums. Born in Enterprise, Alabama, in 1975 and raised in Montgomery, he grew up hearing Alabama and Alan Jackson, and served eight years in the Marine Corps Reserve while playing bars around Montgomery, once opening for David Allan Coe. By 2000 he had moved to Nashville, where a connection with fiddler Greg Perkins and producer Buddy Cannon helped open the door to a songwriting contract.

His debut single, "The Dollar", reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and its title album followed in March 2006 before BNA dropped him. He kept writing, and George Strait's "Give It Away", co-written with Bill Anderson and Buddy Cannon, gave Strait his 51st No. 1, a country record. Mercury Nashville signed him after That Lonesome Song, released online, drew its attention, and the album went Gold. Its single "In Color" reached No. 9. The Guitar Song (2010), the Hank Cochran tribute Living for a Song (2012) and the five-song Christmas EP The Christmas Song (2014) followed.