JAMEY JOHNSON: TOO COUNTRY FOR COUNTRY RADIO?

Somehow, I haven't gotten around to writing about Jamey Johnson, whose That Lonesome Song was the best country album, one of the best albums, period, of 2008. You've got to check it out. "In Color," a song about a kid having a conversation with his grandfather, is really moving and was a big radio hit. But The 9513, a country music site, has an interesting story about country radio possibly not being as accepting of the next single, "High Cost Of Living." Mainly because of its lines about smoking pot, and trading his wife for cocaine and a whore. The song is in no way an endorsement of this kind of thing - the lyric is "the high cost of living ain't nothing like the cost of livin' high." It's too bad - I have no problem really with the more commercially successful country stars like Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood, but this music deserves to be heard also, and probably reflects a lot of people's lives - which is what country music should do.