Jamey Johnson to Kick-off Album Release with Concert at the Ryman
Jamey Johnson will kick-off the release of his new album Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran with a momentous concert. The night will feature Jamey with a very a special group of friends at Nashville’s Historic Ryman Auditorium and will coincide with the street date of the album. Tickets will go on sale Friday Sept. 7th at 10 am. Click HERE to purchase tickets.
Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran is set for a September 25th vinyl release and will include legends like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Alison Krauss, Leon Russell, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and Ray Price. The album also features Asleep at the Wheel, Elvis Costello, George Strait, Ronnie Dunn, Bobby Bare, Lee Ann Womack, Kris Kristofferson and Cochran himself. Along with Jamey, they’re singing such Cochran hits as “I Fall To Pieces,” “Make the World Go Away,” “Don’t Touch Me,” “Would These Arms Be In Your Way” and “A-11.” The album features a total of 16 all-time hits from the pen of Hank Cochran, a mentor to artists such as Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.
Cochran, who died at age 74 in 2010, is considered one of the greatest songwriters in the history of country music. He helped create the template for writing the perfect country song and had an uncanny knack for capturing the gut-wrenching depths of heartache so powerfully, yet so simply.
On Livin’ For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran, Johnson and Nelson sing “Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me,” and the duo is joined by Leon Russell and Vince Gill on “Everything But You.” “Well, really, when you start talking about songwriters, you’ve got to say his name first,” says Nelson. “Then you start talking about everybody else. I think everybody would agree that Hank was the best writer up there.”
Johnson, Nelson, Haggard and Kris Kristofferson sing “Living for a Song,” a poignant recording that includes Cochran’s voice. “Hank’s ability to perform comes across right there,” Haggard says of the song he describes as “our life on paper, music.” He says, “I mean, he’s in there with some of the best singers in the world and he gets it across better.”
Johnson teams with Haggard on the Patsy Cline 1961 hit “I Fall to Pieces.” Says Haggard, “It’s important historically for people to know who Hank Cochran was and what he did. He always wanted to be the Hemingway of country music and I think he did it.”
When it came time to take the next step in his recording career, he listened to his heart and decided to embark on a labor of love. In a daring career move that is consistent with Johnson’s penchant for bucking conventional industry wisdom to create a unique path, he decided to devote his time and creative efforts to honoring his late friend and celebrate traditional country music.
It was Cochran’s passing that inspired the idea for the tribute album. “We all met at the house one day and sang some songs,” Johnson says. “Bobby Bare was introducing me to a bunch of songs that when I thought I heard it all, I hadn’t heard anything yet. All the best stuff was the stuff I didn’t know about yet.
“An entire list of songs was created, not because I knew these songs existed and wanted to cut them, but because the other person did. Everybody got to pick their own, and so for me, it was just as much of a journey as it was for the band or anybody else involved.”
