Jamey Johnson @ Chicago Country Music Fest

Jamey Johnson moved from Alabama to Nashville and found success as a songwriter and wrote songs like "Give it Away" for George Strait and surprisingly "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" for Trace Adkins. The former United States Marine released his first album "the Dollar" in 2006 on BNA records and then signed to Mercury Nashville and released "That Lonesome Song" in 2008 having a big hit with the song "In Color" and a couple other singles. He released "My Way to You" the first single off his forthcoming third release in July.
The rain was pouring down hard in Chicago at the Chicago country music festival in Grant park and the Americana stage was packed with people trying to stay under the tent and out of the rain. The Americana stage was much smaller this year than last year but it provided shelter during the rainfall while the CMA songwriters series with Bob Dipiero, Scotty Emerick, Dean Dillon and the incomparable LeeAnn Womack began.
Jamey Johnson made an appearance on this stage singing a Waylon Jennings song. At 6pm with the rain still coming down, Johnson took the stage performing mostly songs from his last album like "Mowin' Down the Roses", "Mary Go Round" and "That Lonesome Song" the album's title track. Jamey sometimes is not much more animated than a rock (which i mean in a good way because the music speaks for itself and doesn't need flash or gimmicks) but his music sure is stone country. He did manage to crack a smile or too and also invited his sister out to the stage because it was her birthday the day before. I was standing on stage some of the time right next to her and didn't know it until then. Playing a guitar signed by his heroes like John Anderson, Randy Travis and Merle Haggard, Mel Tillis and George Strait he sang his hardcore country songs for about an hour finishing his set with Academy of Country music 2009 song of the year "In Color" and "Give it Away" which became George Strait's forty first number one song. Click on AMP above to go to the home page to read my write up on Miranda Lambert too, for some reason the link can't be found on Google-Had to pull the article and photos of Miranda per Frontpage Publicty. Click on this link to view more photos from the show.More Photos.
The CMA songwriters series stage with Bob Dipiero, LeeAnn Womack , Scotty Emerick and Dean Dillon featured commentary about the songs that each songwriter performed and has written for country music stars such as Toby Keith, George Strait and Brooks & Dunn as well as LeeAnn singing her songs. Dean Dillon has written over fifty songs for George Strait alone! Bob has written songs for Brooks & Dunn, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Montgomery Gentry. Scotty has had his songs recorded by Toby Keith and George Strait. LeeAnn doesn't need an introduction.CMA songwriters Bob Dipiero, Scotty Emerick and Dean Dillon on stage with LeeAnn Womack.