Reviews \  Jamey Johnson Takes Country to New Heights  The ex-
Marine from Alabama brings Bonnaroo songs from his upcoming
album that are destined to become classics.
picture-6734-1372868851Charles Aaron // June 14, 2010  The That
tent was the unofficial home of country music on Sunday, with
Jamey Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, and Miranda Lambert going
back-to-back-to-back, but Johnson’s band was the one of the
three that revealed an edge, like they had something to prove.
Hitting the stage looking like nervous-energy extras from an
episode of Intervention’s Meth Mountain, they kept the large
gathering spellbound over the next hour and 15 minutes with the
sort of gut-punch storytelling, intuitive playing, and grand
melodic sweep that country does better than any genre.  Early
on, Johnson cleared the air with “The High Cost of Living,” a
philosophical drug tale of a guy who threw his life away to
smoke pot in a Southern Baptist church’s parking lot (the coke
and whores would soon follow). His voice-recalling W