Jamey Johnson Releases New Song on iTunes

Jamey Johnson has released a brand-new song, 'You Can,' on iTunes, and its instrumentation is a marked departure from what the singer-songwriter usually records.

"It's kinda like a Roger Miller sound, where it's the stand-up, doghouse bass, and when the chorus hits, I told the guys, 'Go Big Band meets vaudeville,'" he explains to Rolling Stone Country. "Everybody plays like they've got the lead. It's the combination of how these things work together and intertwine that makes it a cool piece to listen to. Everybody's still playing with one another, but they're all playing like they're going on their own path."

The song, Johnson reveals, is about 10 years old, but he never felt like it was the right time to release it, until now.

"I still had a bunch of songs that didn't seem to fit this record or that one," he says, "but some of them are my favorite songs."

The orchestration might sound different than Johnson's previous tunes, but the message still proves his strength as a lyricist.

"I can't win a fight just by puttin' down your mother," he sings. "Can't make a baby just by looking at each other / Can't go to sleep unless I close my eyes / And can't nobody make a grown man cry like you can."

"I just started off these lines and batted a few at [co-writer Dan Couch], and we found we were loaded with 'em," Johnson recalls. "We had enough to write this one down quick."

The Alabama native recently started his own label, Big Gassed Records, to release his music on his own terms.

“What I’m looking to do is supply my music to my fans. That way we don’t have to keep ‘em waiting four years for another album,” he explains. “We don’t have to figure out where we can slide in in the line. We just do it."