Jamey Johnson's fourth album opens in a bar, the singer talking to a workingman. When Johnson offers him a drink, the guy orders a double, then puts the singer's problems in perspective. "It may be lonely at the top," he says, "but it's a bitch at the bottom."

Johnson's 2008 breakthrough, That Lonesome Song, established him as an heir to "outlaws" like Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard. The Guitar Song aims even higher, with 25 tracks that take the pulse of a country hitting the skids and a country singer hitting the big time. The first disc is called the "Black Album," and black it is — like coal dust. "These are sad times/World-gone-mad times," croons Johnson on "Even the Skies Are Blue." On "Heartache," he sings from the point of view of country music's defining emotion. As a storyteller, Johnson is not short on ambition.

Musically, Johnson is happy to mess with tradition. "By the Seat of Your Pants," from the more upbeat "White Album," rides a funky Stevie Wonder-style keyboard riff, and there's honky-tonk jamming throughout the album. Johnson isn't trying to appeal to everyone. "California Riots" is Johnson's "Okie From Muskogee," a statement of Southern allegiance that imagines an unspecified Golden State uprising: gays vs. fundamentalists, legal-weed fans vs. teetotalers — who knows? It's a bit reactionary. But like the entire set, it rings true to one man's unshakable vision.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."