Yallwire News

Jamey Johnson's critically acclaimed 25-song double album, The Guitar Song, which received two Grammy nominations including Country Album of the Year, has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The album is also up for a Grammy in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance for the song "Macon." He received a third grammy nomination in Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for "Bad Angels" with Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert.

"My dream has already  came true," he says. "All I ever wanted was just to  get to ride around and sing country music. It's cool when things like that happen along the way. Because those are the things I never thought I could achieve. Whether or not it's gold or platinum or hell, diamond for that matter, it wouldn't surprise me anymore. I'll just keep doing what I do. I wake up every day and go play some more country music and have another drink."

Johnson claims that The Guitar Song is a collection of the journey he has experienced over the past several years as it "starts off in a deep, dismal, dark place and ends up in a far better place."

December has been a good month for Johnson this year. In addition to his Grammy nominations, his album has been featured on numerous 2010 best-of lists and he was invited to pay musical tribute to one of his idols, Merle Haggard, at the Kennedy Center Honors on December 5. He joined fellow country stars Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley and Miranda Lambert on stage for the event in Washington, D.C.

The Guitar Song was ranked No. 5 on Rolling Stone's Best Albums of 2010 and "Macon" was ranked No. 23 on Rolling Stone's  Best Singles of 2010.

Raving about the artist, Rolling Stone said, "What does Jamey Johnson keep under all of that hair? Songs." The music magazine calls Johnson a "Music Row pro" and describes his double-disc fourth album as "acoustic confessions and rugged boogie blues, big weepers and grim reapers, cover tunes and novelty ditties, not to mention 'California Riots' and 'Playing the Part,' a pair of fiercely funny unrepentantly redneck swipes at the frou-frou blue states."

Other media refer to the country artist as the "Dark Horse of the Year," a "Nashville Badass," and "Nashville's gruffiest and grittiest star [who] turns out to be its most reliable traditionalist."

Johnson will join Kid Rock on his national "Born Free" tour, which begins in front of a crowd of 60,000, on January 15 at Detroit's Ford Field.