Jamey Johnson, Margo Price and Brent Cobb Give Portland a Heaping Portion of Outlaw Country (SHOW REVIEW)

Walking into the Crystal Ballroom on Monday, May 8^th – a venue situated right in the middle of the liberal bastion that is Portland – felt like stepping into Trump country. In Portland the crowd came as a bit of a shocker, but camo hats and cold Coors Lights be damned, this crowd was ready for a night of country music. Interestingly enough, all three acts on the bill are as appealing to hipsters as they are rednecks, but maybe it was better the hipsters sat this one out. Mostly though, this crowd was here to see Jamey Johnson, one of the truest purveyors of outlaw country.

First on deck was Georgia boy Brent Cobb. Though it was clear most in the room hadn’t heard of Cobb, he was well equipped to keep them entertained. With his tight band the long-haired singer eased right into a set of laid back country-rock. Songs about rural living, working in coal mines, and family life struck a proper nerve and by the end of his quick set Cobb had won over everyone who was listening.

Margo Price’s most recent stop in Portland back in the fall was in front of a sold out crowd at the venerable Mississippi Studios. Price was already on the rise after the release of her album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, but her onstage presence at the Crystal made it clear she has fully come into her own as a true country music entertainer. Price was all smiles and energy as she came out swinging with the rollicking tune “About to Find Out”. “Tennessee Song” – complete with a proggy synth line – served as a forceful fist-pumper of a country tune while the ode to life on the road “Desperate & Depressed” was a savory nugget of cosmic country bliss. Price’s fiery take on Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” drew cheers of recognition from the audience, who sang to the chorus while Price swooned with confidence and Luke Schneider stood on his stool and whipped up a frenzy of a dobro solo. By the time Price and her band got to her hard drinking anthem “Hurtin’ (On the Bottle)”, the crowd erupted into a full-on jamboree, further solidifying Price as one of the strongest forces in country music these days.

Jamey Johnson may resemble a viking with his massive beard, long hair and hulking presence, but as an artist he falls somewhere between Willie Nelson and George Jones. Not only in the way he sings and writes, but in the way he seems to have a fatherly godlike presence in front of his fans. When Johnson took the stage he was greeted like a king. Though Johnson hasn’t released an album since 2014, that hardly matters to his fans. Most of the songs in the setlist came from his Grammy-winning 2008 album That Lonesome Song, an instant classic that established Johnson as a potent voice of rednecks and outlaws alike, and his 2010 follow-up The Guitar Song. He calmly made his way through songs like “Lonesome at the Top”, “Can’t Cash My Checks”, and “That Lonesome Song”, all of which were ideally suited for singing along. Backing Johnson was a large band that included brass and saxophone, bringing to mind the work of contemporaries like Sturgill Simpson, as well as rock and rollers like Bruce Springsteen. At the center of it all was Johnson, who proved to be just as capable of shepherding his band through masterful country ballads as he was at sitting back and letting them lay into blistering Southern rock guitar solos.

The second half of Johnson’s set would be a jaunt through the American songbook, and not just country tunes. He would cover blues legends like Elmore James, jammier acts like Little Feat, and he even brought out Margo Price for a tear-jerking duet of The Band’s “It Makes No Difference”. But in the end, Johnson strongest moments came when he paid tribute to the country masters, taking on George Strait, Willie Nelson, and Don Williams before the night’s end. So many covers was a welcome presence to a crowd who gleefully sang along to George Jones and Willie Nelson songs cranked out of the PA during the set change. Of course, if one was to judge on this performance alone, it would be safe to say Jamey Johnson is doing a damn fine job at carving his own place in the lexicon of country music’s greatest.